Exposure & Noise Removal with CS2

[shingfan]

i have a picture that is underexposed. (camera meter was acting what it usually does and gave me underexpose values with a light blue background)......so i adjust the level in photoshop to bring it back to a better exposure level......i did it by pulling the white arrow to the right side edge of the histogram.....here are my questions

1) what would be a good way to adjust the exposure level if the originla picture is underexposed? (I have raw and i can do exposure compensation with nikon capture NX)

2) is exposure compensation on RAW the same as adjusting the level?

3) after adjust the exposure level......the picture looks kinda noisy? (with lots of noise when i zoom in)....what would be a good way to fix those noise?

 

[Sw1tchFX]

mkay,

1. Best way to adjust for exposure is in CameraRAW or whatever RAW workflow software you use (aperture, lightroom, etc.)

2. No. If you have the opporitunity so fix something in your RAW software DO IT. Because it's not really an image yet, you get much more flexibility with the RAW file as opposed to bringing it into photoshop and doing it there, becuase as soon as you put in PS, you lock in whatever you did (OR DIDN'T) do in your RAW software.

3. Say I shoot an image at ISO 100 and underexpose 1 stop, if I pull the image back in the RAW software 1 stop than it will also pull up noise to where the image would look like it was shot at ISO 200. if I underexpose 4 stops at ISO 100 and pull it back, than the corrected image would look alot like ISO 1600.

this pretty much pertains to NEF's, Jpegs will work differently becuase they're MUCH less flexible.

 

[mascafe]

It is fair better to shoot images right exposed.
To fix underexposed images in PS CS, try to use shadows and lights comand. Not so much noise generated. But, really, to fix the noise problem, 3rd party plugin software like Neat Image or Noise Ninja do their job pretty well.

Regards.
www.juanparmenides.com

 

[MountainPaul]

For the noise you could try this method in Photoshop.

Image - Mode - Lab color
In Channels select channel a
Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur
adjust to suit
do the same with channel b
change back to RGB
Image - Mode - RGB color

Paul.