Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Reducing Noise in Just the Shadow Areas
If you shoot at a high ISO (like 800 or above), you're going to see some noise in your
image (depending on your camera's make and model, of course), but the area where it's
going to show up the most is in the shadow areas (that's where noise tends to be its worst,
by far). Worse yet, if you have to brighten the shadow areas, then you're really going to see
the noise big time. Well, as good as Camera Raw's noise reduction works, like any noise
reduction, the trade-off is it makes your photo a bit softer (it kind of blurs the noise away).
Thistechniqueletsyoupaintnoisereductionjustwhereyouneedit,sotherestoftheimage
stays sharp.
Step One:
We'll start by brightening up the wall at the end of this walkway. This shot was taken at
ISO 1250, so when we brighten up that area, it's going to exaggerate any noise in those
shadow areas big time, but at least now we can do something about it. Start by getting the
Adjustment Brush
(K)
, click on the + (plus sign) button to the right of Shadows (this resets
all the other sliders to 0), then drag the Shadows slider to around +88, and paint over that
brown wall in the back. Even after that, it's still too dark, so try brightening the Highlights
by dragging that slider over to +75 and increase the Exposure to +0.35. Lastly, drag the
Clarity slider over to +40 (to enhance the texture). It definitely looks better now (well, to
me anyway), but if you look at the inset, you now see lots of noise that was once hidden in
those shadows.
