Curves Interface for Noise Profile Equalizer?

ablankertz · Post by **ablankertz** » Fri Sep 26, 2003 2:38 pm

The noise profile equalizer would be much easier to use if there were an option to adjust the values as "curves," changing either the values for the luminance alone or the RGB components seperately. It can be real pain to have to adjust so many sliders individually.

Post by **NITeam** » Fri Sep 26, 2003 3:34 pm

Why not adjust them through the Fine-tuning Analyzer followed by the Auto complete function?

Seriously, the noise profile equalizer has different purpose as compared with the "curves" tool in image editors. The equalizer is primarily an indicator of the analysis results, not a control to change the image like the "curves" tool.

Vlad

ablankertz · Post by **ablankertz** » Fri Sep 26, 2003 7:59 pm

NITeam wrote: Seriously, the noise profile equalizer has different purpose as compared with the "curves" tool in image editors. The equalizer is primarily an indicator of the analysis results, not a control to change the image like the "curves" tool.
Vlad

From the user's manual:
"Therefore, to filter only shadows you can manually move all the 'bright' sliders down (refer to the gradients on the bottom of noise profile equalizer). For example, move down all but the three darkest sliders in each RGB channel."

(9-3)* 3 = 18 sliders to drag, plus two extra clicks to change color channels. I would much rather use the curves model as a method of histogram adjustment rather than have to move numerous sliders.

Post by **NITeam** » Fri Sep 26, 2003 8:18 pm

I believe that with Photoshop plug-in, you can more directly apply "curves" model to filter only dark parts of the image. In Photoshop, select an area based on its brighness range and then apply NI filter to this area. No need to use noise profile equlizer for this anymore.

Vlad

Greg Campbell · Post by **Greg Campbell** » Wed Nov 19, 2003 5:38 pm

NITeam wrote:I believe that with Photoshop plug-in, you can more directly apply "curves" model to filter only dark parts of the image. In Photoshop, select an area based on its brighness range and then apply NI filter to this area. No need to use noise profile equlizer for this anymore.

Vlad

This is fine IF you've popped $80 for the pro version.
This "lite" user has also wished for some manner of equalizer averaging.

At the very least, consider adding a "group colors" button to make manual fine tuning of B/W images easier. I can't imagine it would take more than an hour or two to code.

Maybe I'm an oddity

, but I rarely find an image that contains detail-free areas at all brightness levels; I find myself tweaking the equalizer bars all too often. Moreover, "Auto Fine Tune" and I don't always agree...

-Greg

Post by **NITeam** » Wed Nov 19, 2003 6:09 pm

Thank you for the suggestion regarding grayscale images. There is a way to make manual adjustment of the equalizer easier for these images, I agree.

Regarding the lack of detail-free areas, I believe the best way around is using the calibration target which is specifically designed to profiles such areas. Auto fine-tuning works especially good with calibration target shots, so I suggest to use it more.

Vlad

Greg Campbell · Post by **Greg Campbell** » Wed Nov 19, 2003 7:05 pm

Greetings, Vlad.

Without souding too argumentative

, let me say a few more things...

A)
It's impossible to make a calibration target for an picture if you don't have access to the imaging device. I've recently DL'd a large collection of b/w images showing vintage experimental aircraft (http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Photo/index.html) Even within a single aircraft's gallery, different pictures have different noise profiles, requiring customised tweaking. I can hardly be the only one doing this sort of thing. Any Neatimage program tweaks that would make the process easier will be appreciated by me and others.

2)
This leads me to my second reaction. Multiple users have made a similar suggestion, and the NI team reaction is "work around it."

While I hardly expect you to drop everything and DO WHAT I WANT, DAMMIT!

, I do wish you would at least give non-trivial suggestions a moment's consideration. You guys have competition from GEM, Noise Ninja, and others. Listening to your customers and improving your product is part of staying in business. (At least untill you get as big as micro$oft

)

-Greg

Post by **NITeam** » Wed Nov 19, 2003 7:26 pm

Greg,

Thank you for your criticism.

I am not quite sure why you think we do not listen - we do - and we work even more than just listen. At the moment for example we prepare the release of a new Neat Image version, which includes several major improvement asked by MANY people in this forum and elsewhere. Asked much more often than things related to equalizer improvements. But that doesn't mean we just forget about the unpopular suggestions. We do consider and implement them when the most popular things are done.

We are going to release the new version of Neat Image in a matter of days. I am sure you will welcome many of the changes in this new version and will appreciate our hard work.

Vlad