Color Noise Reduction Methods?

[Kamil]

Hi,

I like to have a high color saturation in my street pics, especially in the summertime, but using the GRD with high ISO makes a lot of color noise. I shoot RAW most of the time and tried to cancel the color noise, using the RAW converter "Silkypix", but the results are not very good. Here's one example:


I'm sorry, there is no EXIF, but it's shot with GRD at ISO 800 in RAW.
You can see the color artifacts produced by the noise filter in the dark areas.

So, my question ist: What is your favourite color-noise-reduction-technique or tool? Maybe some favourite tutorials etc.?

Greetings, Kamil.

 

[odklizec]

I'm using NoiseNinja, which is quite effective for color noise. I usually turn off only the color noise and leave the other noise intact.

 

[leews2001]

This is what i usually do into photoshop

1) duplicate image into new layer
2) on new layer perform gaussian bluring (radius 3-10, depending on the size of ur chroma blotches)
3) on the new layer, change layering mode to "color"
4) merge down the new layer onto the original image layer.

attached is a sample of the denoised version of your photo

 

[Kamil]

Wow, this looks really impressive. And the grain is still there. That seems to be exactly what I wanted, thanks.

Greetings, Kamil.

 

[odklizec]

Here is a NoiseNinja attempt with very conservative noise removal settings. Just color noise with little touch of luminance removal.