RAW V JPG noise levels?

5DII at ISO 3200: I shot in RAW+JPG - should the RAW image processed in Photoshop be comparatively more noisier than JPG at the same magnification?

I don't k now the picture styles of the 5DII or the settings you have used for your in-camera jpeg processing, but it is likely that the in-camera processing included noise reduction.

 

The jpeg image is a rendering of the raw image. All of the noise generated by the sensor will be in the raw image, and that raw image, with all of its noise, is the raw material for the jpeg. So the jpeg can only have less noise if processing it removed it.

<p>No.</p>

<p>A processed RAW image can show more noise than a JPEG saved at the same time because the camera always applies some noise reduction to JPEG images. In the RAW conversion you can turn that noise reduction off (or not turn it on, depending on the software in use).</p>

<p>The idea behind RAW files is the user controls processing whereas JPEPGs are precooked. So if you want NR for RAW, you need to apply according to taste. My high ISO RAWs normally look better than the precooked JPEGs because I selectively add NR to troublesome areas like lower mids or skies and leave the brighter areas without NR or lightly applied. Precooked high ISO JPEG NR is global thereby making the entire image look smeared.</p>

<p>Yes - the jpeg will almost certainly have had NR applied in camera, and it will likely default to quite a heavy setting: and in-camera NR isn't subtle.</p>

<p> </p>

Thanks all! Puppy face, how to apply NR to selected areas in RAW, say using Photoshop?

<p>The old skool method is to use PS layer masks, apply NR and blend to taste. However, some NR plugins allows you to be selective without masks, either painting on NR or tweaking sliders to, for example, apply heavy NR in shadows, light in miss and nuttin' in HLs. If you use Aperture, you can paint on NR selectively without masks or plugins and I'm pretty sure LR has similar features.</p>