Much ado about No-ise

[Norm in Fujino]

Mike Johnson's latest article may help put digital noise into perspective:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/sm-july31-05.shtml

[erichlund]

Good article. However, for Seurat, dots were a choice. For digicam users, we expect the technology to solve these little problems, and many of us are too cheap to want to pay extra for the software that can do it (like Mr. Johnson's Neat Image Pro). We don't really want to understand it. We want it to be just a little bit magic.

OK, you really won't hear me complaining about noise. I accept that it's a fact of the current level of technology. On the other hand, I won't miss it when we can produce images at high ISOs with very little noise and no loss of detail. Noise should eventually be a choice.

Cheers,
Eric

[gstafleu]

Hm... I'm not so sure about what Mike Johnston is saying. Sure, you can overdo concern about noise, and maybe that's what he's getting at. Up to ISO 800 noise is basically not an issue with DSLR's, so in that range you can easily over-discuss it. Having said that though, DSLRs are usable at ISO 400 and up, and most P&S's are not, which shows noise can be an issue. But then, at Luminous Landscape I suspect most people are using at least DSLRs, maybe that's where he is coming from.

[D70FAN]

Mike Johnson's latest article may help put digital noise into perspective:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/sm-july31-05.shtml

Pretty decent article. But the quest goes on, and there is nothing wrong with constant improvement. While I agree that noise can actually add to the picture, it can also destroy it to the point where even post processing can't recover the detail.

Thanks for posting the link. I should read LL more often.

[TheObiJuan]

I can't turn in my images that have been run through noisenija to my paper, so great ISO performance is a must.
I also wouldn't mind takin' a step out of my post processing. :p

[cdifoto]

I can't turn in my images that have been run through noisenija to my paper, so great ISO performance is a must.
I also wouldn't mind takin' a step out of my post processing. :p

Forgive the ignorance, but why can't you? I do agree about the one less step though.

[Clyde]

Mike Johnson's latest article may help put digital noise into perspective:

And in the link: "...complaining about noise in pictures is like complaining that you can see brushstrokes in paintings at the museum. It's just a hallmark of the technique; it's not something to decry, it's something to enjoy. Random museum visitor: "My God, all those obtrusive little dots! Who is this Georges Seurat character, anyhow?""

The crucial mistake Mike makes is that Seurat's noise is a characteristic of his technique, not a limitation of his medium. For instance, our random museum visitor wouldn't make those comments in front of a Sargent portrait.

Good oil painters can hide their brushstrokes. Good digital cameras still have noise at high ISO.

While you can try to make a virtue out of the noise, you are working with the limitations of the medium. It is not a choice.

Clyde