Do I have noise?

[Byron Gale]

The attached image was taken this past Saturday. I was using my Nikon D80, with a 50mm f1.8 lens at ISO 100, 1/250, f9.

The larger image is unprocessed RAW, zoomed to fit on-screen. The two insets are copied from the marked area between the two palm trees, and are shown at 100% zoom.

When viewing the image at 100%, I noticed the sky exhibits some "blockiness", when I think I expect it to be smooth and uniform. The upper inset is untouched, showing what I see.

The lower inset has had a wacky levels layer applied to enhance what I'm talking about.

Shouldn't the sky be a smooth gradient? Do other D80 users see similar results?

Just wondering... thanks for looking.

Byron

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1VLicaK8yiqcJKD0xvYwhitDub1AQ0_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1VLicaK8yiqcJKD0xvYwhitDub1AQ0)

[kimi_boo]

re: do I have noise?

Man I could hear you as soon as I logged on. Keep it down son. ;)

I don't think it looks like noise, I think it looks like a dirty lens?

I am usually wrong tho...

[LeeOtsubo]

That's plain old pixelation. What are the pixel dimensions of the area you're examining? If you look at a small enough area, you can make any digital image look ugly. Just the fact that you had to apply an Ugly Filter to make it stand out tells you that it's artificial artifacts. This whole process is called "pixel peeping". Too much pixel peeping will cause you to go blind and wet your bed. Stop it! :D

[deedeeO]

Byron,
It is very subtle....Have you tried a print out to see if it is visible in print?

[Byron Gale]

Thanks for the sanity check, folks... I think Lee's observation is most likely to be the case.

The area I zoomed to is about 300px square. Displayed on my screen at 100% zoom, it is about 3" square. Of course, that's not the resolution at which it would be printed! It would be more like a 1" square @ 300ppi.

Consequently, in order to save my eyesight and cut down on the laundry, I will cease pixel-peeping! :p

Byron