If you have an image which both needs some sharpening and noise reduction, which one do you prefer to do first or do you do noise reduction before and after sharpening?

If sharpening before noise reduction, you actually may increase the noise, making it more difficult to remove but if you first do noise reduction then sharpening sometimes creates its own noise / or "harsh"/rough pixel clusters, which requires a bit of softening through noise reduction.      

I'd just shrink the image, assuming it was big enough. It achieves both objectives quickly without degrading the quality. I haven't used NR for about 5 years. Mind you I very rarely shoot above ISO 100 or undertake long exposures.

I try to shoot without any noise at all.  If there's some minor noise, I will do some noise reduction in Lightroom during the RAW conversion process.  If applied with a light touch, a sharp image will retain most of its sharpness. 

I haven't really found any way to sharpen in PS without some artifacts being introduced.   As a result, the unsharp pictures I have usually never see the light of day. 

I always shoot without any sharpening or NR, they both cause artifacts, haze, etc. and are responsible for I would say 50% of all rejections. Always try and get it right in camera, even lowering contrast a bit.

I shoot Raw , use PS CS5 for slight sharpening and TopazDenoise (photoshop plugin) for noise reduction. Considering that i use a Canon 7D i must apply some noise reduction to all my files. TopazDenoise works very, very well.

I just got the Canon EOS 500D. I use a CS4/5 filter called Perfectly Clear, but think the setting on sharpening was too strong, creating undesirable artifacts. In your experience, should this camera's images be acceptable without noise reduction?

I just got the Canon EOS 500D. I use a CS4/5 filter called Perfectly Clear, but think the setting on sharpening was too strong, creating undesirable artifacts. In your experience, should this camera's images be acceptable without noise reduction?

I have a 500D and you should be able to use it without sharpening or NR depending on the situation.  Right now I mostly use it for isolations in my studio.  At ISO 100, manual focusing and with decent lighting I never sharpen or use NR.  Outside I find that the Canon Rebels often have noise in the sky, even at ISO 100 and good lighting, but it is easily cleaned up with some light NR. I usually use Noiseware or sometimes Topaz Denoise, and only on the parts that need it.  If you're commonly having to sharpen or denoise the whole image then it's not the camera - it's either technique or poor lenses.  If you're using the kit lens then toss that sucker and get some good glass - it's hard to get sharp images if your lens isn't up to the task.  If you're just getting noise in the sky then that is normal, for me at least, and that includes all of the digital rebels including the 500D and 600D.

Very nice picture Dirk! Thank you for the product specific feedback sgoodwin4813, you all helped me a lot. From now on I will look to the skies

Sharpening the noise in the sky will cause problems. That's why someone else says mask or selective. I don't do noise reduction, shoot low ISO. If I find noise in the sky, you would want to soften, not sharpen, so for the subject you want to go one direction, for the sky the opposite.

Selective, but generally none at all. Reduce the image size is the easy way, and since this is micro, that's what I do.

Nice that you got the camera upgrade that you were looking forward to!