chrominance/luminance noise reduction

[trencheel303]

In DPP, when wanting to apply NR to my RAWs I usually alter the values for both chrominance and luminance NR, but what exactly is the difference between the two, and are there times when I should be using one or the other, rather than just both?

thanks.

 

[petersmart]

Chrominance noise is noise in the colours, luminance noise is noise caused by brightness - or lack of it.

Chrominance noise can be reduced quite a lot but reducing chrominance noise too much will reduce detail - especially fine detail.

To be quite honest, unless you only have a small amount of noise, specialised Noise reduction programs like Neat Image do a much better job - once you learn to use them properly.

 

[Moonhawk]

I find DPP's noise reduction to be far too crude and it severly impacts fine detail.

I swear by Noise Ninja. It can get rid of very high levels of noise without impacting the fine detail.