Do I turn off printer enhancements after Neat Image filter?

[tiger926]

I want to print my filtered image on my Epson Picturemate printer, but I'm not sure if I am supposed to keep the printer auto enhancements set to 'On' in my printer settings or not? I have saved the filtered image and am waiting to print it. I am seeing grainy images on my photos so I am hoping that Neat Image will do the trick. I have a Panasonic FZ-30 and so I know that these cameras do have noise issues. I have it set to 'P' with a low ISO setting, and am shooting at either 5mps or 8mps with best compression settings as possible. I am anxious to see if Neat Image will clean these images up a bit.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I am anxious to print a sample image.

Thanks, Tiger

[NITeam]

I think you should use any printer settings including auto enhancements if you usually use them. The print out should anyway look better if you have already reduced noise in the image before sending it to the printer. Just make sure the image looks good on the screen first.

Vlad

[tiger926]

The image always looks good on screen, but when printed, it is still grainy. Even when I used Neat Image, plus the Adobe filter (gaussian blur or noise reduction), my images on my Picturemate Deluxe are still a bit grainy. I just printed and although better than before Neat Image (it was 96% profile match), they are still grainy, which I am assuming is noise? It drives me nuts, but I honestly don't know what else to do as I love this little printer (I am a scrapbooker), so I just live with it as it's not that noticeable at times - it really depends upon the shot though as sometimes the grain is very noticeable - it is mostly 100% on flesh tones such as faces, necks, etc.

I was really hoping Neat Image was going to clean it up totally, but there must be some other issue of which I can't figure out as all of my equipment is new - new printer, new Panasonic camera, new laptop & new software programs.

Thanks - anymore suggestions? Tiger

[NITeam]

So even if you smooth out the picture to a very high degree using the Gaussian blur filter then it is anyway grainy on paper, is this correct?

Probably there is not enough noise reduction (noise reduction amounts are not high enough in the NI filter settings). In this case, the Gaussian blur should produce a clean print out. And to achieve the same clean print out with Neat Image you most likely have to increase the noise reduction amounts.

Vlad

[tiger926]

I'm not sure how much to filter - I only applied a Gaussian blur of 1% as I didn't want to smooth out too much. What number should I go for? I compared to my photo from Costco which looks good, but it does look like they applied a high filter as well as the skin is pretty smoothed out on all of us. By the way, I only have the free version of Neat Image, so there is no way to increase the noise reduction, right?

You seem to know a lot about this, so thanks. My hubby and I are thinking that our camera has something to do with this as our Panasonic produces lots of noise - according to Internet research that I did. We shoot at ISO 80 and 'P' mode - is there anything else we can do, or do I just do it all with editing software?

Thanks so much, Tiger

[NITeam]

I'm not sure how much to filter - I only applied a Gaussian blur of 1% as I didn't want to smooth out too much. What number should I go for? I compared to my photo from Costco which looks good, but it does look like they applied a high filter as well as the skin is pretty smoothed out on all of us. By the way, I only have the free version of Neat Image, so there is no way to increase the noise reduction, right?

No, you can change the noise reduction amounts in Demo. Please use the Noise Filter Settings tab (please check the user guide for more details).

You seem to know a lot about this, so thanks. My hubby and I are thinking that our camera has something to do with this as our Panasonic produces lots of noise - according to Internet research that I did. We shoot at ISO 80 and 'P' mode - is there anything else we can do, or do I just do it all with editing software?

I haven't seen any examples of your images before and after noise reduction so I cannot advise much. If you want you can send such a pair of images to support at neatimage.com and we will check whether the filtered image is clean enough.

Vlad

[stewstryker]

You seem to know a lot about this, so thanks. My hubby and I are thinking that our camera has something to do with this as our Panasonic produces lots of noise - according to Internet research that I did. We shoot at ISO 80 and 'P' mode - is there anything else we can do, or do I just do it all with editing software?

Thanks so much, Tiger

Sounds like they have the same Panasonic as me, the FZ30 (or maybe the FZ20?).

In any event, I started using Neat Image after I got this camera and it works very well for me. I use it via the PhotoShop Elements plugin (Home+) and normally leave everything on the default setting. Only occasionally will I change a setting. I only mess with Noise Reduction Amount - Luminescent Channel, between 40 - 80%.

I hope this helps her.

Stew