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Bad Noise Reduction for Sony RX100iii

gfingerl
I am evaluating CO as a replacement for Aperture.
Besides my Canon 7d I am using a Sony RX100iii. WIth the Sony today I shot an image at ISO1600 which has of course noise in it.
Now I tested 3 programs for removing the noise: C1, LR5 and Nik Define (executed from Aperture). The best result I do get with Nik, and with LR5 I can get an almost similar result. But with C1 no matter what I am doing with the Noise Reduction sliders, I am simply not able to remove or reduce the noise.

Is it just me using the wrong technique? Or does C1 not really like the images of the Sony RX100iii?

Here is a link which includes the original RAW File as well as C1, LR5 and NIKs (with Aperture) Version of the rendered image. I´d like to remove the noise in the clouds.



I´d like to be pointed in the correct direction if possible, because I really do like C1...
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4 comments

Date Votes
  • SFA
    An Interestingly challenging shot.

    It looks like there are some significant differences in the foreground in terms of exposure. In terms of results Nik and C1 keep the most detail in the skyline colour but then LR5 seems to be somewhat lighter in the foreground and the lost detail in the skyline might be related to that processing? I don't know. I don't use LR or Nik so cannot compare.

    Firstly I set the Film Curve to Linear. If battling contrast and so on at the extreme end of a camera's performance I don't really want to be battling adjustments applied to bring out more detail.

    In C1 Noise Reduction increasing the Luminosity and Colour Noise sliders to around 65-70 and dropping the Detail to about 30 seemed to soften things without loosing much available detail in the cloud outlines and fine colour separations.

    Using the Clarity tool and setting some negative structure was also helpful. I settled on the Neutral Method and -23 for the structure setting applied using a Layer with a Graduated filter in the sky area starting about halfway down the sky and ending just below the horizon line. That seems to balance things nicely and appeared to give a result on screen quite similar to the Nik jpg example. Of course comparing at 100% side by side in the applications would advantageous. I think the approach would probably work, for that image, just as well without using the adjustment layer but it does provide more control if required.

    No doubt the other settings for exposure and so on all have an effect on the result but I'm not sure it makes sense to list what I set. However starting from the Linear curve usually means that contrast and saturation values will be different since you are adding your own rather than using a Film Curve preset. (You probably know that already but I mention in just in case you had not thought of it.)

    As far as I can tell I ended up with something that at least matched the Nik look for the sky with a lighter foreground than your C1/Nik examples giving more details of the lights without going quite as light as the LR example - though of course that too would be possible.

    HTH.


    Grant
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  • gfingerl
    Hi Grant!

    Thank you very much for your help!
    Your description gave me a closer look on how to deal with this specific type of shot.
    As I am a newbie for C1 there are many things I have no idea right now how to deal with in C1, but this here did help me a lot!

    Gerald
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  • SFA
    [quote="gfingerl" wrote:
    Hi Grant!

    Thank you very much for your help!
    Your description gave me a closer look on how to deal with this specific type of shot.
    As I am a newbie for C1 there are many things I have no idea right now how to deal with in C1, but this here did help me a lot!

    Gerald


    Hi Gerald,

    Glad it helped.

    To be quite honest it's not a problem I had looked at before.

    One of the great things about Capture One (and probably other applications too but this is the C1 forum!) is that there are potentially a number of ways to look at a processing problem in order to control and define YOUR best solution. It may not always be easy or obvious but I think there will usually be potential for a good result from a difficult start point.

    But it all depends on what you want to achieve and that is usually a personal choice.

    The best of it is that you could save a solution that you like as a preset (single tool) or a style(multiple tools) and use it again at some point as a place to start to address a similar problem.

    I think Capture One, in some difficult areas, makes you work for a good result but in a good way.

    For example your assessment of the samples you had produced seemed fair to me. However the LR result was too "smooth" and seemed to have lost some detail that worked for your image. For other shots it would not have mattered at all, but for yours the obliteration of detail on the sunset left me disappointed. That would be especially true if you were looking to make a large display of some sort. For a social media scale image I suspect it would be less important.

    The negative adjustment aspect of the C1 Clarity tool offers us a lot of control in certain situations. This seemed to be one of them. It has the added benefit of not relying on overall crushing of the image using noise reduction alone.

    Grant
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  • gfingerl
    Thanks again for clarification.
    Yes, the negative adjustment of the Clarity Tool was new for me and did not come into my mind. Good to know and a lot to learn for me 😊

    Gerald
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