Noise suppression is worth considering, especially so because you play an important part in the generation or exclusion of noise in your images. The noise you might see in an image might not be evident if someone else were shooting your camera. Why? Because lighting style works in concert with the software. If you’re underlighting a low value and using software to keep that low value afloat, you may be inadvertently causing that noise.
Just because Photoshoot software allows the acceleration of low values does not mean it’s ok to be lazy with the light. Many shooters in the high volume studios will not be able to do much with light because they will be required to shoot with a Q-14, a reflective gray scale that allows placement and transition of tone. For those shooters, generation of noise through sloppy lighting is not likely. For those shooters who are working in lower volume environments, make sure you look closely at the light. This does not mean look closely at the monitor, it means look closely at the light values displayed on your monitor. Do not be fooled by the transmissively illuminated low values on your display. 85%-90% values look surprisingly bright on monitors and disappointingly dark and murky on press if they are values that should be placed around 75%-80%.
When you read low values, evaluate the appropriate method for getting the value right. Could you push up the fill light rather than pushing up the Capture Curve? If you regularly shoot with a gamma value of 2.5 or above, could you open up the lighting in the low values? Only you can decide; if the emotional feel of the shot will be compromised, you’ll want to know what the compromise is, how much emotion will be lost on press if you don’t change the lighting, versus how much emotion should be compromised when you do change the lighting.
You’ll want to know how much noise is worth worrying about. If you can, get a series of increasingly noisy images put on a test press check, a small image section that will fit on a margin will do; see what prints, what is worth worrying about. A check of noisy images will reveal most of the noise to “live” in the blue channel. That’s because the blue filter on RGB cameras has the most density and therefore the least exposure and the most amplification. Hence, the most noise. In reality, the blue channel in RGB makes the yellow channel in CMYK. Yellow is the least effective color printer. It gains the least and it is the least sharp of process inks and least capable of visually reproducing noise. Additionally, low values have the most gain on press and the least reflectance, so they’re physically a poor reflectance to reproduce, let alone see, noise. Just because an image looks a little noisy on your monitor doesn’t mean that noise will actually print. Get some images on press and find out what your paper target will allow. There is little sense getting excited about something that won’t repro. And don’t be afraid to use a little light if that’s really what the scene calls for.