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Noise reduction

Maggie12
Hi,

I am having a really hard time making this image look decent. It's shot at IS 12500 and if I just open it using ACR with default settings I think it looks decent (noise-wise). I like capture one and want to use that but what I am getting from it is just unusable. Please see two images below. Can someone help me make the C1 image look like the ACR one? I just can't do it. Tried all the controls for the noise reduction and it is not working out for me. Thanks in advance
C1
http://www.twofunnycats.com/wp-content/C1.jpg
If you want to see more of it here is the full image http://www.twofunnycats.com/wp-content/C1.jpg
ACR
http://www.twofunnycats.com/wp-content/acr.jpg
Full image
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Comments

6 comments

Date Votes
  • ---
    set luminance noise reduction to zero, singel pixel @ around 85 and add some film grain. this gets you a little closer
    but not close. i would forget c1 for this type of images, arc or lr does a so much better job.
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  • Maggie12
    [quote="Horseoncowboy " wrote:
    set luminance noise reduction to zero, singel pixel @ around 85 and add some film grain. this gets you a little closer
    but not close. i would forget c1 for this type of images, arc or lr does a so much better job.


    Thanks. That's too bad. I like Capture One for everything else. I thought I could use both, Capture One for everything except NR and then use ACR for NR using the tiff generated by Capture One. Unfortunately, even with NR turned off the tiff generated in Capture One already doesn't look good, so when I run ACR on the tiff it doesn't look as good as the one generated just in ACR. Ohh well. Thanks!
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  • Keith Reeder
    Nope, can't be done with Cap One. Its high ISO NR is a real weakness - something that has been discussed here at length - compounded by the way Cap One's rendering generates that awful detail-killing "chequerboard" artifact, something your examples demonstrate very well.

    Believe it or not, there are people on here who will still deny that there's a problem with Cap One in circumstances like this...
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  • danielschweinert
    I know it sounds weird but have you tried the new fine grain slider? In my opinion the image gets a more organic feel and look to it.
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  • Keith Reeder
    [quote="danielschweinert" wrote:
    I know it sounds weird but have you tried the new fine grain slider? In my opinion the image gets a more organic feel and look to it.

    Yeah, but adding "noise" is a pretty poor way to have to deal with noise.

    It also assumes that Maggie is using "Pro".
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  • Robert Goldstein
    In my experience, Capture One works quite satisfactorily in handling moderate levels of noise, but it is inadequate for high levels. I get the best results using the Surface NR slider with only a touch of Luminance NR. For really noisy images, I turn off all NR in C1 and use Topaz DeNoise on the processed TIFF. It is at least as good as ACR and probably quite a bit better, once you get used to its layout. I would also point out that noise that may look awful viewed at 100% on the monitor is often unnoticeable on the web and in ordinary sized prints.

    Whereas I used to be at odds with Keith on this subject, I have come around to his view that Capture One's demosaicising algorithm is not ideal for very high ISO images for the reason that he stated above. With that exception, I still find that C1 produces more pleasing IQ than ACR and all of the other commercial programs that I have tried, which is why I continue to use it as my main raw convertor. Raw Therapee gets a lot of attention from techie types, but it is not ready for prime time. I have recently discovered RPP, which is the best pure raw conversion software that I have used or tested, but it is a bare bones program with no NR feature. RPP runs on Mac OS only and is freeware. I save it for my best images and use C1 for all the rest. The point here is that it is a good idea to have more than one program at your disposal, so that you can use the program that works best under a given set of circumstances. There is nothing wrong with having ACR/LR available for very high ISO images.

    Edit: In reviewing the OP's image samples, it strikes me that she was overly aggressive in removing noise with C1. Notice how there is virtually no noise remaining in that image, whereas with ACR, there is still a great deal of noise (and detail). I would suggest that she might try again with C1 but not attempt to remove every last grain of noise. The result will probably not be as good as with ACR, but it will certainly be better than it is now.

    Rob
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