Problem with Sky in ASP

[brucet]

I'm looking for some tips from Bibble 5 users and new ASP users. I've been comparing the output of both programs and generally prefer the results from ASP. However I'm getting very grainy skies. For some reason skies, especially bright blue skies, have a lot of texture in them. Grain rather than noise. While the rest of the picture is ok the skies just fall apart.

Any tips on what's happening and how to correct it?

Thanks

[df]

It would probably be good to show an example.

[gregglee]

Could be result of too much sharpening or too small a radius. Default sharpening level of 100 seems not overly aggressive. If you haven't increased it, then try adjusting the sensitivity on sharpening tool higher. The default is 6. Try 10 to 20.

Best values will vary by camera.

Also try using noise ninja.

[andysalay]

There is definitely somethig different than in Bibble5. Should I suspect the linearity of working space? I do not know. But I had this effect on the sky, if shadows pulled up. (though the sky was rather bright). B5 was OK there. It is 200 ISO file, there was plenty of light, so the natural noise of the sensor is quite low here. Surely it is not (normal, natural) noise, as it does not show up in Bibble. Maybe badly amplified somewhere...

EDIT: Submitted through surveymonkey with many details and example files.

Regards,
Andy Salay

[brucet]

I've been doing some more tests. (I'm having issues with uploading a file to support my findings).

So here's what I have found.
About 50% of the image was bright blue sky. Nikon D7000. 100 ISO. 20 meg NEF file saved as a 16 bit tif. I then applied Levels, Curves and USM in PSPx4. Still in 16 bit. This is my test as it's my usual work flow. Each of the below files went through the same procedure.

First test was through B5. That was my benchmark. Lens correction and all other B5 defaults.
Second test was ASP. Lens correction and ASP defaults with Sharpness at 100 however NN now at 2.
Third test was ASP. Lens correction and ASP defaults with Sharpness still at 100 and NN now at the default 10.
Fourth test was ASP. Lens correction. Saturation -10. Sharpness 200. NN 2.

Second test was ok. Almost the same as B5 except for being over saturated. Easily fixed.
Third test was a backward step. Grain in the sky. A throw away file. Although the rest of the file was ok. Just the large expanse of sky was bad! Maybe all the detail just hid the problem!
Fourth test was the best by far.

So it appears to me as though a high NN is the issue. I ran a few other tests and everytime I applied a higher NN the sky became grainy.

Why? I have no idea. Maybe someone her can enlighten me. So it's not an issue as long as I know what the issue is!!! I can fix noise in PSPx4 ok.
I'm getting good results from ASP, (with a saved preset as a starting point), with my combination of Sharpness and NN. I'm suprised though at how far I can push the sharpness. A figure of 300 is still fine. (I do levels, curves and USM in PSPx4. I can still apply some USM without any real issues).

So it's not a mjor issue as I have figured out the problem and can work around it. But it maybe something that needs looking at.

Regards

[afx]

So it appears to me as though a high NN is the issue. I ran a few other tests and everytime I applied a higher NN the sky became grainy.

Do you have NN registered or just the basic one?
When you have registered, make sure you either use AS sharpening or NN USM, but not both at defaults.

AS sharpening and NN USM (which is on by default and can not be adjusted in basic NN) together result in rather ugly artifacts unless carefully adjusted.

cheers
afx