What are people using for noise reduction? I love the sigma SD-14, but at
anything over ISO 400 it gets realy moisy. Sigma's Photo pro 3 software helps,
but not as much as I would like. What do you guys use and why?
I'm trying Helicon Filter plug-in for CS3. Pretty good at noise reduction (can't
really help for extreme cases), but I find the other edit functions not
necessary as they are already available with CS3.
Thanks guys. I will perhaps get couple of people to run one of my images through
thier program and look at the results. But I think I will wait till I move to
the new camera body and lenses (The sigma SD-14 just does not shoot fast enough
, wright fast enough or at high enough ISO without BAD noise for sports) before
I go further.
For slow work portrait or models ( not skaters or chasing girls caus while it
shoots 3fps, the buffer is only 6 frames and almost a minute to clear the
buffer) I use a sigma SD-14. But anywere over ISO 800 the noise gets bad.
Then I have my old Brick Nikon D1 which I am quite suprised about the ISO 1600
preformance when using Nikon capture nx.
I did play with a D3 today, but my plan is a nikon d2h or x
Well for now, I have a Nikon D1 and a D100. Now either one are fine at lower ISO
ranges. Hell the D1 at ISO 1600 is still better than Ilford film at ISO 1600. It
is still fine and gives usable results. If I need to shoot at low ISO, then I
use a faster aperature or a strobe. I remember when grain (noise) was accepted
as normal. Now days, people want everything super clean and crystal clear. I
mean really don't need to see the pores in your skin in a picture. I like some
fuzzy, grain, noise. We need more character in photography. It has gone down
hill since pro's and pro/am do not have to spend hours in the darkroom to get
"The Shot". Now I do not mean that we don't spend hours in our editing software
(insert your program name here) but I do not feel it is the same. It seems that
it is an art that is being lost. I know that there was a post about "photo
courses making you shoot film" and I did not post there, but it really is
benificial to learn on film. Remember 24 or 36 shots and you have to reload. It
teaches us to be more patient and to undrestand how lighting and composure are
going to make the photo look before we ever got the film processed. Oh well
enough of a rant for now.