Noise Ninja

[pontifex]

Is this the software that people rave about for fixing noise/pixelation in their photos? or is it another kind of Ninja?

i downloaded a trial version but I can't see where it makes any difference. I might not be using it correctly either, so who knows?

anyone use this that could give me a quick rundown on what i need to do?

 

[Aharami]

i get great results with neat image. i dunno about noise ninja. is it better?

 

[aphex]

I prefer Noiseware over Noise Ninja...

 

[montanafan]

I've heard a lot of people say they prefer Noise Ninja, but I use Neat Image and like it. I shoot a lot of sports in low light at ISO 1600 with a digital Rebel and they would be unusable without noise reduction software.

What ISO are you using and what are your settings in Noise Ninja?

 

[pontifex]

well, the pic was at ISO 400, but it looked really bad, it was really grainy. as for noise ninja's settings, i don't know. i clicked the button to analyze the photo or whatever then ran the remove noise function.

i found a little tutorial thing in the help of noise ninja and got it to work. it did make an improvement, but too much, imo. it looked like someone just used the blur function in PS all over the pic. it looked unnatural and really photoshopped.

 

[Aharami]

post the pic here. Lets see what we can do with other noise removal software

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: Aharami
post the pic here. Lets see what we can do with other noise removal software

at work now, so you will have to wait until i get home

 

[randomlinh]

I don't think you can go too wrong w/ any of them. I use neat image... program was a little confusing to work with, but worked well. I switched over to a mac so I'm left w/ having to use the photoshop plugin... I wish aperture would allow for it's own filter plugin system... it'd simplify workflow oh so nicely.

 

[AmpedSilence]

I didn't know there were noise reduction programs! This is going to be useful.

 

[SZLiao214]

Ooooh, must look into this

 

[yhelothar]

photoshop's own noise reduction seems pretty good to me.
It was comparable to noise ninja imo.
But either way, I prefer the sharp, detailed, and noisy look over the smoothed over, plastic, noise reduction look.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Originally posted by: astroidea
photoshop's own noise reduction seems pretty good to me.
It was comparable to noise ninja imo.
But either way, I prefer the sharp, detailed, and noisy look over the smoothed over, plastic, noise reduction look.

Where is the function located? You mean the slider withing the RAW dialogue? Seems to do nothing for me.

Which noise reduction programs are free of charge?

 

[pontifex]

i tried it again today and it seems to look better now.

Original
Noise Ninja version (only have trial version of Noise Ninja right now, thats why the grid lines are there.)

 

[pontifex]

I downloaded trial versions of Neat Image and Noiseware also and tested them out.

Of the 3, based on "out of the box" tests, meaning i didn't change any settings, Noiseware was the best IMO.

Neat Image filtered
Noiseware filtered

what do you guys think?

 

[Aharami]

neat image 4.0 pro+
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/aharami/niece_nimgpro.jpg

 

[GTaudiophile]

So which are you all recommending and how much does it cost?

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: Aharami
neat image 4.0 pro+
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/aharami/niece_nimgpro.jpg

did you use default settings or did you adjust? yours seems a bit sharper than the one i did with noiseware.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
So which are you all recommending and how much does it cost?

each piece of software has different versions and different costs.
as to which one to recommend, i dunno. right now (to me) its either Noiseware or Neat Image.

 

[Aharami]

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: Aharami
neat image 4.0 pro+
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/aharami/niece_nimgpro.jpg

did you use default settings or did you adjust? yours seems a bit sharper than the one i did with noiseware.

no. i didnt use default settings. modified it a little bit to leave some sharpness in and turned on neat image's sharpening a bit. neat image is cool because it has different settings where you can sort of bring an little-out-of-focus pic into focus
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/aharami/nimgpro_sshot.JPG

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: astroidea
photoshop's own noise reduction seems pretty good to me.
It was comparable to noise ninja imo.
But either way, I prefer the sharp, detailed, and noisy look over the smoothed over, plastic, noise reduction look.

Just reduce Chroma noise. Leave the luminance noise. You'll keep the detail and get rid of the ugliness of the color noise.

To the OP: The god's honest truth is that I think the original image is the best. All the noise-reduced images have smearing in the hair.

ZV

 

[yhelothar]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt

Originally posted by: astroidea
photoshop's own noise reduction seems pretty good to me.
It was comparable to noise ninja imo.
But either way, I prefer the sharp, detailed, and noisy look over the smoothed over, plastic, noise reduction look.

Just reduce Chroma noise. Leave the luminance noise. You'll keep the detail and get rid of the ugliness of the color noise.

To the OP: The god's honest truth is that I think the original image is the best. All the noise-reduced images have smearing in the hair.

ZV

Chroma noise often makes the colors look unnatural.

I still like to use noise reduction sometimes though. I just go back and history brush over the detailed areas.

 

[gsellis]

raises hand for Neat Image... I have even used it to clean up DOF 'noise' with good results (really, just making it smoother).

And I like it because the have a video version too. I have a VirtualDub plugin manager for my editor, so I can use it directly in my NLE (Neat Video).

 

[pontifex]

how do you do this in photoshop? i have CS2

 

[AmpedSilence]

based on the posted results, i say Neat Image.

 

[yhelothar]

Originally posted by: pontifex
how do you do this in photoshop? i have CS2

Filters, noise, noise reduction