At least this flower is not too dark.

[JBW]

[Shadowman]

Nicely exposed.

[JBW]

Nicely exposed.

I am not pleased with the noise in the background. It was not a sever crop and an ISO of 100.

[bnnrcn]

I like the flower

[Geoff F]

Excessive noise in dark backgrounds is often unavoidable, Brian. I get a lot of problems with macro shots.

Method 1 is to use a little bit of auto noise suppression. I'm not sure what is available with your software though. And you have to be careful because it can soften your main subject as well as blurring the background. But worth a trial. Like this example.



Method 2. Which is what I normally do, is to lightly run over the problem areas with a light Blur Brush (say 20% opacity) and selectively apply more blur where required. Like this edit.



But I am using a drawing tablet and pen. Might be worth you trying with a mouse, going as steadily as you can manage, and see how you get on with it. Possibly try with two hands on the mouse?

[JBW]

Excessive noise in dark backgrounds is often unavoidable, Brian. I get a lot of problems with macro shots.

Method 1 is to use a little bit of auto noise suppression. I'm not sure what is available with your software though. And you have to be careful because it can soften your main subject as well as blurring the background. But worth a trial. Like this example.



Method 2. Which is what I normally do, is to lightly run over the problem areas with a light Blur Brush (say 20% opacity) and selectively apply more blur where required. Like this edit.



But I am using a drawing tablet and pen. Might be worth you trying with a mouse, going as steadily as you can manage, and see how you get on with it. Possibly try with two hands on the mouse?

Aye and there be the rub. Photoscape has noise reduction but Gimp doesn't. I am trying to do all pp in Gimp under the belief that one program means less degradation? I did try method 2 but perhaps i need to develop greater skill.