Tim Jacobs

Wow, I really enjoy the mood of this picture! Did You add tho fog?

But it shows me a problem, I have too: after converting to monocrome, there is much more noise than before, esp. in the darker regions of the pictures.

Does someone know what to do?

I will often use the greystoration plug-in to reduce noise, although on this one I didn't.

This picture was taken with one of those disposable cameras (I don't trust taking my expensive digital camera on canoe trips!). When the pictures are developed I ask to have a CD made as well. I find that these images have a lot of noise.

The fog is natural.

To be more precise, I use Greystoration 2 which, if memory serves me correctly, is faster than the original version. But I make use of the preview window anyway, moving to areas where I want to preserve detail and areas where I want to remove noise until a good compromise is made. Usually, I find that the most influential control is contour preservation. Also, I almost always use a single iteration and nearest neighbor interpolation.

GREYCstoration is both a standalone program and a GIMP plugin. I works differently than the unsharp mask, is more powerful but requires more experimenting (especially the first time use might push you off).

Whereas too much unsharp mask leads to more pronounced noise, GREYCstoration results into a water paint effect. This is however less distracting, especially if GREYCstoration is only applied slightly too much.

Home page: http://cimg.sourceforge.net/greycstoration/