I've now used Noiseware, Noise Ninja and Neat Image and am thrilled with all three. I'm leaning towards Neat Image because of its controls and ease of use, but I'm curious about activation. I have three computers: a notebook, a netbook and a desktop (which I use with Vista). I also have Photoshop 7 and CE (8), as well as Elements 7, which I bought because I thought it would give me faster speed. It doesn't.
I don't pirate software, but I want something I can use on all three computers. Two of them don't have Internet connections, and I wondered if that will be a problem. I also don't know whether my images should be darkened, lightened, contrast and saturation-adjusted before removing the noise or afterwards? (My guess would be afterwards.)
Additionally, do I gain anything from the standalone program if I use Photoshop programs?
I downloaded the profiles for my particular camera, the [b][color=darkblue]Lumix DMC-TZ5[/color][/b] (a pretty noisy camera), and installed them. I tested the ISO 1600 profile against Noise Ninja's automatic profiling and the effects were (as far as I can tell) dead even. I realize that results onscreen are not always the same on prints, but if two images look about dead even onscreen, can I expect them to be pretty even in printing? The process of editing seems easier in Neat Image, but does it offer any substantial advantages over Noiseware and Noise Ninja other than controls?
Thanks.
Software Activation
Regarding the workflow, I recommend to reduce noise before doing other post-processing, to not aggravate the noise and not make it more difficult to reduce. So, I recommend to use Neat Image as the first step in a workflow.
The standalone program allows you to easily process batches of images. Batching can be done in Photoshop too, but that involves a bit more tricky procedure.
Regarding using pre-built profiles, they usually produce good results, but it is generally better to do one of the following:
- use automatic profiling workflow
or
- build your own set of profiles for your camera and then reuse them to process images produces by your camera; every camera may be a bit different (its settings may be different too), so it is always better to build your own set as compared with using a set produced by someone else; someone else's set is just a good starting point.
Regarding the filtration quality that you evaluate using some test image, I recommend to build a new profile using that test image itself and then look into fine image details that should be preserved by the noise filter when it reduces the noise around those details. Neat Image's noise reduction filter is stronger in that area (which is in fact the most important area for a noise reduction filter) - preserving the actual details in denoised image. Please look closely into those details and you will see that yourself. Of course, there are situations when fine details are not important, so it all depends on your actual requirements.
Thank you,
Vlad
The standalone program allows you to easily process batches of images. Batching can be done in Photoshop too, but that involves a bit more tricky procedure.
Regarding using pre-built profiles, they usually produce good results, but it is generally better to do one of the following:
- use automatic profiling workflow
or
- build your own set of profiles for your camera and then reuse them to process images produces by your camera; every camera may be a bit different (its settings may be different too), so it is always better to build your own set as compared with using a set produced by someone else; someone else's set is just a good starting point.
Regarding the filtration quality that you evaluate using some test image, I recommend to build a new profile using that test image itself and then look into fine image details that should be preserved by the noise filter when it reduces the noise around those details. Neat Image's noise reduction filter is stronger in that area (which is in fact the most important area for a noise reduction filter) - preserving the actual details in denoised image. Please look closely into those details and you will see that yourself. Of course, there are situations when fine details are not important, so it all depends on your actual requirements.
Thank you,
Vlad
