Noise Reduction Advice

I have recently purchased a K10D and have been very impressed with image quality, build quality and user interface (particularly the two e-dials).

I am hoping somebody can offer me advice on the best way to carry out noise reduction in image editing software (I am using RawTherapee 2.4 but would be open to suggestions of other free programs or included software).


Here is a crop from a .PEF opened in Rawtherapee and saved as a JPEG, detail seems ok to me but there is a bit too much noise for my taste:




Here is a crop from camera JPEG:




Any advice on how I could make use of noise reduction to tidy up the .PEF in RawTherapee or other suitable programs?

I would also welcome constructive criticism on these images also:

Hi,

To be honest the noise in these doesn't seem bad at all to me.. if you were to print them A4 size you would more than likely not see any.

Don't forget that removing noise is essentially destroying detail so I'd only do so if completely necessary...

If you need software then both Noise Ninja & Neat Image are both highly regarded.

simon