Noise Reduction

[MarkBarbieri]

What are you using for noise reduction? Why did you pick it?

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I use Neat Image. I picked it because eons ago it was consider one of the market leaders and integrated well with Photoshop via a plug-in. It's been years since I made the choice, so I should probably look at what else is out there.

I have tried the noise reduction that comes with ACR and Lightroom, but I haven't been very impressed.

Anyone do selective noise reduction? That is, do you apply noise reduction to only a part of your image rather than the entire image? I've never bothered, but I can think of many cases where I probably should have either done that or used different levels on different parts.

 

[DueyDooDah]

I tried Neat Image, and liked it. But, then I tried Noiseware Community and found it to be easier and do a better job, for me. The pics seem less "smoothed out" and leave me with the impression that the sharpness is better retained. Also, the app seems to handle the noise better.

 

[Furgus]

i use noise ninja because someone on a Nikon site suggested it, and it has a D50 profile for all of the ISO settings.

 

[wdwmom2]

I use Noiseware Community Edition because......well, it's free!!!!!

 

[jann1033]

i agree with wdwmom2, i tried neat image but it won't process the whole photo( free edition) and sometimes i use helicon filter which is able to show you noise etc but haven't totally figured that out yet

 

[Gdad]

Right now I just use whats built into Photoshop CS2-

How about some before & after pictures from people using some of these products?

 

[Gdad]

Here is a before...



And an after...CS2 NR ran twice...



Click on either image for full size file.

 

[wdwmom2]

Right now I just use whats built into Photoshop CS2-

How about some before & after pictures from people using some of these products?

Mine are repeats from other threads, sorry

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

 

[photo_chick]

I have been looking at something beyond photoshop for noise recently. I have not found one that impresses me enough to spend any money on it. If I have a really noisy image I hand it over to DH and he works his magic on it via CS2. I have no idea what he does, but I am not complaining! He is my built in image guru and has been using photoshop for about 15 years now. Needless to say he has more than a few tricks up his sleeve.


I recently tried noise ninja but I thought it made everything look to plastic like.

 

[Groucho]

For DSLRs, you're unlikely to see the difference in a web shot. I posted a before/after at ISO 1600 in a recent thread and even at 1024x768, you have to look pretty close and even then, it's hard to tell. Same with Gdad's example - put them side by side and don't say which is which, and you'll have a hard time telling them apart.

Perhaps 100% crops might be better for demonstrating the difference.

I have used Noiseware, but I don't think I'm going to bother doing any NR in the future on any of my DSLR shots (unless I dip into ISO 3200 occasionally.) Now, my old Minolta Z5 shots, those almost all need some.

 

[boBQuincy]

I use NeatImage, here is the image that sold me on it:

The photo was taken at ISO 800 and slightly underexposed. Without some noise reduction it was almost a throwaway but NI made it look pretty good.

Now all we have to do is convince her parents to meet us at WDW so we can get some photos of her in a princess outfit.

 

[fitzperry]

I've used the free version of Noiseware with some success, although like Photo Chick I usually find the results to be too plastic-like. Still, sometimes that's better than the alternative.

 

[photo_chick]

I use NeatImage, here is the image that sold me on it:

The photo was taken at ISO 800 and slightly underexposed. Without some noise reduction it was almost a throwaway but NI made it look pretty good.

Now all we have to do is convince her parents to meet us at WDW so we can get some photos of her in a princess outfit.

That is a really nice clean up. It looks like it looses some sharpness though, especially on the eyes and details in the shirt. But it did a great job making it look less noisy, I will check NeatImage out..

 

[MarkBarbieri]

That is a really nice clean up. It looks like it looses some sharpness though, especially on the eyes and details in the shirt. But it did a great job making it look less noisy, I will check NeatImage out..

It's not so much that it loses sharpness (which is more or less a measure of edge contrast), as it is a loss of detail. I don't think that it's possible to remove noise without also removing some fine detail. Interestingly, I've heard of people judiciously adding noise to video to increase the perception of detail in the picture.

Good noise reduction seems to be an arcane art form rather than something that can be automated with a simple algorithm. I suspect that a lot of really good noise reduction software might not do to well if left in full-auto mode but will do quite nicely in the hands of an expert. Unfortunately, I'm not an expert and have no idea how to become one.

When I look at the options in NeatImage, I usually just shake my head and say "just fix the darn thing." My fine tuning consists of random adjustments of the luminance and color noise reduction sliders hoping something looks better.

Anyone have any good suggestions on an article or book on good noise reduction?

 

[photo_chick]

Good noise reduction seems to be an arcane art form rather than something that can be automated with a simple algorithm. I suspect that a lot of really good noise reduction software might not do to well if left in full-auto mode but will do quite nicely in the hands of an expert. Unfortunately, I'm not an expert and have no idea how to become one.

See, this is why I love having my DH for my image editing needs! I can color correct, fix contrast, etc. But when it comes to more in depth stuff I give it to him. He can do in 5 minutes what would take me hours and his always looks better than mine.

 

[AndrewWG]

When I look at the options in NeatImage, I usually just shake my head and say "just fix the darn thing." My fine tuning consists of random adjustments of the luminance and color noise reduction sliders hoping something looks better.

I did the same thing with Noise Ninja when I downloaded it. Slid this thingy here and that thingy there and .... VOILA! No change whatsoever. I have no idea what it was doing but it certainly wasn't making it look better. Deleted the program completely and am still searching for one I can use rather easily.

Andy

 

[MarkBarbieri]

See, this is why I love having my DH for my image editing needs! I can color correct, fix contrast, etc. But when it comes to more in depth stuff I give it to him. He can do in 5 minutes what would take me hours and his always looks better than mine.

Unfortunately, in my family, I'm the DH that does the photo stuff. Sadly, I'm still a long way from knowing everything. In fact, the more I learn, the further I seem to be getting from that goal.

 

[Master Mason]

Unfortunately, in my family, I'm the DH that does the photo stuff. Sadly, I'm still a long way from knowing everything. In fact, the more I learn, the further I seem to be getting from that goal.

I think that is because one becomes more picky with their shots, in the beginning, I was taking snapshots, and was happy with the results, didn't crop, no color adjustments, just was happy I was getting the shots.

In the last year or so, I have become much more picky, attempting to create something more than a snapshot. Of the 2000+ shots I took in a week at WDW last year, there are probably 1500 I kept, of the 500 I took on Friday and Saturday, I kept 196.

Part of that was attempting harder shots, but the majority of it, was there were more that weren't to my standards, now that my standards have been raised.

 

[photo_chick]

Unfortunately, in my family, I'm the DH that does the photo stuff. Sadly, I'm still a long way from knowing everything. In fact, the more I learn, the further I seem to be getting from that goal.

I do the photos, he does the post. He makes me look really good. He's been working with graphics in general since college and still learns something new every once in a while. His latest thing is digital paintings of City of Heroes characters. My work keeps getting bumped for that stuff!