Denoise your Dog!

[Cornelia]

No - this is not a blog about 'how to keep your dog from barking' :-)) - it's about photo editing software that might help save the moment ...

We all take photos of our dog and I'm quite sure, we've all been in a situation, where there was just not enough light and we couldn't or did not want to use the flash or the flash would not reach. Whatever the situation, you either ended up with a bad photo or with no photo at all (because you did not try...), or you set the ISO up (now where is that camera manual...) - and THEN ended up with a bad photo... well - not THAT bad, but grainy, like grandpa's old TV! In photography this is called 'noise' and it looks like this:

Note: The ISO of this photo (here a detail of the RAW) was on 6400 ISO of a full frame sensor camera; cameras with a smaller sensor will even show more grain... 

In your photo editing software you might find a filter (not all have that function), which allows you to reduce that noise again. Here is what photoshop CS5 can do (including 'remove dust and co') and honestly - I'm not impressed; the photo looks a bit cleaner, but there is stil a lot of grain:

 There is some extra software, that can be built into photoshop, called 'Topaz Denoise' and now we're talking:

Enough said: According to Topaz labs, Topas Denoise 5 also works with: Photoshop Elements, Apple Aperture, iPhoto and Adobe Lightroom. 

Here's another example - you might remember the photo from last years show in St. Gallen:

A detail of the original with 6400 ISO, no flash:

And with the use of the software, plus slightly sharpened with Topaz in Focus:

Note: When you reduce too much grain, you also loose sharpness and it is sometimes difficult to find a balance, but: What might be seen in the detail, can stil be fine in the larger photo. So I hope this helped to save those precious moments with your beauties... have fun!

PS The first photo was taken late last summer at half past ten in the evening when it was already dark - and even after we fetched the additional flash, we forgot to set the ISO back...

 

[Robert Krajnc]

Thanks for sharing Cornelia. Realy good result.

[Susan Mogony]

Wouh great to hear! my husband always takes 'bad' pictures because he doesn't wont to use flash, so i will pas this one on to him....anyway like the frog aswell ;-)

[Maggie Smith]

Thanks for this information - I am trying to get out of auto with my camera but keep regressing!

[Sherry Miller]

Love this picture of Joy.  Did she get any closer to the toad?  I had one setter here who picked one up in his mouth....our toads here excrete a nasty liquid as a defense...silly dog swallowed  the toad instead of spitting it out....had a nice vet bill over that one so we relocated toads here for the rest of his life.

[Chantal McIlveen-Wright]

Excellent, many thanks Cornelia for this very interesting information.... and very much enjoying the picture of Joy at the same time ... what a beauty!

[Peter Hennig]

great info I just love the intent look at the frog I'm sure the frog is thinking oh no