Tag Archives: #denoise

Announcements, photography, Rail transit marathon, Tips and Technique

Coal Train on the Move: A Process Comparison

At Washington Boro, the signals were lined up for an eastward train, so we drove west to intercept it.

At Cola interlocking in Columbia, Pa., we waited. As the tell-tale distant roar of a heavy freight warned me of its pending approach, I made adjustments to my Z6-III fitted with 50mm f1.4 lens.

Soon, I heard symbol freight 632 call a clear signal over the railroad radio. This was an unit coal train originating in central Pennsylvania destined for Baltimore.

My exposure was set at 1/200th of second with 64,000 ISO. As the headlights came into view, I adjusted the aperture to f1.6 (from f1.4) to better capture the the detail of the lights.

As an experiment, in post post processing, I used two different systems to produce a comparison of noise suppression systems.

Below are three variations of the same NEF RAW file (all scaled for internet). The top is the un-processed RAW file that shows the high degree of noise of the photo right out of the camera. The second was processed with Lightroom’s ‘Raw Details’ and ‘Denoise’ options checked to reduce the effects noise. The third view was processed using DxO PureRaw4.

In this selection, I refrained from making cosmetic adjustments to the files.

NEF RAW file without noise suppression.
NEF RAW File following processing with Lightroom’s ‘Raw Details’ and ‘Denoise’ options.
NEF file processed using PureRaw4 to minimize noise and correct for lens defects.

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Announcements, photography, Rail transit marathon, Tips and Technique

NECR 3038 at Night

The other night, New England Central’s former Canadian National GP40-2L 3038 was working the yard at Palmer, Mass.

This was an opportunity for me to make some High ISO photographs for experimentation and comparison using the DxO Pure Raw 4 software to denoise and correct for lens defects.

In this situation, I was especially interested in seeing how well the software corrected for the high-pixelation of the image exposed at 12, 800 ISO using my Nikon Z7-II.

Below are two sets of images. The first is a scaled camera NEF RAW file (plus enlarged detailed view), followed by the same NEF RAW file but processed using DxO Pure Raw 4 software. If everything posts correctly you should see four images.

Scaled NEF RAW file without Pure Raw conversion.
Enlarged section of the above photo (Scaled NEF RAW file without Pure Raw conversion.)
Scaled NEF RAW file following Pure Raw conversion to denoise the image and correct for lens defects. Note the lack of pixelization.
Enlarged section of the above photo (Scaled NEF RAW file following Pure Raw conversion to de-noise the photograph.) Compare this image with the earlier enlargement.

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