Sharpness and noise reduction

[nandemofoto]

I'm having a little trouble understanding sharpness and noise reduction settings.

To make sure, those settings applied to jpeg file only and the RAW is left untouched, right?

I'm RAW shooter and adding sharpness is the last step of my workflow and depends on if the picture goes to print or to the net.

However when setting jpegs in camera I have to choose noise reduction and sharpness on the spot. One would think that leaving everything on standard would produce natural sensor output, does it mean setting sharpness to (-1) or (-2) artificially softens the picture? In what situation would you use (-2)?

Wouldn't leaving sharpness on standard and then adding additional sharpness in PP introduce more noise than choosing higher sharpness from beginning in camera?

As for noise, do you guys use in camera noise reduction or take care of in PP?
With my nikon NEF files I get better results turning off in camera (and in Capture NX2) noise reduction completely and than fixing it in PP with 3rd party software.

 

[mfunnell]

I don't know from the X-1Pro, but usually the "standard" level of sharpening in a digital camera does apply some sharpening to the JPEG before it's "baked in". If JPEG were my "real" output from the camera (ie. I wasn't shooting RAW+JPEG, which is what I normally do) then I'd be turning sharpening all the way down and hoping that the "maximum minus" setting completely switched off all sharpening (it does on some cameras, on others unfortunately not). I'd do the same for noise reduction. I'd prefer to do both in post-processing after resizing to my final output size(s).

In my normal case of shooting RAW+JPEG I let the camera engine apply a moderate amount of sharpening (and NR, if I have that option). That way the JPEG is more useable straight away if I want to print it at a photo kiosk, or copy it to give to someone, or whatever. If the shot needs further work then I use the RAW (treating the camera JPEG as both "first draft" and "one way of interpreting the shot").

...Mike

 

[ReeRay]

I agree with Mike. This is precisely my workflow. Noise and sharpening at the PP stage only and standard setting for in-camera preview/quick upload.

 

[nandemofoto]

Thank you for your comments guys.

I have very little experience with jpegs. The RAW files from x1pro are not recognized yet by LR so I'm forced to shoot RAW + jpeg, save the RAW for later and work on jpegs for the time being.
In this case I guess I will just set the sharpening and noise reduction to (-2) and PP the jpeg files.

 

[mfunnell]

Thank you for your comments guys.

I have very little experience with jpegs. The RAW files from x1pro are not recognized yet by LR so I'm forced to shoot RAW + jpeg, save the RAW for later and work on jpegs for the time being.
In this case I guess I will just set the sharpening and noise reduction to (-2) and PP the jpeg files.

I feel your pain. A long time ago my only option was to use Canon software to convert their RAW files, while waiting for something (anything!) better to support a new camera. Hot needles under the fingernails seemed attractive by comparison. JPEGs were my friends for a while...

...Mike

 

[chris00nj]

Do you need noise reduction?

This is at ISO 3200, without any noise reduction:

 

[nandemofoto]

Congrats on your son Chris!

When you say "without any noise reduction" you mean it was set to (-2)?

 

[chris00nj]

Congrats on your son Chris!

When you say "without any noise reduction" you mean it was set to (-2)?

After checking, it is set at 0, so maybe not.