Can anyone in layman terms explain what chroma noise is vs noise.
Also, how does one go about reducing noise chroma or otherwise without sacrificing detail? If it is possible at all. I kinda gave up on fighting noise at the expense of detail so to speak. But I know you guru's have secret techniques for us grasshoppers.
Chroma = color noise : reduced details, hard to remove
Lumi = grainy(black/white) noise : does not reduce details, easier to remove.
I use noise ninja and neatimage for the occasional noise reduction and soft skin tone (portraits).
*To avoid/reduce noise* :
1. shoot to the right (overexpose your pics 1/3,2/3 or by a full stop) depending on the shutter speed you can be comfortable with(handholding). Overexposing will reduce your shutter speed, but the noise will be lower.
2. I use a 30D, usually use the 160,320, 640, 1250 ISO's to keep the noise lower (as proved by some gents on DPreview).
Experts, pls correct me, if I said anything incorrect here.
Chroma = color noise : reduced details, hard to remove
Lumi = grainy(black/white) noise : does not reduce details, easier to remove.
Experts, pls correct me, if I said anything incorrect here.
I think you've reversed the two. Chroma noise is indeed color noise, luminance noise is noise in brightness values.
Most detail is about micro-contrast and contrast is about light/dark transitions. You'll find that smearing luminance values will wreck detail most. You can see for yourself by doing a BW conversion of a noisy image. Converting to BW is the ultimate in chroma noise reduction because you remove all the chrominance informantion. It will largely keep the details, which proves that details are mostly captured in luminace values.
