Raw is more noisy than JPG?

[CT 3833]

Hi,
I know my statement is incorrect and for sure I am missing some critical steps.

Here it goes, I went to shoot a school concert, due the dim and ever changing stage lighting color, I set my D80 to ISO from 600 to 1000 from time to time and shoot RAW+JPG.

When I am converting my RAW in CS2, I notice that my "RAW" shots are nosier than the JPG eqivalents, so would appreciate someone to advise me, at which stage of my RAW to JPG coversion should I do noise reduction?

Thanks in advanced!!

 

[Legoz]

RAW files dont go through noise reduction. Thats most prob the reason why u see noise. Its not exactly a bad thing since with a little editing, the pics would look no diff from those JPEGs.

 

[CT 3833]

thanks for your explanation, so at which stage during the process of converting from RAW to JPG should I do noise reduction ? thanks.

 

[CT 3833]

Hi,
nbeed more help, after the various adjustment in RAW, I "open" the file into CS2 workspace, where I do a "fileter-noise- noise reduce", but it appears that the outcome of noise reduction from CS2 is not as good as that of the camera's JPG file, how do I further reduce noise from here?

Thanks !

 

[zcf]

can try noise ninja.

 

[lsisaxon]

can try noise ninja.

Either that or use Capture NX, then you're sure the NR is using a similar algorithm to that used by the camera.

 

[Churchwolf]

Hi,
nbeed more help, after the various adjustment in RAW, I "open" the file into CS2 workspace, where I do a "fileter-noise- noise reduce", but it appears that the outcome of noise reduction from CS2 is not as good as that of the camera's JPG file, how do I further reduce noise from here?

Thanks !

Do you have LightRoom? I generally use LightRoom for all my RAW processing and find that it does a pretty good job with noise reduction. I have to say, however, that I generally avoid shooting in RAW unless the lighting conditions are difficult. Certainly RAW gives you a little bit of extra histogram "space" and lets you rescue detail out of difficult shots or make some simulated HDR pics, but on the flip side you have a much slower max. frame rate and have to do all the processing yourself afterwards. If you are shooting RAW+JPEG then you are pretty much covering yourself there and I would probably only go into processing the RAW files if you are trying to rescue something specific want more control over the image outcome.

 

[yanyewkay]

remember to tone down the USM/sharpen. It would help if you let us know which brand's raw file you're processing. For Canon, the packaged DPP's (comes with the camera) NR does an excellent job.

 

[emerald]

remember to tone down the USM/sharpen. It would help if you let us know which brand's raw file you're processing. For Canon, the packaged DPP's (comes with the camera) NR does an excellent job.

He mentioned he's using D80, so must be Nikon Raw right?

Never shoot in JPEGs since I ever tried shoot in Raw and really prefer the processing speed of DPP. However, IQ side, Photoshop does provide a more powerful and complete tool sets.

Not sure about Nikon processing, sorry!

 

[yanyewkay]

He mentioned he's using D80, so must be Nikon Raw right?

Never shoot in JPEGs since I ever tried shoot in Raw and really prefer the processing speed of DPP. However, IQ side, Photoshop does provide a more powerful and complete tool sets.

Not sure about Nikon processing, sorry!

i missed the D80 part out. My bad.

 

[kkcharles82]

Me a D80 user who shoots in RAW exclusively here. Noise reduction can be done using noise ninja and some other software that deals in noise. Alternatively, you can use the noise reduction that comes with CS2 or CS3 to deal with the noise issue. And yes, the D80 will process the photos for noise if you save them in JPG format but as for RAW, it is absolutely RAW, minus a bit of compression used in storage.

As for shooting in difficult lighting, RAW is not just useful for difficult lighting but also very good for times where you kinda forget to do white balancing or it is impossible to do white balancing. CA control, fill light and recovery controls in the CS3 has made it very useful to shoot in RAW exclusively and post process. The best part is that, you can process everything once, select all photo, click "DONE" and the xml file containing the changes are saved alongside the RAW file. Then you can batch convert everything into JPG overnight if preferred.

 

[CT 3833]

Thanks to all of you for your valuable inputs. Do continue to contribute your experience and idea so that I could learn on.

I shot in both JPG+RAW, that happen allowing me to compare both output and that's how I realised the RAW is nosier even after perfoming a noise reduction in CS2. So can I say that CS2 noise reduction is not as capable as that of the D80 native NR engine?

I have to shoot in RAW because the stage lighting color keeps changing, not only I did not have a expodisc or grey card with me, I dont think I would have enough time to keep changing WB accordingly on the spot. Leting alone some of the color cast are weired at times.

No I do not have LightRoom, only CS2. And I dont recall my poor D80 came with Capture NX.
Hmmm, so looks like noise ninja is a viable option for me.

 

[nightwolf75]

Thanks to all of you for your valuable inputs. Do continue to contribute your experience and idea so that I could learn on.

I shot in both JPG+RAW, that happen allowing me to compare both output and that's how I realised the RAW is nosier even after perfoming a noise reduction in CS2. So can I say that CS2 noise reduction is not as capable as that of the D80 native NR engine?

I have to shoot in RAW because the stage lighting color keeps changing, not only I did not have a expodisc or grey card with me, I dont think I would have enough time to keep changing WB accordingly on the spot. Leting alone some of the color cast are weired at times.

No I do not have LightRoom, only CS2. And I dont recall my poor D80 came with Capture NX.
Hmmm, so looks like noise ninja is a viable option for me.

noise ninja is not freeware, yah? if you want a free option, can try noiseware community edition.

 

[kurtlim]

try the simple chroma noise reduction in photoshop or get specialise noise reduction tools.