In-Camera Noise Reduction

In reading another post, a question arose to which I thought I knew the answer ... but perhaps I have been operating on bad information ...

When one is shooting RAW, do in-camera Noise Reduction settings do anything or are they strictly processing options for in-camera JPEGs?

I'm away from my camera - and will be for at least another week - otherwise I would do some tests myself.

Thanks in advance!

In reading another post, a question arose to which I thought I knew the answer ... but perhaps I have been operating on bad information ...

 

When one is shooting RAW, do in-camera Noise Reduction settings do anything or are they strictly processing options for in-camera JPEGs?

 

I'm away from my camera - and will be for at least another week - otherwise I would do some tests myself.

 

Thanks in advance!

I think both. High ISO and Long Exposure NR are in camera settings that apply to RAW images, whereas further noise reduction also occurs with JPEG processing.

I think both. High ISO and Long Exposure NR are in camera settings that apply to RAW images, whereas further noise reduction also occurs with JPEG processing.

The Long Exposure NR I knew about ... the "regular" High ISO NR I did not ... I'll have to play with that ... interesting.

Thanks!

The Long Exposure NR I knew about ... the "regular" High ISO NR I did not ... I'll have to play with that ... interesting.

 

Thanks!

Hi Jeremy!

I observed You'r comment's in White balance thread and will be wayting to hear what You guys finally figure out in this matter.

Be sure to share what You find out

Thanks in advance

Scubamoose

From what I've gathered, High ISO NR on the D700 only leaves markers in the .NEF which can be read by N2x (and only N2x), but does not actually impact the data ...

As I had previously thought ... If one shoots RAW, these settings would seem to have no effect on the image.

I'll confirm when I get back to my camera.

RAW files record the raw image data captured by the camera sensor. If you were shooting JPEG then this data would normally be fed to the camera's processing software for demosaicing, NR, and to have settings such as WB applied. Hence if you're shooting RAW the data you get has had none of these applied, though to be able to view the data you have to at least demosaic it (usually done for you by a RAW viewer such as Picasa).

jon

RAW files record the raw image data captured by the camera sensor. If you were shooting JPEG then this data would normally be fed to the camera's processing software for demosaicing, NR, and to have settings such as WB applied. Hence if you're shooting RAW the data you get has had none of these applied, though to be able to view the data you have to at least demosaic it (usually done for you by a RAW viewer such as Picasa).

 

jon

In asking around I've learned that there are at least two settings on the Nikon D700 that will impact the actual sensor data that ends up in the .NEF.

1) Long Exposure Noise Reduction works at the raw level and affects the actual recorded data itself

2) With Active D-Lighting switched on, RAW files can end up slightly under-exposed vs. meter as that is part of how Active D-Lighting works; the other, tone-curve aspect of Active D-Lighting is applied as a marker that can only be read by Nikon software

Interesting. Presumably that would apply to other cameras with the same features, such as my D300.

I've never used ADL, since i figured it was a bit of a gimmick. Apparently it changes the aperture to slightly underexpose the image. Since only the Nikon RAW converter uses the ADL info, if you're using any other converter then you will get an underexposed result.

Jon

I've never used ADL, since i figured it was a bit of a gimmick. Apparently it changes the aperture to slightly underexpose the image. Since only the Nikon RAW converter uses the ADL info, if you're using any other converter then you will get an underexposed result.

 

Jon

Active D-Lighting can be very helpful with high contrast subjects - try it.