Noise reduction lightroom

rookies

rookies

Suspended / Banned
Messages
8,064
Name
Andrew
Edit My Images
No
What do you guys think of noise reduction in Lightroom. The one in aperture is useless
 
Greatly improved in LR4
 
I am trying it out at the moment and finding it pretty good and think I like the processing part of it much better than Aperture
 
gnirtS said:
It's generally very good although i can't see why it hasn't got a masking option like sharpening has.

[..]
Click to expand...

That's because it is for applying capture sharpening. Some creative sharpening can be applied with the adjustment brush and output sharpening is applied either on export or upon printing.

Anthony.
 
gnirtS said:
Selective NR would be very handy in a way similar to layers for me. Its the main reason i still have to use PS - layers with selective levels of NR.
Click to expand...

Are you using Lightroom? Certainly in 4.xx the NR capabilities are pretty good. You may be familiar with the various controls/sliders and what the do, but if not, it is well worth seeking out the Luminous Landscape videos or those by George Jardine (I am sure there are many others) which describe how capture sharpening and NR can be carefully controlled thus suiting the frequency range of an image.

Anthony.
 
Yep im using 4.x and its fine for the majority of my photos. However the NR whilst good is not as good as Noiseware or some of the PS plugins in terms of customisation especially when you factor in you can use layers and be very selective about its use.
It's good but its not "the best" yet for me.
 
gnirtS said:
Yep im using 4.x and its fine for the majority of my photos. However the NR whilst good is not as good as Noiseware or some of the PS plugins in terms of customisation especially when you factor in you can use layers and be very selective about its use.
It's good but its not "the best" yet for me.
Click to expand...

I've been going from Lightroom to CS2 to do noise reduction (with the flexibility of layers and masks) and sharpening.

In Lightroom I've recently started experimenting with noise reduction on the adjustment brush (which can be plus or minus) to vary the amount of noise reduction applied to different areas. In terms of defining where the noise reduction gets applied, I find the adjustment brush easier and quicker to use than CS2 masks. As to exactly what type of noise reduction gets applied, Lightroom obviously doesn't have the sophistication of Noiseware, but for my part I don't really use those sophisticated facilities.

I have been doing some comparisons today using ISO 1600 images, which are fairly noisy on my camera, especially in shadow/background areas. The comparisons were between (a) using Lightroom for everything up to and including noise reduction, and then handing the image over to CS2 for output sharpening (I just can't get what I want out of Lightroom for output sharpening) versus (b) passing the image over to CS2 for noise reduction (apart from Lightroom's standard input (colour) noise reduction) and sharpening.

As I experiment more with Lightroom, I'm beginning to get results that seem to match what I can get with Noiseware. Don't know how far I can take this, and whether I will be able to dispense with Noiseware entirely, but I'm getting more out of Lightroom than I thought previously possible. Of course, for anyone who is making significant use of the more sophisticated facilities of Noiseware (or similar), then specialist noise reduction software will probably continue to be a necessity no matter how good you get with Lightroom's noise reduction.
 
GardenersHelper said:
I've been going from Lightroom to CS2 to do noise reduction (with the flexibility of layers and masks) and sharpening.

In Lightroom I've recently started experimenting with noise reduction on the adjustment brush (which can be plus or minus) to vary the amount of noise reduction applied to different areas. In terms of defining where the noise reduction gets applied, I find the adjustment brush easier and quicker to use than CS2 masks. As to exactly what type of noise reduction gets applied, Lightroom obviously doesn't have the sophistication of Noiseware, but for my part I don't really use those sophisticated facilities.

I have been doing some comparisons today using ISO 1600 images, which are fairly noisy on my camera, especially in shadow/background areas. The comparisons were between (a) using Lightroom for everything up to and including noise reduction, and then handing the image over to CS2 for output sharpening (I just can't get what I want out of Lightroom for output sharpening) versus (b) passing the image over to CS2 for noise reduction (apart from Lightroom's standard input (colour) noise reduction) and sharpening.

As I experiment more with Lightroom, I'm beginning to get results that seem to match what I can get with Noiseware. Don't know how far I can take this, and whether I will be able to dispense with Noiseware entirely, but I'm getting more out of Lightroom than I thought previously possible. Of course, for anyone who is making significant use of the more sophisticated facilities of Noiseware (or similar), then specialist noise reduction software will probably continue to be a necessity no matter how good you get with Lightroom's noise reduction.
Click to expand...

Is this the noiseware ur referring to and is it that good ?

http://imagenomic.com/nw.aspx
 
rookies said:
Is this the noiseware ur referring to and is it that good ?

http://imagenomic.com/nw.aspx
Click to expand...

That is the one, although I am using an earlier version.

Noiseware is one of several specialist noise reduction programs that include Neatimage, Nik Dfine, Topaz DeNoise and Smart Image Denoiser.

I think all of them provide a free trial version that you can download and use for a week or two to try it out. Noiseware has a free version that is not time limited like the trial versions, but it does have limited functionality.

Some of these are standalone programs (Smart Image Denoiser is a standalone program I think). Some of them only work as plugins for programs like Photoshop (Neatimage is like this I think). Some will work as standalone programs or plugins.

I have used Noiseware quite a lot, and briefly tried Nik Dfine and Topaz DeNoise. They all seem pretty good. Do bear in mind though that as these programs remove noise they also remove detail. The more noise you remove, the more detail you lose.

Also bear in mind that photo editing programs like Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom, Paintshop Pro, Paint.net and the GIMP all have noise reduction facilities, so you may not need a specialised noise reduction program.
 
rookies said:
Is this the noiseware ur referring to and is it that good ?

http://imagenomic.com/nw.aspx
Click to expand...

I've used that. IT's good, but not so much better than LR that I think it would be worth spending $80 on.

LR4 does a fantastic job if you get the balance between NR and detail just right.

I'm afraid I'm going to drag out my old D800 ISO test images out again....

ISO6400
7867804990_9dab4a0674_c.jpg


Cropped in...

No noise reduction
A6Fcf.jpg


LR4 noise reduction.
EgmHp.jpg


I'm happy with that and don't feel the need to search out a third party alternative.
 
I've never used Aperture so I don't know how good that is but the time I've spent using LR4 has got me some pleasing results. I guess its like anything, you will almost certainly get better results in photoshop with a specialist program but how much better is a diminishing result given the extra time / money you need.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top