Noise Reduction

[DisneySuiteFreak]

Thanks guys! I'll look into these two programs.

 

[Steve's Girl]

Noiseware standard version. I have the stand alone and for $30 it is hard to beat.

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

Thanks Steve's Girl, I'll check it out.

 

[dmccarty]

Funny this thread popped up.

I took a photo of the Boardwalk when the sun was setting and lighting up the area very nicely. Not a lot of light and the ISO was 3200. Can't remember the shutter speed but I used the railing at the Yacht and Beach Club to steady the camera for the photo.

We want to make a big print out of this image and I would like to reduce the grain.

I downloaded Noise Ninja last night to try before I buy.

I used Nikon NX2 to for photo processing so I started rereading the NX2 books for noise reduction and sharpening. I pretty much have stopped NR or sharpening on most photos. What one can gives it also takes away. And not all images need NR or sharpening.

After I reread the NX2 books and try some things out on the Boardwalk image I will Noise Ninja and see which software is better. The Noise Ninja standalone software was reasonably priced and they have profiles to use for your given camera. And you can try before you buy.

Later,
Dan

 

[Altair]

Canon Digital Photo Professional does it. This program comes with many Canon cameras.

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

I downloaded Noise Ninja last night to try before I buy.

I used Nikon NX2 to for photo processing so I started rereading the NX2 books for noise reduction and sharpening. I pretty much have stopped NR or sharpening on most photos. What one can gives it also takes away. And not all images need NR or sharpening.

After I reread the NX2 books and try some things out on the Boardwalk image I will Noise Ninja and see which software is better. The Noise Ninja standalone software was reasonably priced and they have profiles to use for your given camera. And you can try before you buy.

Later,
Dan

Oh yay! I'll check that out for sure! I don't care for the NX2 Noise reduction; it's a bit too much imo, and ends up making the photos look too soft.

Canon Digital Photo Professional does it. This program comes with many Canon cameras.

Thanks, but I have Nikon D90, so no Canon software to speak of.

 

[wenrob]

Took tons of ride pics on our recent trip to DLR/DCA and made a big rookie mistake: I forgot to set a limit on my ISO. What's done is done I suppose and I can live with it in the pics of the actual rides. But this pic of my son is priceless to me. I suck at noise reduction, I just don't know what to do, how far to go. Every attempt I've made on this has turned it to mush. I have PSP and I have Topaz DeNoise but the tuts I've found pretty much say, "Slide it around til it looks good." Any help or guidance would be much appreciated. You all have my permission to play with the pic and if you do PLEASE give me a step by step.

We had to "Defeat Zurg" at least once a day but most days we defeated him two or three times.

 

[klmall]

A quick run through using Imagenomic's "Noiseware" which is an inexpensive program and extremely easy to use.

Did you take it in RAW or jpeg?

Your son is adorable!!!!

 

[wenrob]

A quick run through using Imagenomic's "Noiseware" which is an inexpensive program and extremely easy to use.

Did you take it in RAW or jpeg?

Your son is adorable!!!!

Wow! And look his ears still have an edge, lol. Did you use a preset or choose settings? This is where I have my issues. Thanks for having a pass at it.

I took it in RAW, just converted to jpg to post. Thank you on my DS I think he's kinda cute too.

Open to other interpretations and tuts if anyone has any.

 

[RBennett]

And here is my attempt as well. I just ran it through Topaz DeNoise; took 2 min.

 

[wenrob]

And here is my attempt as well. I just ran it through Topaz DeNoise; took 2 min.

But what did you do? Would you be willing to give me a play by play? Honestly, I just don't know what to do with those sliders and I can't find an in depth tut.

 

[RBennett]

But what did you do? Would you be willing to give me a play by play? Honestly, I just don't know what to do with those sliders and I can't find an in depth tut.

I'm sorry. Guess I could have elaborated more! When I opened it in Topaz DeNoise, it asked me to choose the overall strength and I moved the slider to .13. That was it.

 

[disneyboy2003]

I see that others already posted their noise-free pictures while my slooooow computer was taking its sweet time.

Here's how mine turned out. You can click on it for the original-sized image:

​

I went into Photoshop, and started by sharpening the photo. I also used Curves to add more green to the photo, which removed the magenta tint on your son's face. I, then, used Noise Ninja with its default settings. It significantly removed a TON of noise.

Hope that helps! Now you've got a bunch of versions of the same picture!

 

[wenrob]

I'm sorry. Guess I could have elaborated more! When I opened it in Topaz DeNoise, it asked me to choose the overall strength and I moved the slider to .13. That was it.

So what you're saying is that I'm making this way to difficult on myself right? I've been messing with this pic ALL DAY and was/am beyind frustrated.

I see that others already posted their noise-free pictures while my slooooow computer was taking its sweet time.

Here's how mine turned out. You can click on it for the original-sized image:

​

I went into Photoshop, and started by sharpening the photo. I also used Curves to add more green to the photo, which removed the magenta tint on your son's face. I, then, used Noise Ninja with its default settings. It significantly removed a TON of noise.

Hope that helps! Now you've got a bunch of versions of the same picture!

Thank you for posting what you did!
It never occured to me to sharpen before noise reduction. Any particular reason or is that just your work flow?
Heh, I struggle with color casts as well. Again, never know which way I should go. I have a bunch of youngest DD (she's a red head and her skin tone takes on whatever is around her) where she's greenish blue-would I add magenta for that?

I sound like such a newb but I really do know half of what I'm doing, lol. Remembering film, most noise doesn't bother me and I just leave it but this one was pretty bad.

 

[ukcatfan]

Thank you for posting what you did!
It never occured to me to sharpen before noise reduction. Any particular reason or is that just your work flow?

Everything I have ever read and from personal success, I suggest leaving the sharpening as the last step. That does not mean that you cannot do it earlier as well, but I would not leave it off at the end. If you shoot in RAW, you can remove noise and sharpen all in the RAW processing. I find that to be the best results.

 

[disneyboy2003]

It never occured to me to sharpen before noise reduction. Any particular reason or is that just your work flow?

Heh, I struggle with color casts as well. Again, never know which way I should go. I have a bunch of youngest DD (she's a red head and her skin tone takes on whatever is around her) where she's greenish blue-would I add magenta for that?

I think, in general, you're supposed to sharpen the photo as your very last step in post-processing. However, there was soooo much noise in this photo. So when I did try noise reduction first, it didn't quite get all 100% of the noise. So whatever noise was left was eventually "sharpened" at the last sharpening step. Not good.

So that's why I did the reverse. I sharpened the photo first, which also "sharpened" the noise. Then I did noise reduction afterwards, which seemed to get rid of much of the extra, "sharpened" noise.

Yeah, reversing color casts can be kind of confusing. What I usually do is open a separate browser window and do a Google Image search for "RGB color wheel". Whatever color cast I think the photo has, I look on the RGB color wheel, and I pick the opposite color to add.

So if you're getting a blue-green color cast, then the opposite of blue-green is red, so I'd probably try adding a little more red to the photo. In the end, it's all trial-and-error, though. But at least it gives you a general color to start with.

 

[wenrob]

Everything I have ever read and from personal success, I suggest leaving the sharpening as the last step. That does not mean that you cannot do it earlier as well, but I would not leave it off at the end. If you shoot in RAW, you can remove noise and sharpen all in the RAW processing. I find that to be the best results.

I've asked this before quite some time ago but how do you reduce noise (not sharpen, sorry guys!) on a RAW? A plug in? Seems anything after light room has to be converted.

Anyone know if the Topaz plug ins will work in Light Room?

My work flow is so very basic. I adjust the exposure if needed,WB if it's way off, up the vibrancy a touch, add contrast then adjust the blacks if needed. Export and sharpen in PSP. 90% of the time that's it so when I come upon something like this I get a little lost.

 

[GoofyontheHiSeas]

I've asked this before quite some time ago but how do you sharpen a RAW? A plug in? Seems anything after light room has to be converted.

I use the sharpening tool box in LR and then they can get an extra bit on export to JPG. [/QUOTE]

Anyone know if the Topaz plug ins will work in Light Room?

Yes, topaz can out with a free download program that lets you use any of their products directly from inside of LR and imports them back into LR after you have played with them. It works great. Setup is a little tricky but once it works it is amazing.

I did the max recovery in LR3 then Topaz Denoise for this one. What were you shooting at 128,000 ISO???? I can now shoot @3200 easily and sometimes 6400 with the new LR3 noise reductions but that is with a raw image.

 

[ukcatfan]

I use Bibble, but I guarantee that Lightroom has multiple options to sharpen. Bibble has it built in and there are also different plugins that sharpen. The NR in Bibble is Noise Ninja.

 

[disneyboy2003]

I've asked this before quite some time ago but how do you sharpen a RAW? A plug in? Seems anything after light room has to be converted.

....

My work flow is so very basic. I adjust the exposure if needed,WB if it's way off, up the vibrancy a touch, add contrast then adjust the blacks if needed. Export and sharpen in PSP. 90% of the time that's it so when I come upon something like this I get a little lost.

Lightroom already includes sliders that are specific for Sharpening!

In the Develop module, that's where you're doing your adjustments for White Balance, Vibrance, Contrast, Blacks, etc. There are TONS more sliders below these, so keep moving down the menu. Toward the bottom, you'll see a section called "Detail", and a sub-section called "Sharpening". That's where all the sharpening sliders / options are located. There's no need to export your photo to a separate program for sharpening.

Here's a screen-shot of the Detail > Sharpening section in Lightroom: