Travel Photography - Noise Ninja with Lightroom? Or something else?

I enjoy shooting in low light settings without flash, primarily small jazz venues, etc. With the high ISO required, noise can a significant problem. Noise reduction in LR2 sometimes helps a bit but I am not very impressed with it. Noise Ninja Standalone with the Sidekick mode seems a good choice.

Any other suggestions? Should I consider Neat Image?

(I use LR2 on a Mac, shoot entirely raw on a D700, and typically convert to dng when downloading images.)

I enjoy shooting in low light settings without flash, primarily small jazz venues, etc. With the high ISO required, noise can a significant problem. Noise reduction in LR2 sometimes helps a bit but I am not very impressed with it. Noise Ninja Standalone with the Sidekick mode seems a good choice.

Any other suggestions? Should I consider Neat Image?

(I use LR2 on a Mac, shoot entirely raw on a D700, and typically convert to dng when downloading images.)

I tried both, and choose NeatImage though with the D700 NC2 does a decent job as well.

NeatImage have profiles for all of my equipment and seem to update them regularly.

To be perfectly honest though - with the D700 I find that I have precious little use for any noise reduction filters anymore.

I tried both, and choose NeatImage though with the D700 NC2 does a decent job as well.

NeatImage have profiles for all of my equipment and seem to update them regularly.

To be perfectly honest though - with the D700 I find that I have precious little use for any noise reduction filters anymore.

NC2?

I have read conflicting opinions about when noise reduction should be applied. Before any other PP vs. after. As I understand, NN converts to tiff files. I am accustomed to working on dng files, but have no idea if that makes any difference in LR.

I am shooting mostly at 3200 and often have to up the exposure and make significant white balance adjustments in LR to get a decent image. That seems to bring out the noise. Also, one of the venues has a very annoying red stage light that really messes up the shots.

NC2?

I have read conflicting opinions about when noise reduction should be applied. Before any other PP vs. after. As I understand, NN converts to tiff files. I am accustomed to working on dng files, but have no idea if that makes any difference in LR.

I am shooting mostly at 3200 and often have to up the exposure and make significant white balance adjustments in LR to get a decent image. That seems to bring out the noise. Also, one of the venues has a very annoying red stage light that really messes up the shots.

Although it depends completely on your tastes, I find ISO 6400 completely acceptable from a D700. I actually like the noise from the D700, so I don't use any noise reduction. I can't see much of a difference from 12x8 prints.

Perhaps I should try some shots at 6400 and see if less post processing gives a better result. I am still learning LR, mostly by experimentation. Another problem is WB. I shoot on Auto and then try to adjust in LR. Any suggestions?

NC2?

Sorry, NikonCapture NX2

NC2?

I have read conflicting opinions about when noise reduction should be applied. Before any other PP vs. after. As I understand, NN converts to tiff files. I am accustomed to working on dng files, but have no idea if that makes any difference in LR.

I am shooting mostly at 3200 and often have to up the exposure and make significant white balance adjustments in LR to get a decent image. That seems to bring out the noise. Also, one of the venues has a very annoying red stage light that really messes up the shots.

Hmm, I guess that I would manually white balance off a grey card under the specific ambient lighting conditions in which you are shooting and then learn how to properly use/review in-camera channels and curves historigrams.

It would appear that, with current technology, shadow noise at high ISO will always be a bit of a problem.

Last I checked (which was about a year ago), all of the major NR vendor - NN, NI, Noiseware, etc., has free trial versions. They all have pros and cons, in terms of both NR effectiveness and workflow/ease of use. It's probably best to try them all and see what fits you best.

Hmm, I guess that I would manually white balance off a grey card under the specific ambient lighting conditions in which you are shooting and then learn how to properly use/review in-camera channels and curves historigrams.


Something I need to learn.

One of the problems is that individual regions of the (small) stage have different lighting. Also, this time of the year, the outside light changes substantially from one set to another. In another month or so, that will not be a problem - unfortunately.

Last I checked (which was about a year ago), all of the major NR vendor - NN, NI, Noiseware, etc., has free trial versions. They all have pros and cons, in terms of both NR effectiveness and workflow/ease of use. It's probably best to try them all and see what fits you best.

Good suggestion.

Any opinions about doing noise reduction at the beginning or at the end of PP?