Posted by Bass Sears on March 11, 2009 at 11:43 AM
Am slowly grasping the new parts of CS4 after upgrading from CS... there's a lot I like in it but still have trouble with noise reduction.
Curious how other people handle their noise reduction... using Photoshop's built in or external plug-ins? I've tried the demo of Noise Ninja and it seems pretty solid, but curious if other people recommend anything else before I consider spending hard earned $$$.
Thanks in advance.
-- Bass
Posted by Carol Hyman on March 11, 2009 at 12:14 PM
Have you tried the noise reduction in camera raw, Bass? It appears to make a difference. Haven't done any conclusive testing.
Otherwise use Noiseware Professional by Imagenomic. Better still, do my best to keep ISO to 100 or 200 ...
Take a look at Nik's Dfine 2.0.
I agree with Carol that you can make the needed adjustments in Camera Raw.
I use the complete Nik software group. It really speeds up workflow once you get the hang of the different packages and filters.
Dave Bartlett USA
I use Noise Ninja Pro (works on 16 bit images). Used with a mask, or used with a selection, it does a great job. Only drawback I've found is the tendency to overdo. It takes a careful and conservative hand.
However, the best noise reduction is good exposure, where you don't need it in the first place, or only lightly if you want to bring out detail in unavoidable shadows.
Posted by David Bostedo on March 11, 2009 at 3:25 PM
The noise reduction done during RAW conversion will be most effective, but is essentially global. If I need more beyond that, I use NeatImage....you can run it on a layer with a mask, or run it only on a selected area, or run on the whole image. I think most of the tools will work similarly, even though their interfaces are very different. The major third party tools are (as far as I know) :
As with the others i also try to keep the iso down but when i need the extra
noise reduction i'll first use Lightroom together with a sharpening mask.
and if the image still requires more noise reduction i'll go to photoshop and use
nik Dfine2 coupled with a layer mask.
but as David said they all offer trials so its worth checking them out.
After a test of the four products Nick listed above, and based in part on recommendations from NPN, I settled on Noise Ninja Pro. In addition to the reasons others have given, I'd add:
(1) It seems to work bet on a Mac, the platform I use.
(2) It plays nice with Aperture, Apple's photo management/workflow management I also use.
Posted by Zack Schnepf on March 11, 2009 at 6:43 PM
I've had very good luck with Noise Ninja myself. It cleans things up nicely, really nice for when you're making large prints to have a noise free image.
I'm a happy Noise Ninja user.
No sense using noise reduction in Camera RAW as noted earlier because it's a 'global' edit, and you rarely need to apply noise reduction to the entire image.
Discussion
8 repliesCurious how other people handle their noise reduction... using Photoshop's built in or external plug-ins? I've tried the demo of Noise Ninja and it seems pretty solid, but curious if other people recommend anything else before I consider spending hard earned $$$.
Thanks in advance.
-- Bass
Otherwise use Noiseware Professional by Imagenomic. Better still, do my best to keep ISO to 100 or 200 ...
C
I agree with Carol that you can make the needed adjustments in Camera Raw.
I use the complete Nik software group. It really speeds up workflow once you get the hang of the different packages and filters.
Dave Bartlett USA
However, the best noise reduction is good exposure, where you don't need it in the first place, or only lightly if you want to bring out detail in unavoidable shadows.
Noise Ninja
Nik Dfine
Noiseware
Neat Image
Most (all?) have some kind of free trial, so they're worth trying out.
noise reduction i'll first use Lightroom together with a sharpening mask.
and if the image still requires more noise reduction i'll go to photoshop and use
nik Dfine2 coupled with a layer mask.
but as David said they all offer trials so its worth checking them out.
Wim.
(1) It seems to work bet on a Mac, the platform I use.
(2) It plays nice with Aperture, Apple's photo management/workflow management I also use.
No sense using noise reduction in Camera RAW as noted earlier because it's a 'global' edit, and you rarely need to apply noise reduction to the entire image.