Too Noisy? – Adjusting the “Volume”

One of the areas that frustrates me in photography is adjusting a photograph that is “noisy”.  Even with dedicated tools, I find it hard to make any meaningful improvement in the quality of the photographs I adjust.  My noisy photographs seem destined to be noisy.  When I adjust the sliders, the edges I want to be crisp and clear are often muted, while the remainder seems unaffected.  Not at all the outcome I want.

shutterstock_105461507Even more baffling is sharpening.  Related to but opposite in intent to managing noise, applying sharpening leaves me even more puzzled, since I often see little to no change in my photograph.  And then there’s import sharpening vs. creative sharpening vs. export sharpening.  Sharpening for screen vs. sharpening for print.

How to make sense of it all? Continue reading “Too Noisy? – Adjusting the “Volume””