Request help from Fernando Rocha

[windshear]

Hi!
This photo was rejected on Jetphotos, how can improve the grain problem?

http://www.jetphotos.net/viewreject.php?id=19109



This is the original photo. It has a contrast problem, i tried to improve the contrast problem, but it seems that this improvement brough grain! Any tip?!

<IMG SRC=http://www.jetphotos.net/user-uploads/FH000003.1.jpg>
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[ckw]

In the original, the sky is OK, only the plane really needs any work. Mask the sky, feather the mask slightly to avoid a hard edge, then the correction you apply will affect the plane only and avoid bringing out the grain in the sky.

Of course this is a correction to a problem in the original - much better to avoid the problem in the first place. The easy answer is slow speed film, but I know this isn't always practical.

My tip is, if you must use fast film, then it is important to get the exposure just right - if you're using print film, slight overexposure is safer than under exposure. At J.net sizes, a well exposed 400 ISO shot should show little evidence of grain.

From the looks of it, the original is just slightly underexposed, hence the excessive grain.

Cheers,

Colin