Noise reduction

[alan sh]

I had always been a bit sceptical about noise reduction s/w. Then I accidently left my 20D in 3200ISO mode so I needed to try something. I looked at Noise Ninja - not that good (for me) and then found Noiseware. Here is an example of before and after (each 100% crops). I know I overdid the noise reduction, but I was impressed !

The jpegs are well compressed (to show them here) - but I hope you get the idea.

Alan

[steven]

It has removed the noise but to me it has made the faces look painted on. Like they have a layer of makeup on.

Don't get me wrong, the software has done a wonderfull job and in that situration I would think about using it. But the photos just have that not quite "real" feel.

[Scottes]

I agree with steven but it's just a matter of getting used to the software. You'll find that there's a point where most of the noise gets removed while still retaining a good look to the image. It just takes a bit of experiementing and experience. Noise Reduction is just another skill to learn in this world of ours...

[alan sh]

Sure - I said I had overdone it. This was just an example to show that high noise photos are not to be thrown out.

Yet another skill for me to learn.

Alan

[Jesper]

Yes, you've overdone it..... :)

I use Neat Image (the Pro+ version, which works as a Photoshop plug-in) and it's really great! To get the best results, some careful tweaking of the parameters is necessary, but it can make high ISO photos MUCH better.

[Tom W]

Sure - I said I had overdone it. This was just an example to show that high noise photos are not to be thrown out.

Yet another skill for me to learn.

Alan

Perhaps a bit. It looks as though you not only reduced the noise, but shaved your subject as well. I wish I could do that before work in the morning. :)

[steven]

Perhaps a bit. It looks as though you not only reduced the noise, but shaved your subject as well. I wish I could do that before work in the morning. :)
Looks like some eye brow plucking occured as well:lol:

[Scottes]

I wish I could do that before work in the morning.
Don't bother. I tried Noise Ninja on my face one morning and was left with a blank expression.

[Bodryn]

It probably goes without saying that one thing to keep in mind is to use noise reduction only on selected areas (e.g., sky) where the noise is really obvious and which doesn't have a lot of detail to be lost.

[Scottes]

It probably goes without saying that one thing to keep in mind is to use noise reduction only on selected areas (e.g., sky) where the noise is really obvious and which doesn't have a lot of detail to be lost. Definitely. I recently wrote a tutorial on using masks for this purpose, as did one of our resident PS gurus, gmitchel. My tutorial can be found here (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=48929) and gmitchel's is here (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=53707).