Of a Mother

[marq4porsche]

Hello, I don't do a lot of people photography, usually I just stick with street and landscapes. But I took this one of my mother the other day. It was after a long tiring day of travel and packing picking my brother up from college. I am trying to find a way to remove some of the noise from the image without loosing the fine detail such as the hair and eyes. Is there any way to do that without spending countless hours in photoshop? Also general crits are welcome. Thank you.

[Kittelsaa]

Not much critique from me, but I wanted to tell you I really love the way the light hits her face.

[gredawarha]

Hi Marquis

I too like the way the the light hits her face. I think the fact that you have explained the context of the shot helps me as a viewer to appreciate the image more. I can certainly imagine myself after a long hard day when looking at your shot. I do like photos that make me wonder "what is the person thinking", and this certainly does that for me.

Sorry but I don't think I am qualified to help you from a technical point of view but I hope my general comments are helpful or appreciated.

Darren

[WJT]

Hi Marquis, forget the noise, the face is where we are looking and to touch this image would be pointless. This is a unique image and has really captured the moment. Its not broke so don't fix it.

[Mike Buckley]

I agree about forgetting the noise that is on her face. If anything, it adds to the drama of the moment (the drama being the moment that you caught her in and the interesting pink light). If you want to reduce the noise that is on the interior of the car, try using standard noise reduction and don't worry if you lose some of the detail in that area. And that leads me to...

Consider cropping where your mother's hair joins the interior of the car. You lose the car, which I understand is part of the memory for you, but you increase the focus on your mother in a very complimentary way. You have captured her emotion so well, that I think you ought to eliminate all extraneous material.

Whatever you do, this is a wonderful image.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Marquis,

If you still want to fix the noise, I recommend Neat Image - it won't take hours, just a few clicks once installed.

It should sample from a blank area, like beside the sun visor, or the pale wall outside.
Best done on the full size image (I assume this was downsized to post here).

Here's the 800px jpg treated;


The knack is not to overdo it, so the noise isn't completely gone, but better than iso3200 gave you before! and still retains the hair detail.

Cheers,

[marq4porsche]

Thank you all for the replies and critiques. I won't mess with it too much because I agree that the noise does have a good overall effect. There are just some areas that I think I can tone it down a touch because it's distracting. Mostly the background areas.
Mike I'll try cropping the image. I agree it would give it a more intimate feel but I also think I lose some of the effect that the angles of the window create. I'll give it a try and post an update with it cropped soon.
Thanks Dave, I'll give that a try to see how it works and find some settings that I like. I do think having some noise is good especially around the face because of the heightened detail.