Noise - why??? please help

[slugger]

It's amazing what I DONT see in my own picture.....but now that you all mentioned it. Wholly cow is the background ever purple!!
It is a white muslin sheet, and my white balance was set to flash, but in pp, I used the eye dropper to 'paint' over the creases in the not so smoothly ironed background.
I appreciate the help, I wanted to have a fast shutter speed (due to the walking one year old), so after many test shots, I adjusted the aperature accordingly.....but perhaps that wasn't the smartest thing to do.

And looking back at the original, it was still underexposed. (and had some spots on it from the lens maybe?) geez, how embarassing :-(
Here is the un-processed one...

[DogHeadGod]

Did you shoot RAW? If so you will easily be able to fix it.

The following is easy to say as an outsider and I definitely don't notice all these things myself while shooting , but with that said here is my advice...

1. Sensor spots are par for the course unfortunately with an SLR, get yourself a rocket blower they're cheap and fix the problem in 2 seconds flat.

2. The idea is to get as much done before you take the shot to save in post processing, i.e. iron the muslin and remove and dust and fluff. I think the creases have caused the uneven background colour by making shadows.

3. If you need a fast shutter for a fast kid you will need more light, in fact the more light the better.

4. I don't know your lighting set up but generally you want a brighter light (or lights) shining on the background to blow it out if you want it to be white. I believe the pro set up looks like this (please excuse childlike drawing)



Lights 1 and 2 light up the background extra bright, boards 1 and 2 prevent this light landing on the subject.

This can be done with what ever lamps you have lying around, doesn't have to be fancy studio gear. Then remember to set a custom white balance on your camera for the kind of lights you choose.

DHG

[HowardG]

The image posted looks fine. There is always a digital "haze" on most images. Try using unsharp in Photoshop, Set amount at 20% Radius 1 pixel and Threshhold at 60. You can also try the Photoshop filter for Noise Reduction.

[slugger]

Thank-you again for the very helpful advice!! I wll def. try lighting up the background next time!

[photorelive]

you can fix that color with photoshop .. its just half retouching

remove some magenta and retouch it and give it to the client .. its gonna work good