which should I buy?
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Provencalkid
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Thu Jul 19, 2007 9:19 am
which should I buy?
I need to sharpen and de-noise a batch of JPEG images; in addition, I am about to become the owner of a Pentax that shoots in Raw. I only have 2 computers and I never need to use them at the same time; I work with Photoshop CS3 extended: Which version of NI is best for me? Is there any reason for me not to buy the cheapest one? What do I get if I buy one of the more expensive versions?
If you can afford processing less than 50 images at a time, using the standalone version of Neat Image only, and producing only 8-bit (24-bit) images then you can do with the least expensive Home edition.
If you want to batch process more than 50 images at a time, then you need either Pro or Pro+ edition.
If you want to work with 16-bit images (RAW files are often converted to 16-bit RGB images), then you need either Pro or Pro+ edition.
If you want to use Neat Image within a Photoshop workflow, then you need either Home+ or Pro+ edition (they include the plug-in for Photoshop).
If you want to use Neat Image plug-in in Photoshop actions (for example, to do Photoshop-based batching) then you need Pro+ edition.
You only need a single-user license for non-simultaneous use of Neat Image on two computers.
Hope this helps.
Vlad
If you want to batch process more than 50 images at a time, then you need either Pro or Pro+ edition.
If you want to work with 16-bit images (RAW files are often converted to 16-bit RGB images), then you need either Pro or Pro+ edition.
If you want to use Neat Image within a Photoshop workflow, then you need either Home+ or Pro+ edition (they include the plug-in for Photoshop).
If you want to use Neat Image plug-in in Photoshop actions (for example, to do Photoshop-based batching) then you need Pro+ edition.
You only need a single-user license for non-simultaneous use of Neat Image on two computers.
Hope this helps.
Vlad
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Provencalkid
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Thu Jul 19, 2007 9:19 am
what should I buy
Well, that sort of helps. I definitely do not need to work more than 50 images at a time.
But when I get my new Pentax, which shoots in RAW, and then want to play with my images in Photoshop, can I not do that in the Home edition? How about the Home edition at the second price level; i.e., not the cheapest?
But when I get my new Pentax, which shoots in RAW, and then want to play with my images in Photoshop, can I not do that in the Home edition? How about the Home edition at the second price level; i.e., not the cheapest?
If you work in RAW you may want Pro+. Most RAW formats are actually 12 bits or more. Photoshop will render them to 8-bit or 16-bit (up to you). The 8-bit you lose some of the color precision, but most output formats people can use are 8-bit. The difference comes in when you have to mess around with the color or contrast much (after the RAW import screen). In 16-bit mode you can do much smoother manipulations of the image data. As I said though, this is only important if you're drasticly altering the color channels (including saturation/hue) or the contrast. It's really up to you and what you want to do. However I'll add that almost every image that I am making a print of goes through Neat Image for noise reduction and Focus Magic for sharpening. I've tried several different noise reduction packages and for most types of noise Neat Image wins hands down. The only caveat I'd mention is it doesn't handle banding noise as a special case from what I can see, but luckily my need to reduce that is rare.