Noise Reduction and Unsharp Mask

[markubig]

Noise Reduction removes noise, but then makes the picture kinda blurry, so if I run USM (and my very basic understanding of USM is that it adds noise to sharpen the picture), am I just working in circles?

Does somebody have a good workflow to reduce noise, but keep the picture sharp?

Thanks!!

[gramps]

I'm not close to being an expert but I think the main think to keep in mind is not to overdo either of the processes. You sorta gotta sneek up on the best results.

[F1_Fan]

I remove noise with NeatImage then hit it with USM (100/0.3/0, as a starting point). Sharpening a noisy image just gives a really noisy image.

I don't believe it's correct to say USM adds noise. USM is all about edge contrast. Apply USM to a noisy image and it'll find lots of extra "edges".

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/understanding-usm.shtml

[chris.bailey]

USM will not add noise but will make any noise that is present more visible. If you overdo the noise reduction to the point where it is blurry, you have gone too far. One option is to apply a mask and then only apply the noise reduction to the areas where is is noticeable i.e. sky and solid colours, as these areas have little detail anyway, if they do blur a bit, you dont notice it. You can also selectively sharpen and for portraits it is not unusual to apply a general level of sharpening and then selectively sharpen the eyes and any other key features.

[gmitchel]

I suggest you use a surface mask (just an inverted edge mask used for USM sharpening) for noise removal.

If you limit noise removal to the surfaces and sharpening to the edges, you'll likely have much better results.

I have a Tip of the Week on my site that demonstrates the technique:

http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com/DigitalDarkroom/TipOfTheWeek/2005JAN10/2005JAN10.htm

Cheers,

Mitch

[Scottes]

Mitch's tutorial is what you want. I wrote one, too, but his is better. :-(

:-)

[pcasciola]

Noise Ninja's newest plug-in applies USM at the same time it does it's noise reduction. It works extremely well.

[Redbird_xo]

Mitch's tutorial is what you want. I wrote one, too, but his is better. :-(

:-)

I'll take both, thank you.

[markubig]

I suggest you use a surface mask (just an inverted edge mask used for USM sharpening) for noise removal.

If you limit noise removal to the surfaces and sharpening to the edges, you'll likely have much better results.

I have a Tip of the Week on my site that demonstrates the technique:

http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com/DigitalDarkroom/TipOfTheWeek/2005JAN10/2005JAN10.htm

Cheers,

Mitch

Mitch, thanks for the link . . . I read it a few times, but I think I understand the basic gist . . . (please correct me if I am wrong in any of this)

You need an edge mask to maximize USM
You need a surface mask (inverse of edge mask) to maximize Noise Reduction
From what I gathered, your TLR Sharpening Toolkit can help me generate an edge mask. You mentioned that these actions are for Photoshop CS . . . are they compatible with Photoshop Elements 3.0?

Can I generate an edge mask without the toolkit? Is it something that a novice PS user can do?

Thank you all for your helpful responses.

[markubig]

Noise Ninja's newest plug-in applies USM at the same time it does it's noise reduction. It works extremely well.

Thanks Phil . . . are NR plugins such as Noise Ninja and Neat Image compatible w/ RAW format? I like to post process on the RAW photo and then save the final copy to JPEG/TIFF . . . does that make a difference?

[pcasciola]

I'm not aware of any noise reduction that works directly on RAWs. I convert my aRGB RAWs to 16 bit aRGB PSDs using ACR 2.4 in Photoshop CS, do all my post processing (noise reduction, USM, etc.), and then convert to 8 bit sRGB only if I need to save as JPEG.

[robertwgross]

I convert RAW to TIF, then run Neat Image on the TIF.

Some of the generic color noise reduction features inside editor software is poor. The specialized programs seem to do a lot better, but you pay something for them.

---Bob Gross---

[mbze430]

Bibble has Noise reduction in the simple form for RAW workflow.

[Scottes]

Marku, Redbird,

My tutorial is at http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=48929 - be warned that it's quite a large download because of all the screen captures.

This is a step-by-step of one way to create a mask to aid with noise reduction. It's not an action so it should be compatible with Elements. Actually it should be compatible with any image editor that can create a mask, so Paint Shop, too.