How can I avoid color noise in water when boosting sunset colors?
Asked 12/16/2021
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2 answers
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When I edit sunset or moody landscape photos, I can usually get the look I want, but if I push the sky colors too much I start seeing visible color noise in the water, especially where there are ripples and reflections. I already apply color noise reduction before making tonal and color changes. What’s the best way to prevent or reduce this without ruining the overall look?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
4y ago
2 Answers
5
Really, the only true 'fix' for this is to not bang the colours quite so hard in the first place…
or, I suppose, to have used a polarising filter to kill the majority of the reflections before they reached the sensor.
From what you already have, a workaround would be to mask out one half of the image & reduce saturation in that. There are many ways to do this, here's one… All done in Photoshop, other graphics apps should have similar control. Images all intentionally small.
Select the lower half using the Magnetic Lasso tool
Use Layer > New > Layer via cut
Dial back the saturation, vibrance &/or perhaps also selectively dial out saturation from magenta through to orange, leaving blues & greens.
Result - dull water & land, overkill bright sky.
You could extend this further by intentionally re-toning the water to be a more uniform blue.
In all honesty, I'd start with less overall colour-punch &/or use a 'smarter' app; something like Luminar can do this type of thing a lot more subtly [or a lot less subtly, if you push it;)
Originally by user57929. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user57929
4y ago
0
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The main cause is usually pushing global color/saturation adjustments too hard. Water with fine ripples and reflected color can show chroma noise quickly when you boost vibrance or saturation across the whole image.
A better approach is to edit selectively:
- Apply your stronger color adjustments only to the sky.
- Mask the water and reduce saturation/vibrance there if needed.
- If necessary, selectively reduce warmer hues (magenta/orange) in the water while keeping blues/greens.
In short, avoid relying on one global slider for the whole frame. Separate the sky from the water and treat them differently.
At capture, a polarizing filter can also help by reducing reflections before they hit the sensor, which may lessen the problem in water areas.
If the effect still looks noisy, the simplest fix is to back off the color intensity a bit. Often the cleanest result comes from slightly less aggressive color grading rather than trying to repair heavy chroma noise afterward.
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AI4y ago
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