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Archive 2019 · Good gear + good software = Two Halves of a Whole

  
 
Blueshound
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Good gear + good software = Two Halves of a Whole


Avenue d'Opera, Paris

This image of Paris was taken very early in morning, quite a bit before sunrise, and is a perfect case study of how even experienced photographers can make dumb mistakes. (In this case, "experienced" means been doing this for a long time, not necessarily brilliant at it)

Even though I had the camera on a tripod, with the intent of shooting frames for focus stacking, I forgot to set the ISO from Auto to the base ISO. So the files were taken at ISO 2500, which is getting fairly noisy for an m43 sensor. (I had taken the Panasonic G9 on this trip, leaving the Sony kit at home.)

Because the camera was locked down on a tripod, I did come away with (7) frames with which to work in post, all with the scene framed the same way. So it became an exercise in hopefully OK, but less than perfect, raw materials (the RAW exposures), and the wonders of modern editing software.

There was nothing in the editing of the files that was simple or direct, so I won't get into the steps, except to say that the final result benefited from Photoshop CC, On1 Photo RAW & Topaz Denoise AI.

If there's something that you don't like about the image, attribute it to my editing choices, not the capabilities of the software.

Brian

Avenue de l'Opera Paris 1200px by Brian Gammon, on Flickr



Oct 21, 2019 at 10:58 AM
Wilbus
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Good gear + good software = Two Halves of a Whole


A really nice shot and well edited! Did you stack images to get rid of noise?

/Rasmus



Oct 21, 2019 at 02:33 PM
Blueshound
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Good gear + good software = Two Halves of a Whole


Wilbus wrote:
A really nice shot and well edited! Did you stack images to get rid of noise?

/Rasmus


Thanks, Rasmus. Yes, the first step I took was to bring the files into PS as a layer stack, convert all to Smart Objects, and then average using Median. I know that many people promote the use of Mean for noise reduction, but on the few occasions that I've tried it, it seemed to soften the resulting file. Median seems to preserve details, outlines, etc. and generally performs the same or similar degree of noise reduction.

Perhaps because I only had (7) files to stack, there was still visible noise in the sky in particular, which led me to use Topaz Denoise AI as a subsequent step. Denoise AI did a very good job with this file.

If you want to see a sharper rendering, please look at it directly on Flickr, not the image embedded in this thread, which is quite soft by comparison. Use this link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/blueshound/48936555877/in/dateposted-public/lightbox/

The master working file, on my laptop, is very crisp & detailed, even more so than the version in the above link.

What I'm hoping that people will take away is that good m43 cameras & lenses are capable of very fine results, and further that the right software can aid a great deal in that.

Brian



Oct 21, 2019 at 02:52 PM
johnvanr
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Good gear + good software = Two Halves of a Whole


Impressive!


Oct 21, 2019 at 03:40 PM
Blueshound
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Good gear + good software = Two Halves of a Whole


johnvanr wrote:
Impressive!


Thanks very much.

Brian



Oct 21, 2019 at 06:39 PM
bobbytan
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Good gear + good software = Two Halves of a Whole


I find Topaz Denoise AI to be a little too aggressive i.e. you will lose some detail. A bit like comparing Color Saturation to Vibrance. My preference is AI Clear, but I will resort to Denoise AI if I need more aggressive NR. But I will never touch the Color Saturation slider in Lightroom.

Blueshound wrote:
Thanks, Rasmus. Yes, the first step I took was to bring the files into PS as a layer stack, convert all to Smart Objects, and then average using Median. I know that many people promote the use of Mean for noise reduction, but on the few occasions that I've tried it, it seemed to soften the resulting file. Median seems to preserve details, outlines, etc. and generally performs the same or similar degree of noise reduction.

Perhaps because I only had (7) files to stack, there was still visible noise in the sky in particular, which led me to use Topaz
...Show more



Oct 21, 2019 at 08:09 PM
Blueshound
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Good gear + good software = Two Halves of a Whole


I'm just starting to get acquainted with the new AI versions of Denoise etc., and I have noticed that the NR action of Denoise AI is typically more pronounced than AI Clear, but I've tried to use it only where it's merited. Still more learning curve I'm sure.

The last time I tried AI Clear it was not as effective as Denoise, but I didn't find Denoise went too far in that instance. I have used Denoise in it's earlier iterations for the past few years, and my habit is to adjust the sliders to taste, not to rely upon the "auto" settings. I'm sure you've used the adjustments, though. I'll try Clear as well the next time I need NR.

I certainly agree that you can lose fine detail. Typically I would look for a balance between the level of NR and detail recovery, and try not to use much if any detail recovery.

It seems that the new AI versions of Denoise etc. have far fewer user adjustment options, compared to previous versions.

Saturation vs Vibrance is a fair analogy.

Thanks for the comments, Bobby.

Brian



Oct 21, 2019 at 08:46 PM
pbraymond
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Good gear + good software = Two Halves of a Whole


Very impressive results indeed. Great work, oh, nice picture too.


Oct 22, 2019 at 06:37 AM





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