Maui888
journeyman
Reged: 13/01/2007
Posts: 55
Loc: Hampshire, UK.
|
|
I've been quite impressed with the results that the 'Noiseware' noise reduction package (free, community edition) did on a few shots of mine (portraits in ambient/low light) and was thinking of splashing out (US$50-60) and getting the 'pro' version.
I recalled someone mentioning Noise Ninja a while back and it seems to sell at a similar price. Wondered if anyone had played with both and found one to be significantly better than 'tother? Or is there other/superior software out there for £50 or less?
|
beejaybee
Marvin
Reged: 18/07/2007
Posts: 4976
Loc: Really Here In Name Only
|
|
PS Elements 6 is not much more than £50, the noise reduction is not too bad (maybe not in the same league as a dedicated program but definitely helpful) and the rest of the package may be useful too.
|
Maui888
journeyman
Reged: 13/01/2007
Posts: 55
Loc: Hampshire, UK.
|
|
Yeah thanks BeeJaybee. I'm running PSE 4, and I found its noise reduction a little crude (the median filter) and weak (the noise reduction filter - even cranked up to full strength and with the 'preserve detail' set to a minimum it left a great deal of noise in the image).
Compared to PSE's filtering (admittedly ver 6 may have better filtering) Noiseware did a great job so I'm happy to fork out a few quid. Actually I had been planning on moving to PSE v6, so maybe I'll do that first, see what its like before I take things further.
|
beejaybee
Marvin
Reged: 18/07/2007
Posts: 4976
Loc: Really Here In Name Only
|
|
There's one other thing you might want to look at. Specialist and around £80. My copy came in the post this morning.
"The Handbook of Astronomical Image Processing" by Richard Berry and James Burnell, which says just about everything there is to know about every type of image enhancement including noise filtering. Comes with a CD containing AIP4WIN so you don't have to do your own programming.
Published in the US by Willman-Bell Inc; ISBN 0-943396-82-4; available in the UK through SCS Astro (www.scsastro.co.uk)
But I should warn you that the book is distinctly technical, even the bits that are relevant to general photography ... if you're put off by diagrams, graphs, equations etc. by all means look elsewhere.
|
Overread
old hand
Reged: 17/01/2008
Posts: 950
Loc: UK; Suffolk
|
|
I have also come across Neat Image, here is a demo that works in a limited range (also it plugs into photoshop, but you get better options if you run the demo on its own and not using the plugin feature)
http://www.neatimage.com/
acording to this site: http://www.ophrysphotography.co.uk/pages/highiso.htm
(where I found the program) its comparable to noise ninja
--------------------
My photography blog
http://overread.wordpress.com
|
Maui888
journeyman
Reged: 13/01/2007
Posts: 55
Loc: Hampshire, UK.
|
|
Thanks Overread, thats another package I'd heard of (but carefully forgotten in order to limit my options ;-). I did a quick download and play last night and it seems very capable. Potentially the user has more control of things cf Noiseware. I'll play around a bit more before I decide. The price of the Pro version is US$59 - just the same as the others.
BeeJayBee! The name Richard Berry is a real blast from the past. I last read some of his articles ~12-14 years ago, when he was doing work with some of the first 'mass produced' CCD kits for telescopes, IIRC. The early days of digital photography, but the issues were just the same - the correct workflow sequence, use of 'cold' images, removing hot pixels etc - the good old days. I can imagine the quality and content of his book. Equations don't scare me (I laugh in the face of deconvolution), but so far as the noise reduction I need to do, I don't really have the inclination or time to pursue things much further than testing out the software mentioned. Thanks for the reference though, it bought back a few good memories I hadn't dusted off in a while ;-)
|
john_g
Pooh-bah Hoo-ha
Reged: 09/05/2007
Posts: 2536
Loc: Surrey
|
|
Here is a webpage comparing various noise reduction programs although, unfortunately, it's not been updated since February 2005. I'm sure all the software reviewed will have moved on since then, but it's still Quite Interesting.
http://www.michaelalmond.com/Articles/noise_print.html#
--------------------
John
Who could suppose that angels move the stars, or be so superstitious as to suppose that because one cannot see one's soul at the end of a microscope, it does not exist?
R.D.Laing The Politics Of Experience
http://www.flickr.com/photos/john_gass
|
Fen
BAD WOLF
Reged: 12/03/2002
Posts: 20926
Loc: Currently Unknown!
|
|
I've used them both and I found that the Ninja did a better job without too much softening of the image.
There used to be a download demo version from the website, give it a try if it's still available 
--------------------
Fen .......... My Galleries - My Blog - My Flickr
|
OneTen
'Two Breakfasts'
Reged: 23/06/2003
Posts: 2540
Loc: Devon
|
|
I've been using the demos of Neat Image and NoiseNinja. My preference was definately for Ninja, I like the interface better, great results and theres a paintbrush removal tool to partially undo some of the adjustment. I paid for the license for Ninja last week and it works stand alone or as a Filter in PS Elements 5.
--------------------
Richard .......... My Website - My Blog - My Flickr
|
Maui888
journeyman
Reged: 13/01/2007
Posts: 55
Loc: Hampshire, UK.
|
|
Thanks for the feedback guys (and lady!). Seems the votes are stacking up for Noise Ninja - the only package I haven't demo-ed! Probably won't be able to do anything until the weekend, but will let you know how I get on.
|
Lounge Lizard
Old Wrinkly
Reged: 17/01/2004
Posts: 17885
Loc: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
|
|
I never tried Ninja, only Noiseware and NeatImage. I shelled out for Noiseware because it was just as good as NeatImage but a lot faster and more convenient to use. However, I won't be trying Ninja since I seldom get a problem with noise these days.
--------------------
Lounge Lizard
Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.
Winston Churchill
|
ermintrude
Hinkypuff
Reged: 30/06/2003
Posts: 12531
Loc: London, UK
|
|
Another vote for Noise Ninja 
--------------------
   
|
willie45
old hand
Reged: 08/05/2006
Posts: 752
|
|
I have noise ninja too, but I seem to recollect that when I tried a few of them and compared them to each other, the differences were pretty small. A matter of preference for ease of use and the interface was what swayed me, not the quality of the finished product as such
Willie
|
Maui888
journeyman
Reged: 13/01/2007
Posts: 55
Loc: Hampshire, UK.
|
|
Ok, no surprises folks... I've now trialled all the packages - Noise Ninja, Noiseware, Neat Image and Raw Therapee... and the winner is... Noise Ninja!!! .. with Noiseware a close runner up.
All the programs seem capable of very similar noise reduction performance - the difference is in how its achieved. For anyone interested in the details...
Noiseware will automatically 'noise profile' the image you load, and then set the appropriate noise corrections needed (for luminance, chrominance channels - and the user can specify optional sharpening too). You can apply the correction, and then manually redo with different noise reductions if the automatic settings weren't to your taste. Easy peasy, intuitive and good results.
Neat Image and Noise Ninja both take similar albeit slightly more technical approaches. They can utilise camera (or scanner) specific noise profiles. Users are encouraged to print out a test image and use it to come up with a noise profile for their specific camera (at different equiv ASA/ISO's). If you can't be bothered doing this (I couldn't), you can either use a generic profile (available for most common DSLRs on their websites), or get the program to assess the image you're working on and come up with a profile from that. I didn't find any clear advantage using either of these methods. The amount of noise reduction applied will always be a personal taste issue and I ended up 'tweaking' in both cases.
Noise Ninja won out for me because it had a better user interface. You can easily view the image in terms of its luminance and chrominance channels and apply/tweak the noise reductions appropriately. And I liked the 'Undo brush' feature - having 'noise reduced' an image you can brush over areas to get back the original image - I used it to bring back a little (eye) detail in the portrait shots I was looking at. Yes, this could be done in other ways, with Photoshop etc, but its quick and convenient for some applications.
I haven't really mentioned RawTherapee. I put this to one side at an early stage - not because its noise reduction wasn't any good, but because it does so many other things well besides that (eg RAW file conversion, tone tweaking, perpective correction etc). And of course its free (users are encouraged to make a donation if they find it useful). So its really a different beast.
Ninja, Neat and Noiseware all come in several flavours depending on whether you want a plug-in for Photoshop/Elements or a stand alone program. Also dependent on what featureset you need (ie batch processing, support for 16 bit/channel image formats etc). Prices seem roughly comparable.
Noiseware has a separate 'Portraiture' version tailored for portraits if thats what you're into. I think they're into recycling too - they have a 'RealGrain' version that introduces film grain noise into images - maybe its the noise they've collected with their other packages
|
Previous
Index
Next
Threaded
Edit
Reply
Quote
