Noise reduction and Sharpening help needed.

[RALPH_L]

I'm having problems with the following photo. It was taken with f/6.3 and ISO 25000.

All of my efforts cannot seem to balance the Noise Reduction and Sharpening.

Adobe has not reviewed it yet, however, other site have kicked it back with either "Focus" or "Noise/Artifact" issues. 

I think it looks fine. What do you see?

[tiger622010]

interesting view. from my experiece the  ISO 25000 is too high. I never exceed over 800 for my stock images. 

[RALPH_L]

I agree. Unfortunately, I sometimes have no say in the matter. Lighting conditions, focal length and shutter speed require the high ISO. Usually, I can balance it out. But not always.

By the way, here is the original.

[Jill_C]

It seems unlikely that any software product is going to make an image with such a high ISO acceptable. If you zoom in you will see that the fur has lost detail and looks like brushstrokes rather than individual hairs.

[RALPH_L]

I assume you are right @Jill_C . Compared to the original, this is quite noticable. 

[RALPH_L]

Hi @Jill_C , Trying oit a third party AI software. What do you think about this:

Left is original right is noise reduction plus sharpening.

[Abambo]

Much better. You could test PureRAW and get a denoised DNG from your raw file.

(You will still need to enhance the contrast. The black of the eye is greyish)

[Jill_C]

Much better, but I would inspect the fur carefully throughout the image to see how it was affected.

[RALPH_L]

The software is Photo AI from Topaz Labs. Kinda expensive at 199€. The demo is without "save" possibilities. I'll have to see if the software produces artifacts. That is a problem with LRC when sharpening.

@Abambo , I'll check out PureRAW tommorrow. Thanks.

[Abambo]

@Abambo , I'll check out PureRAW tommorrow. Thanks.

By @RALPH_L

PureRAW comes with a full trial licence. With the possibility to save the files. If not, I have a retail version.

[RALPH_L]

Here is PureRaw. Also very good. I did though have to add some noise reduction and a little Sharpening in LRC.

Here the comparison before the added LRC editing. 

[Abambo]

You need to check the fur detail.

[RALPH_L]

This one got excepted.

[Abambo]

Congratulations, even that the black in the eye could be blacker… and the noise reduction did eat-up a lot of detail contrast. But it's an impressive image. It looks like your last image, before getting eaten… 😄

[George_F]

YES!