Noise reduction in Photoshop - a gamechanger?

Dark eyed junco - D500 with 500mm PF & 1.4 TCiii teleconverter   ISO 1600    1/200th    f/8

Shooting with a  long f/5.6 lens and teleconverter on a heavily clouded day was likely to result in low shutter speeds and/or high ISOs.  Those thoughts were confirmed when my light meter readings showed well below three stops of underexposure at my previous settings, f/400 at 200 ISO sans teleconverter.  A whole 5 stops difference.

I photographed the junco from my back yard.  The truth is I have been under the weather and didn't feel up to doing any exploration.  I only got one shot of the fellow before he disappeared.  However, it was enough to download and play with on Photoshop.

Yes, I know - I have owned CS2, 4, and 6 - all of them bought and paid for, but now I am in the world of rent-a-program and paying too much.  However, I can't deny the quality, and I am very much impressed with that the new noise reduction algorithm does for noise.  Between the amount of cropping done, the high ISO, and the slowish shutter speed, I didn't expect the shot to turn out all that well.  You can see the original shot and the RAW Photo sliders in image below.

Full image from the above cropped photo.  You can see that noise reduction was applied.

I am using a new computer, much faster than my previous model.  That's a good thing when applying noise reduction because it takes time to process the data.  My old computer would take 40 or more seconds to do a single job; this one did it in 7 seconds flat.

I have to say that I am impressed with the noise reduction.  If I am ever against the wall hand have to choose between a slow shutter speed or high ISO, I know that at least I have that going for me in my corner.  I may have to go back to some of my older DSLR images, and maybe even play with the noise reduction from my iPhone - I wonder how well it performs on that?

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com


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