Blue Sky Noise Reduction

questions about practical use of Neat Image
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Benesesso
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Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2004 5:43 pm

Blue Sky Noise Reduction

Post by Benesesso »

I am using an old Nikon Coolscan III (LS30) to scan many old slides. All I want is to be able to reduce a lot of noise in blue skies. Many different slide films were used and I cannot tell which film was used for any given slide.

After I scan them using Vuescan, I put all the slides with blue sky into a separate "Needs Neat Image" folder. SO, can I do batch processing by having NI "do everything", meaning finding a uniform sky area and then figuring out how to clean it? I am processing hundreds of old slides and do not have the time to play with each one.

If this can be done, can you please list the exact steps I need to do it? I am barely able to do it one-at-a-time manually and trying to follow the help section leaves me confused.
NITeam
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Post by NITeam »

Yes, you can process a folder of images using the Pro edition of Neat Image in the following way:

1) Open the "To create multiple image filtration jobs at once" paragraph in this part of the user guide);

2) Read the paragraph and then add all images from the folder to the Input Image list using either Add or Add dir buttons;

3) In the Device Noise Profiles box, select "Auto profile input images";

4) In the Filter Preset box, select any preset you like;

5) Set the remaining batch parameters as explained in the same paragraph of the user guide;

6) Send the images to the filtration queue as explained in the same paragraph of the user guide;

Then Neat Image will process the images one by one.
Benesesso
Posts: 30
Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2004 5:43 pm

Post by Benesesso »

Thanks for the reply. I think I have the Home+ version, not NI Pro. Will your method work or must I upgrade?
NITeam
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Post by NITeam »

It will work with the Home+ for up to 50 images at a time. If you have more then you need the Pro+ edition (there is an upgrade path from Home+ to Pro+).

Vlad
Benesesso
Posts: 30
Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2004 5:43 pm

Post by Benesesso »

Thanks, Vlad

That worked, but as expected it is very slow--I guess because it has to evaluate every slide.

So, I think I should just select one blue-sky slide and use the NI eval. for all other slides, because they are all scanned on the same scanner. Is this thinking OK, and if so how do I do this? Would the eval. be a profile or a preset?
NITeam
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Post by NITeam »

First of all, do not expect any dramatic speedup by just replacing Auto Profile with a fixed profile because noise reduction itself takes more time than Auto Profile.

If all your images were produced by the same device in the same conditions then yes, you can build one accurate noise profile and then use it to process all images.

To build an accurate profile please see the Device noise profiles section of the user guide. Then use this profile in the Batch window instead of Auto Profile. You may also want to enable Auto Fine-Tune for higher accuracy (however this will take some additional processing time too).
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