Noisy images

captainjack

captainjack

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Tim
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In certain Images, I get a noisy image, shooting at ISO 3200 maybe a church or dark hall. I can bring the noise down in Lightroom or Photoshop but's thats just softening the image too. What I want to know is,with out editing the noise, if I print the image 10"x 12" would you still see the noise or would you need to large print size for the noise to show up, if so how big could I go before the noise would show.
 
Well its certainly true to say that at regular size prints, noise generally shows much less than it does on your pixel peeping monitor. 3200 is noisy, even on the latest cameras, or noticably noisier than your average 200. A 10 x 12 is not expensive, why not order one anyway just as a sample for your own peace of mind.
 
Thankyou for the advice I will have to do that, I have an Exhibition of my work for my end of College course and some of these images are going to be A1 and I am always going in at 1 to 1 even if just going in a album touch up eyes and face and sharpen or remove noise but I am told it wont be seen in most cases. Alot of this work as a second photographer I dont get to see the final printed image, even the proof's that get sent out are only something like 6x4.
 
also bear in mind viewing distance... for example, an A1 print will generally be looked at from a further distance than a 6 x 4 in your hand, so again, that 'reduces' the visible noise, simply because they eye will see the whole thing. ;)



edit: I have a sample wedding album here, 14 x 10, so 24in x 10in when open out. One page has a colour photo, shot at iso 3200 from the back of the church. Obviously the cameras sensor is not 24 x 10 in format, ergo it is a crop, albeit only from top and bottom, but you cannot see the noise created by the high ISO when viewed at a 'normal' range for a 'book' - which should give you an idea of what printing does.
 
Thankyou again Yvonne that's really helpful, you forget that there are going to be up on a wall and you cant get that close.
I will do what you said, though and print a few test images off at different sizes to how the noise does look, also some when I have used denoise because I hate how they look on screen when I have tried to remove the noise and you lose that sharpness.
 
Very useful thread. My 400D only goes to ISO1600 and I have problems with noise when I have it that high. I didn't realise on prints it won't be so bad.
 
If you use the masking feature in the noise removal panel it should help reduce the softening effect in the detail areas and keep it to the sky etc where it tends to show more.
 
If you view 1:1 in Lightroom, that's how your image will look printed pretty much, make sure you're not viewing 'fit' 'fill' etc.
 
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