A77ii - raw vs jpeg noise

[LDianne]

Hi everyone,

I'm having an issue where any images I shoot in camera RAW turn out with an obnoxious amount of noise at 100% - at several different ISO's.  I've tested post-processing in Lightroom (LR) and Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), and neither has been as clear as the jpeg out of the camera. Now I'm not sure if this is due to my novice in shooting raw and post-processing, or in my camera settings - but from what I understand after post-processing the images that were shot in raw should be more clear and give me more control over the image.

Looking for any help understanding where the problem might be. Test shots below. 

Thank you!

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DSC02163_RAW.ARW

[dewarp]

Hi LDianne

Since there aren't any other answers yet, I thought that I had better post something.

I used to use an A77 but not the MkII. It made noisy images, but was a fantastic camera all round. The other common problem I had was with chromatic aberration, which I fixed using an import preset into LR. I only took RAW images and generally limited the ISO to between 100 and 400 (auto range). When I needed to reduce noise (which wasn't too often) I did that on a full sized TIF/PSD in Photoshop using the Topaz DeNoise plugin. About a third of my output is B&W (monochrome really) and there the noise is often an advantage in delivering a "film-like" feel to the print.

Your particular RAW file does not appear to me to be over-noisy considering the 3200 ISO setting. One should be able to do a good post-processed edit without DeNoise, and so retain the details of the hair. The JPGs (as presented) on the other hand are full of the expected jpg artifacts. So, as usual, it depends what your intended usage is for the final image.

Hope this helps - regards - Peter

 

[LDianne]

Thank you for your reply Peter! Perhaps I just need to hone my post-processing skills. I was having trouble removing the noise in the RAW file and still retain sharpness. I thought that the a77ii should be able to handle 3200 ISO, but maybe I should experiment with lowering that as well. 

Your reply was helpful - thank you! 

 

 

 

[scrane]

Always use the lowest ISO you can get away with. I have a pretty good noise plugin for Photoshop, but I am still reluctant to go over 1600 on my a7rii. 

[DanArt]

Noise happens because of lack of lighting, too fast shutter. Most if not all cameras stop at 6400iso when it comes to noise with the 100ISO being average to most. It is a hard concept to master.

Another problem about post processing ( digital darkroom ) is that you might need to update your camera raw plugins. This is usually the culprit otherwise try something else is capture 1. Before when I was learning I was using GIMP to process my DNG files ( and it gave me great results ) but I was unable to do a bunch of images at the same time, and force me to use and move to Photoshop