Noise reduction

Does anyone have any suggestions on noise reduction software? The only one I've heard of is Noise Ninja. Is there anything else out there besides it?

http://www.imagenomic.​com/download.aspx

Down load Noiseware Community Edition Standalone 2.6.
Its fast and free and does a excelent job. If you find you use it all the time they have a plug in version for a good price.

Neat Image works great. Cheap home version is about $25-30, and the free version isn't too bad, but I wouldn't use it for large printouts (over 8x10").

Thanks. I'll check it out tonight

I have long been a fan of Neat Image and it still does a great job but as of late I have been using Dfine from Nik Software. I think it does an even better job but it's not free (100.00).

Wow! This works great. It's easy to use and does a good job. The best part of it is the fact that it's free Thanks for the suggestion. I'll keep using it until I find something better for the same price. This picture was rather noisy when I originally processed it and now it looks drastically better. Thanks again.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

Don't forget that noise reduction will in some way end up with you losing fine detail in your shots. Use it with a light hand, or even better use masking and only apply NR to areas that actually need it.

I did re-sharpen the whole image. Is that a good way to combat the sharpness issue too? I still think this image looks sharp or are you talking about a lack of shaprness in general?

It's kind of hard to see with that shot because you've shrunk the size down to under 100K attach it. That kind of shrinkage leads to jpg compression artifacts that hide details.

You see that wrinkling around his mouth and eyes, and also along the neckline of his shirt?

When you do the noise reduction, pay attention to areas in the picture that contain fine detail (his eyebrows, fringe, and texture on the shirt). If you look at those places at a higher magnification and apply and cancel the noise reduction, you'll probably see fine detail appear and then get "smudged" from the noise reduction.

That's detail that you won't get back easily. Sure, USM will bring back the appearance of sharpening, but you won't get back what you lost. The chances are that when you look at those areas with fine detail, you won't see that much noise in those areas (it's usually more prevalent in areas of open space).

Admittedly, if you're happy with the noise reduction you're using and happy with with it, then go with it.

In photoshop, it's possible to mask the shot in such a way that the noise reduction will avoid edges and target areas where noise is most apparent.

I still have a lot to learn Thanks for the suggestions.