Love NI but need a little assistance please

[DLMST]

Hi, first of all let me say that I'm awestruck by Neat Image's capabilities. I'm a new user (spent 4 hours playing with it yesterday) and have been grinning ever since. Using your quick start tips for guidance, I was able to produce a stunning 11x14 print from a tiny little 3.34mp digital camera jpg (silly me didn't have TIFF selected when I shot the image). Anyway, I'll be playing with it (NI) again tonight and have a few questions.

I see that it is sometimes easy to overfilter an image to where the smooth areas look plastic (for lack of a better word). I'm currently working on an image (of AK snowfields, glaciers, mountain peaks and sky). When I get the sky and snowfields looking natural (a bit of grain), the smooth rock of the peaks looks plastic. Can you tell me which noise reduction amounts (high, med or low) has greater impact on this? and what effect does changing the Y value there have? (It looked like it reduce noise reduction as its value was lowered but what is it really doing?) Should I be adjusting the noise levels as well? What about the "filter preset" choices? (What's "default" doing that "complete noise reduction" isn't?) Are there any manuals/tutorials you could refer me to?

Thanks in advance,
Cheers,
DLMST

[NITeam]

Hi, first of all let me say that I'm awestruck by Neat Image's capabilities. I'm a new user (spent 4 hours playing with it yesterday) and have been grinning ever since.

Thank you for this, it is good when people are smiling.

I see that it is sometimes easy to overfilter an image to where the smooth areas look plastic (for lack of a better word). I'm currently working on an image (of AK snowfields, glaciers, mountain peaks and sky). When I get the sky and snowfields looking natural (a bit of grain), the smooth rock of the peaks looks plastic. Can you tell me which noise reduction amounts (high, med or low) has greater impact on this?

This depends on your image of course, but I would start with the control for High. Usually, such natural noise-like patterns are of high frequency/small size.

and what effect does changing the Y value there have? (It looked like it reduce noise reduction as its value was lowered but what is it really doing?)

The Y control in Noise reduction amounts box tells NI how much of the noise found (during profiling analysis) in the Y (brightness) channel is to be removed; this can be 0% - nothing is removed, 100% - all found noise is removed, or in between.

Should I be adjusting the noise levels as well?

Usually not, but if you see that not all noise (and you know that it is noise) is removed even if all amounts are set to 100%, then you need to adjust the noise levels (increase them in this case).

What about the "filter preset" choices? (What's "default" doing that "complete noise reduction" isn't?)

Oh, don't worry about the names. These are just names for the filter settings you see in the panel on the right. You can adjust these settings and save a new preset if you like.

Are there any manuals/tutorials you could refer me to?

Sure, you can once again open this page - http://www.neatimage.com/howto.html - and in the end of it you will find several links to manuals and tutorials.

Hope this helps.

Vlad

[DLMST]

Hi Vlad and WOW! thanks for the very helpful information. [I've uploaded an image that I applied NI to (to the b&w page of my website). If you'd like to take a look at it, you can go to http://www.dstappan.com/prod10.htm . It's the image of Denali with Lenticular Clouds overhead. I'm so happy with the results!!] Thanks again for such outstanding software. I will be ordering the Pro+ upgrade next paycheck (yippee!).

Off I go to read the "how to" link you provided.

Cheers,
DLMST

[DLMST]

I checked out the "how to" link you provided and then followed it to the PDF Users Guide. What a plethora of clearly written info! Terrific!! Of course, I downloaded it and can't wait to read it. What can I say, I really enjoy a well written manual!

Thanks for all the work you folks put into this software and support! It's super!

DLMST

[VG]

http://www.vizualgroove.com/digitalimag ... ge/ni1.htm

Regards,
VG