A friend recently asked me, if post-processing would help an image he had captured. Without even looking at the photo, I said yes. The first step in my editing workflow is noise reduction. Here's how I reduced the noise in my friend's photo:
- I loaded the image into Capture NX2.
- I zoomed to 100% and scrolled to a portion of the sky. The 100% zoom is critical for noise adjustments. The sky is where noise most often shows its ugly self.
- I chose the noise reduction tool, and I clicked on "Better Quality" and "Edge Noise Reduction"
- In this case, I moved the slider to 27%, the point at which the noise melted away.
Before Noise Reduction (click the image for a closer look):
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj68urL6zIOieN4Fx8lo-dCHK4ttNo0WZ8SXgVy2sSDr11GadEKRR9IzY1mas-KEVzTwnGqJmIpRsDyUrJdXlg6djTf12qmJjjDz4tRm937ZgQBbyJdyxsWw_iil8KKphXIET3eySfCdpM/s400/before-noise-reduction.jpg)
After Noise Reduction (click the image for a closer look):
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRq3WxuOJgJilci465v96guJ_SHckVWUqXy7BxZMF8cUvUF02wTGP7efYVsZguaDpjgsT-EOZP6aUFlt4Yx1wAAlWSIQOKpNPZLLvALt95V78_Bxwok9Y1ySw3ryskacVc_wGu4bkevgY/s400/after-noise-reduction.jpg)
I will be revisiting this image with a future tip, so stay tuned.
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