Too much noise? Try B&W!

very pretty! C: I'd never thought of that... Hmmm... *wanders off aimlessly in direction of billions of folders of unused pictures*

 

Another thing you can do, which is what I normally do in my workflow, is to use noise removal software. Many photographers use a program(/Photoshop plugin) called Noise Ninja. It's not free (unfortunately!), but it does some amazing things. I downloaded the trial when I first heard of it and after trying it on a few photos, I was so impressed by the results that I bought it the same day..

Here is the image you provided, ran through NoiseNinja:

(Click to enlarge)

The above image is watermarked as I'm at work and cannot use my home license, but you can easily see what a difference it makes on her cheek, and neck areas.. You can also use the brush tool to omit areas from the noise filtering, to prevent them from getting soft (such as her hair on the right of the image) There is some color banding after the removal that was masked by the noise, but if you started with a 24-bit image you could effectively eliminate that.

Like I said, it's not free unfortunately, but it works wonders ><

As for the original effect; when the image is converted to black and white, the noise becomes monochromatic and has a very film-grain-esque feel.. Something I tend to enjoy ^^ (maybe because I shoot on film!)

(P.S. I really like your picture~ The lighting in it is wonderful and Shiori's eyes are beautiful!)

 

If you are using a DSLR or your camera allows you to change your ISO you could try using a smaller ISO speed. Higher ISO speeds produce more noise on photographs.

 

This is nice! thanks for sharing :3

 

Great idea! Never thought about that. Thanks (:

 

That's a really nice shot (: it's a shame it started getting noisey

one of the reasons noise appears is because an area is too dark and the camera doesn't 'see' into it properly, so it guesses what should be there and well...tends to guess wrong. So one of the best ways to fix noise is to add some more light into a situation, or doing a longer exposure if you have control over it. Generally its easier to edit an image down from being over exposed than under exposed.

the other reason it happens is what friendswithblythe mentioned about if you have control over your ISO. When you get a camera that you can change the ISO on, the lowest ISO setting is what the camera functions the best on and the higher you go away from that is going to create more pixelation which honestly even though grain from high ISO on b&w film is okay sometimes, just looks kind of funny on digital since pixels and grain aren't the same thing. Although it's not practical to be shooting around an ISO of 100 all the time (the average baseline for dslrs), going above 250 or so you'll start getting pixelated images.

 

I really like the idea, think it will work well actually!
Though I am a total photoshop noob, haha, but your explaination is
very clear so I think I'll just give it a try some time soon!

Thanks so much for sharing ^^

 

zinmirai, thank you for the tip about Noise Ninja! That sounds wonderful.

When I get that same "camera guessed wrong in shadowy area" noise, I sometimes take the opposite tack, by making it even dimmer there-- usually by lowering the midtones, or increasing the black input just a smidge. Makes your noir even moodier. ^^ (But it must be admitted that I use a tiny 2005 model Elph point-and-shoot, so to even get half-decent snapshots, I sometimes use guerrilla quality-compensation tricks that would make the professionals' hair stand on end. Listen to everybody else first!)

 

I don't think this has been pointed out yet.
Some cameras have noise reduction available (my Nikon D40, which is cheap and really basic DSLR, has it so I don't see why other ones shouldn't have it). It makes recording the image a bit slower (a half slower under 1 sec. shutter speed, if I believe my manual), but removes small noise quite nicely. I don't usually use it, but I did some test shots and it definitely works. Of course it won't get rid of huge noise on high ISO, but makes a difference.

If anybody needs to find it it's under Menu -> Shooting menu in my camera.