Noise reduction - What's your poison?

Marcel

Marcel

Kim Jong Bod
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Marcel
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What noise reduction software do you use (and at what point in your processing).

Do you use Lightroom's inbuilt?
Photoshop CSx inbuilt?
Or do you use a standalone kit?
Or maybe a Photoshop plugin?

Noiseware?
Noise Ninja?
Neat Image?

I find it annoying that both Noiseware and Noise Ninja are still 32 bit plugins, forcing you to run CS in 32 bit mode.

So what's your preferred method of killing noise?
 
I use noiseware with 64Bit Photoshop - if i need to use it its usually the last thing done be resizing.
 
Bought a D700 :shrug:

(sorry Marcel - couldn't resist)
 
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Noiseware pro, I did a comparrison a while back and posted the results here somewhere, IMHO noiseware came out the best at the time.
 
If any I use Lightroom and normally the last thing I do
 
Imagenomic Noiseware Community Edition or sometimes just 'smart blur'
 
LR3 for me too, although I'm using less and less NR these days.
 
LR3 and last thing I do.
 
If it needs it Noiseware usually use the default setting and if required run it through a couple of times.
 
Seems Noiseware is the flavour of the month, followed by Lightroom.

I tend to use LR's inbuilt noise reduction, and like many of you, it's the last thing I do before export. However, I often then do some work afterwards in CS. Either via Photomatix for an HDR, or some curves tinkering etc.
 
LR3, normally the second thing that I do after lens correction, balanced with sharpening, and then both possibly tweaked before export as and when needed.
 
I have used Neat Image and then Noise Ninja for the past year but recently I switched to Topaz DeNoise 5. I downloaded a free trial and it was so good that I decided to purchase after less than a week - cracking piece of software IMO.
You can download the complete package for a free 1 month trial.
 
LR3 built in does a good job for me but full-frame definitely handles noise well in the first place.
 
Generally i don't as there is rarely anything i do that needs it.

But i did try lightroom's noise reduction recently and couldn't see it do anything. It wasn't until i made a crop adjustment that the noise reduction i applied became apparent. Very odd. :thinking:
 
bass_junkie83 said:
Generally i don't as there is rarely anything i do that needs it.

But i did try lightroom's noise reduction recently and couldn't see it do anything. It wasn't until i made a crop adjustment that the noise reduction i applied became apparent. Very odd. :thinking:
Click to expand...

Before cropping, did you zoom in to 1:1 before applying it? I can't really see any difference unless I'm zoomed right in.
 
No i didn't.

This is what i found was happening.


  1. Open image in LR3
  2. Pull noise reduction slider to max (no change visible)
  3. Open and close the crop tool (not actually changing the crop)
All of a sudden people looked like they were made of plastic. I could then pull the NR slider back down and the image would change to suite.
But having to go through all that is far too much faffing. Especially when the shots were so bad they'll probably end up binned anyway.
 
Ah, try zooming in first then applying things like noise reduction and sharpening etc. You see it straight away. :)
 
NI, at the point where I think I need to use it :shrug:
 
Roy C said:
I have used Neat Image and then Noise Ninja for the past year but recently I switched to Topaz DeNoise 5. I downloaded a free trial and it was so good that I decided to purchase after less than a week - cracking piece of software IMO.
You can download the complete package for a free 1 month trial.
Click to expand...

That's interesting. I use Noise Ninja, but may well look at Topaz. I don't have Lightroom. Sometimes wish I had Nikon LOL
 
I use the Noise Ninja plugin within Elements 8. I prefer the interface of NN to that of Neat Image and tend to use the brush to apply selective sharpening.
 
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