Mel Snyder wrote:
RESOLVED!
Henry ("blue sky") nailed it.
This is the image that Pete Peterson originally noted the noise. It is the RAW image, post processed by importation into Camera Raw (with likely slider fiddling) and then into Photoshop Elements 11, where it was adjusted for color temperature. lightened and sharpened
This is the fine JPEG of the same image, no post processing, just as set by the camera with the lowest possible adjustment. I normally have the lowest possible sharpening and color adjustment possible with a camera because prefer to do it all in post processing. The key that Henry picked out is to look at the deer in the background, just above the subject's hairline. It is noise free, as opposed to the deer in the post-processed image above.
This is the RAW image imported straight into Photoshop Elements 11 with no sliders adjusted in either Camera Raw or PS Elements 11. It is noisier than the straight out of camera (OOC?) image.
Conclusions:
1.
My post-processing software, left to its own devices or adjusted as I am accustomed to doing, injects noise into my images. That explains the common issue in all my converted images. After the first day I got the NEX-6 (when this image was made), I have been shooting RAW.
2. I have been shooting only RAW. In fact, ever since my D70 images 9 years ago, I have been processing only RAW images, and when I got my D300 in 2008, I stopped shooting jpegs at all, and shot only RAW. I am shaking my head at the hundreds of thousands of images I shot over that time that could have been better if I'd also shot jpeg. My only saving grace might have been I was using Paintshop Pro on the Windows platform until I went Mac in early 2011.
In order to properly engage in the self-flagellation we photographers enjoy as much as the zealots who beat themselves with chains, I will go back to the last time I shot RAW and jpeg and inflict pain in response to what I am likely to find.
3. Just as cautious parents save the stem-cell-rich cord blood of healthy newborns, in the event that someday they develop a rare disease curable with it, I will now begin shooting both RAW and fine jpeg, and begin the quest for acceptable (in my hands) post processing program(s) that doesn't inject noise.
There's a spaghetti sauce commercial running where the woman doing a taste test discovers that she likes the sponsoring sauce better than her "favorite" brand - and she flashes back thing she did in the past, muttering "I wonder what OTHER bad choices I made!"
That's how this exercise has been for me. Thank you all, but especially (small) Lebowski(?), Henry (bluesky), and especially Pete Peterson for his persistence that drove me to performing Henry's comparison test.
Mel Snyder
PS: It suddenly occurred to me that perhaps Camera Raw is the culprit - here is the RAW image imported into PSE11 via DNG converter:
Is it any different?
Finally, the RAW image opened and saved as a jpeg in ACDSee:
ACDSee saves a much bigger jpeg (3.7mb) so it might not be comparable
So, beating the JPEG output is my goal, but is not as simple as you'd think. I often use RAW+JPEG, and if the JPEG is good enough, I might just run with it. I don't bother to convert everything, just things that seem more special, I guess, or need more attention (blown highlights, etc.).
