Even on a 5D ISO noise is a challenge. I use PS raw photoshop and Adobe Bridge. I want to minimise loss of image quality.
121935
On the weekend I attended a wedding and took my camera along.  I was not the official photographer -- just a guest.    My camera is a Canon 5D Mark III, and I was using an EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens.  At the evening reception, which was a dark room with disco lights etc, I was going round taking lots of photographs of all the party people and in order that I didn't have to worry about my camera settings, I shot in Aperture Priority mode, with auto-ISO, and f/number of mostly around f/2 - f/4.  I used AI Servo mode so that it would track people dancing etc.  Of course, I also shot in RAW.  It is a testament to the 5D Mark III that it was able to find focus in such challenging conditions!!  However in my stupidity, I didn't change the maximum auto-ISO setting, and most of the shots were taken at a whopping ISO 25,600 -- the camera seeming to prefer to increase the ISO rather than slow the shutter speed to get an exposure.  The shutter speed in most shots is probably faster than it really needed to be - around 1/125-1/250th...  For a 50mm lens I probably only really needed 1/80th-1/125th to freeze the action?  This has resulted in some incredibly noisy and grainy shots, lacking in the detail I'm used to.  Note that I don't think it's a focus issue - the focus is fine, and the shots aren't blurry either.  Just noisy.  I imported all the photos into Lightroom 4, and have been playing with the Noise Reduction and Sharpening sliders, but in order to really get the noise levels to a normal or acceptable level, I've had to push that NR slider all the way up to 80 (choke!!).  Normally I'd only apply at most about 40, even in a low-light photo!  This much NR has meant that the detail in peoples faces is overly softened, and skin tones are looking almost plasticky.    So my question is, what would you say is the best way to "recover" these photos and balance noise reduction against sharpening, or to reduce the noise in another way?  I do also have Photoshop Elements 11 at my disposal, though I'm not the best with it.  However, if there is another way in which I could use that to achieve the same thing, I'd also appreciate some pointers.
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Is there a way when exporting a .psd as a .pdf to make the file smaller?   My client always has me work in Photoshop and send them finished work as .pdf's, but they say the files are too big. These products are eventually printed out, so while I need to make the files smaller, they still need to have good quality. Everything is in CMYK mode already. I just don't know a lot about compression and changing file sizes
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I'd really like to stop blowing out the sky and/or underexposing the ground in my pictures. The traditional solution would be to use graduated ND filters, but taking multiple exposures and applying HDR postprocessing would also work (and some point-and-shoot cameras can even do that in-camera).  When should I use graduated ND filters, and when would HDR be a better bet? Or is it just a matter of personal preference?
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I was browsing Behance and came upon these pictures:   I was wondering how he got this miniature style effect? I'm guessing a Gaussian Blur on a strip of the picture in Photoshop...but couldn't get right. What's the step-by-step process for doing this with software?  (For getting this effect with a special lens, see )
110718
I want to enlarge an image to a bigger size. This will cause pixelation. So I want to apply some treatment to it in Photoshop that will suppress some of this pixelation. Of course I cannot generate new pixel information, only smoothen it etc. so that the pixelation is not so much apparent in full views and prints. Example, one effect popular with photographers is to copy the image into a second layer, set its blending mode to overlay or soft light etc., then apply a blur to it. This somewhat smoothens the image. But it also changes its appearance into a glowy kind of look (which is the aim, usually). I want a treatment that will fake the appearance of a higher-res smooth image without too many side-effects.  Any tricks of this kind that anyone knows of?
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Can you recommand me a software for doing this job? I shoot using Sigma 8mm lens and I would like to be able to obtain a normal image out of that. The camera is canon 550D.
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I installed the latest version of Darktable from the Ubuntu PPA from their homepage (1.6.8). When I import RAW ges from a folder they all seem to have a lot of noise.  I opened the exact same images in other programs (DigiKam and Corel Aftershot) and there, these images did not have as much noise. In comparison, it seemed also that Darkroom turned up the brightness or exposure as the images there seemed a lot brighter.  I looked over all the settings and none of them were turned on. Also, this is still the standard installation (I did not change anything after installing).  Also using the lens correction for my camera (Lumix LX7) makes the images even more bright and produces more noise.  Does anyone have a tip on how to remove this? I would really like to use Darkroom instead of Corel Aftershot or Digikam, as it seems to have all the features I want and it looks more stable than Aftershot.
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Do I really have to design everything in Photoshop with anti-aliasing set to "none"?  I'm sure there is a better way.    I'd like to have a setting so that when picking a basic web-safe (such as Tahoma) in Photoshop so I can see what it will actually look like when on the web.  For example: The difference between Tahoma with anti-aliasing set to "crisp" in Photoshop and how it renders in Firefox is major.  It looks nice and smooth in Photoshop and looks like crap on the web.  Is there a anti-aliasing choice that is best to start with (that has the most similar outcome) when planning to have the content live on the web?
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I know I'd probably use a combination of Noise Textures, but I have no idea how I could make it look realistic with varying combinations of random dots, scratch- and hair particles etc. I could only find some explanations on how to achieve standard film grain, nothing too detailed.
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I make many product photos for the company I work for. For this I use Canon 400D with two external flash devices Walimex CY-600K.  I've noticed an interesting effect on many of the photos I take with white background. On the resulting image there is a red/blue area visible between object and the background. The effect is strongest for black objects and also seems too decrease when I make a brighter photo. It is mostly visible only if zoomed in really close and is not a real problem for me as the resolution is quite high and the resulting images are only 500px wide.   I am just curious as to what is causing it exactly.   For the following example photo I used manual mode with these settings: 1/200 F10 ISO200:  .  You can see blue area left from the object and red area right from it. What is causing this?
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I know it can  be done using Wind filter. I have tried. But it's not giving the fusion of multiple colors like this. I am unable the get feel of multiple layers of multiple colors.
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I'm having an issue with my Canon 6D. Whenever I shoot photos inside my house they turn out so grainy! I've tried turning the ISO down but anything lower than 6400 and my photos are basically black. Mind you this is mid-day, lots of light in our house, and yet the ISO on my camera will not go below 6400 and it is making my photos look terrible because they are grainy instead of sharp! Please help!!  Lens is 24 - 105mm f4.0. I shot at 24mm, f5.0, shutter 1/160th, ISO 6400 (this is on auto, but only because anything lower I set it at makes the photos black!).  I'm still kind of new to this, but I do understand ISO, aperture, and shutter speed need to be in certain places for light to come in!
46893
I am a novice for graphic design.  I have a low quality image which is given by my friend, its size is really small, but we want to make it bigger and clearer so that we can use it as a banner or logo or etc.    So my question is what is the easiest way to get a better quality image from a given(smaller, low quality) image?   Should I manually draw it, and how, what tools to use? Or is there a way which I can easily convert it to a vector and then increase the size and then save it back as a png?
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The second half of  says      Notice that I only shot full-stop ISO which is important with Canon DSLRs because the gain to obtain the 1/3 stops in between is applied in software by the processor which amplifies noise more than the on-sensor gain which is used to get the full stops.   Is that true? I spent some time looking online, and opinions really differ on it. Some people claim that it doesn't matter because increasing ISO is just increasing the electrical gain on the sensor, and it is a linear curve. Other people are convinced it does matter.  I am not really looking for opinion or "home brew" test. The best answer will be one that is based off of a reputable study.  If full frame vs. cropped sensor matters, please make sure to point that out.
21808
I'm trying to achieve the effect shown below, but with a photograph and I'm having some trouble maintaining the height width ratio so the photograph doesn't look too distorted - can anyone offer any tips or tutorials?  Thanks in advance for your help.
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Folks,  I've been looking all over for a plugin or brush that will help me take a photo and reduce it to that 'electric look' (or fractal?) that i'm seeing in various places. I'd vastly prefer one for Gimp.  Does anyone know how these are being done? I'm seening references to fractalius for photoshop, but what about gimp?  Examples:
36591
For black and white photography, will there be any quality difference between using the built-in black and white mode, or shooting in color initially and then removing the color later using Photoshop (or similar application)?  I have a high-end compact camera, the .