# Noise at low ISO - 5DIII Raw - Lightroom



## Jemlnlx (May 6, 2014)

Hi guys, forgive my ignorance if any but I have shot JPeg in the past and within a year or so I have started shooting majority Raw and converting with AfterShot Pro.

I wanted to play around with Lightroom 5 so I downloaded the free trial. After processing some long shutter night shots (I can post later for reference) I found that the photos were quite noisy, especially in the night/sky areas. Downtown Manhattan Skyline from Jersey City on a cloudy night.

I shot at f/11, ISO 100 with shutters varying from 10sec - 25sec. 5D MkIII w/ 24-70mm v1.

I have a few thoughts on the noise:

I know noise appears in shadowy areas? But at ISO 100?

How much of an impact does the longer shutter play in noise?

I know jpegs are noise reduced in-camera, but the RAW conversion in AfterShot Pro seemed to be fine. Are the Lightroom default noise reduction settings mild?

I did overexpose a bit in Lightroom (I liked the colors) by about 3 stops, which from what I know, does increase noise? But I do not know how much.

I will have to go home and play around more with the noise reduction settings, such as detail. 

Any and all advice/criticism is welcomed...

Jason


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## Dylan777 (May 6, 2014)

I'm no expert in LR. 

I believe the only thing that is considered as standard in LR is sharpness(@ +25). You need to play with noise reduction yourself or create presets for certain ISO levels.


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## J.R. (May 6, 2014)

Post some pics. As they say a picture is worth a thousand words 

Noise is an inseparable part of photography. With digital more so, and photographing night skies, even more so. Even at ISO 100 you are likely to get noise in photographs. 

NR in LR needs to be added to taste / requirement. Play around with it manually. 

BTW, this paragraph caught my attention. You are pushing the exposure by *3 stops*? That is going to add some really bad noise to the image. You would be better served overexposing slightly in camera and bringing down the exposure in post processing, the noise will get reduced considerably. 



Jemlnlx said:


> I did overexpose a bit in Lightroom (I liked the colors) by about 3 stops, which from what I know, does increase noise?


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## Jemlnlx (May 6, 2014)

Thanks for the comments so far...I did see a few references online that say overexposing in post-processing does increase the noise, I just didn't know how bad it should be.

Once I get home, I will throw up a few pics of those processing with AfterShot Pro and Lightroom.

Thanks Again


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## Jemlnlx (May 7, 2014)

Last night I played around with the settings in both Lightroom and Aftershot Pro. 

The cause for the noise was partially from the increase in exposure (and some mild highlighting) and also the fact that AfterShot Pro applies a bit more noise reduction than Lightroom. After I lessened the exposure closer to what it was originally shot at and applied noise reduction, the images looked fine.


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## LovePhotography (Aug 25, 2014)

The 'Prime' noise reduction feature for noise reduction in DxO9 is quite remarkable.


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