Noise is always unavoidable when taking photos. In addition to the use of better cameras, full exposure, multiple photo stacks, etc., we can also use software to reduce the noise of photos in the later stage. The "three-step noise reduction method" shared today can carry out relatively fine noise reduction on photos while preserving as much detail as possible
Lightroom/ACR global noise reduction
Nik Dfine 2 Local noise reduction
Mask suppression of noise regeneration and output noise reduction
Lightroom/ACR Global Noise reduction The core of the noise reduction of Raw files in ACR or Lightroom is to preserve the smallest details in the photo while reducing the noise. Therefore, the noise of the sky and water surface in this picture is still obvious, and further local noise reduction needs to be carried out later.
Nik Dfine 2 Local Noise reduction For the second step, we use the professional free plugin - Nik Dfine 2. For details on how to download this plugin, and for detailed instructions on Dfine 2, please refer to my previous tutorial "Better than Photoshop Noise Canceller - Nik Dfine Plugin". From the menu bar, click "Filter -- Nik Collection -- Dfine 2" to open the Dfine noise reduction plugin.
After the global noise reduction of ACR and the local noise reduction of Dfine2, the noise reduction of photos is basically completed, and the main task after that is not to make the noise appear again. In the later operation of detail extraction, tone contrast, dark brightening, increasing texture, sharpening, etc., a lot of noise that was not visible will be highlighted. Therefore, when doing these steps, it is necessary to combine local tools such as masks, so that they do not affect the pure part of the sky.
Noise points are divided into color noise points and brightness noise points, and noise reduction should be carried out at the beginning of the later period.
The first step of the three-step noise reduction method is the initial noise reduction with the detail panel at the end of the Camera Raw processing. Generally, only increase the "brightness" slider, and keep the other defaults. The core of this step is to look at the tiny details in the photo and make sure that the smallest details are not erased by noise reduction.
The second step of the three-step noise reduction method is to use the Nik Dfine2 plugin to reduce noise in Photoshop, while working with masks or control points, limiting the noise reduction to the sky, water, foreground and other areas where the noise is more obvious.
The third step of the three-step noise reduction method is to use masks to protect the pure area during post-sharpening, detail extraction, contrast enhancement, etc. Or before the output, the local noise is reduced to the place with too much noise.