-=FlexNR=- Noise Removal Action for 1D MarkIII (now available! )

1D Mark III "FlexNR" Noise Removal Action

Last fall, POTN member - and noise reduction genius as far as I'm concerned - Pixmantra let me use a new dual stage noise reduction action he developed specifically for the 1D Mark III. He made all the custom noise profiles and wrote the actions, so I take NO credit. However. I have felt guilty getting 1-2 stops cleaner high ISO's all this time and not sharing. I routinely shoot ISO3200 now as I used to shoot ISO400 on my 1D Mark II.

EXAMPLE

• Multi-Image Handheld Pano, F2.8, ISO3200, 1/25s (the full res is amazing)
  
• F2.8, ISO5000 (ISO3200 recovered 2/3 stops), 1/30s

• 1D Mark III FlexNR v2.0 Noise Removal Action
  

Here are the original instructions written by Pix... a much better job than I did above.

>>>>>>>>> Instructions for NeatImage profiles // EOS 1D Mark III <<<<<<<<<<<

1. These profiles have been prepared with utmost attention to detail. All of them report a 99%-100% quality rating in NI, and they will typically provide a profile match rating of >=94% (when taking into account differences in White Balance, etc.)

2. They are intended to reduce (not eliminate) noise, while preserving (as much as possible) all those details that the EOS 1D3 is capable of delivering, even at its highest ISO setting. This is achieved by having each ISO level profiled twice:
(a) there is one profile describing the noise of the input image.
(b) there is a secondary profile describing describing the noise left by the first stage.
(c) the secondary profile is used to achieve further gains in Noise Reduction mostly on the Shadows, where the noise-impulse follows a non-linear relationship with respect to the noise present on the midtones and high-lights.

3. Supported converters are Lightroom (v1.4.1 and V2), Canon RIT, and Camera .JPGs.

4. Supported ISO speeds are 800,1000,1250,1600,200​0,2500,3200,4000,5000 and 6400. You achieve ISO4000 and ISO5000 in RAW by dialing +0.30EC and +0.70EC over an ISO3200 capture. On .JPGs, it is a bit more tricky, but each 16-clicks on the Levels commands (roughly) equates to a +0.30EC adjustment on your mid-to-upper tones and highlights.

5. An .XLS spreadsheet is provided as a quantitative reference of the actual performance of these profiles. Gains of up to 2 f/stops are possible with these profiles, with basically no loss of fine detail. Spectral response of noise has been carefully calibrated/rebalanced too, so the final look of the images remains similar accross supported RAW conversion engines (including .JPGs).

To make the best out of these profiles, please observe the following instructions:


1. For optimal .JPG NR performance, it is strongly recommended to load the supplied .PF2 on your camera, permantently, and do not modify any of its main parameters, especially Sharpness, Contrast and Saturation. This specially tuned .PF2 will be also very useful when using Canon's RIT for those High ISO conversions.

1. Install unzipped folder "EOS 1D MarkIII" on directory "C:\Program Files\Neat Image\PROFILES" from supplied .ZIP file. Ideally, you should have NeatImage installed (and ran from) in then "C:\Program Files\Neat Image" directory, to begin with.

2. Load supplied action ("NR - NeatImage Pro - EOS 1D MarkIII.atn") into Photoshop, which will serve as your main "control panel" for processing ISO800-ISO6400 images from LR/ACR, RIT and camera .JPGs in DualStage/DualProfile mode.

3. In order to use, open file in Photoshop, and simply choose one (1) option below any of the the "<<<< RAW ENGINE: XYZ >>>" groups (there is one separate group for files coming out from LR, another for RIT and another for .JPGs).

4. Once excution is completed, you will be able to cycle between three image states: original, Stage-1 output and Stage2 output. You can respectively cycle among them by simply pressing CTRL+F9 (Source), CTRL+F10 (Stage 1), CTRL+F10 (Stage 2).

5. Once you have chosen your preferred output, then press CTRL+F12 to finish (this is optional, but it will clean the Undo-history).

---------------
For VISTA 64

PERMANENT solution 1 (on your own):


1. Close Photoshop.

1. Manually create a "C:\Program Files\Neat Image\PROFILES" directory on your C: drive, exactly as typed here.

3. Unzip/Extract profiles on that folder.

4. Re-launch Photoshop, open your image, and call execution of desired ISO-level action within corresponding converter group.


Let me know if you have any questions.
---------------


NOTES For advanced users:

1. If you are fully familiar with Photoshop actions, you will find a group (first, on the top) called "<<<Default Settings>>>". Once again, if you know what you are doing, you will be able to control (there) working and destination Color Spaces, Bit Depths and File-formats for saving when CTRL+F12 is selected. You will be even able to control the tonal-band that Stage-2 will target (Shadows, or Shadows+Midtones), by toggling on the options provided.


2. You can have access to a fully manual, dual-staged run by choosing the action on the group "<<< RAW ENGINE: Any (manual) >>>". Please note that, in this option, you will profile an image on-the-fly, for both Stage1 and Stage 2, and will be able to choose any of the supplied presets during each stage. This will be particularly useful for exploiting the benefits of this approach for pretty much any image, including ISOs beyond 6400 and, potentially, any camera, as well.

NOTES for batch-processing users:

1. Advanced, Dual-Stage, Dual-profiled NR workout is only supported via supplied .ATN action. Therefore, you will have to pre-organize your files in ISO-folders, and then run the corresponding ISO+Converter action on each ISO-folder (for now).

2. Stage-1 batch processing is fully supported directly within NeatImage Pro. You will not need to to any of the above... but you will not get the same depth of NR on the shadows.

Thanks, Drisley! Can't wait to try this out.

I've been waiting for you to post this information. You have always been raving about it.

Sweet dris, thanks! Subscribing just in case somebody comes up with a Mac version.

Thanks for this Drisley and Pixmantra. I've been keeping an eye out for this since you first posted about it.

I just tried to download it and it was removed?

Aww, now I feel left out...

When you say that the results from your 1D2 Raws weren't good, exactly what do you mean? Are the results not as good as Raws from the 1D3, or are the results just not worth it?

Thanks Drisley for posting and a BIG thanks to Pixmantra

I thought it may be a bandwidth issue - but according to the host site, there is unlimited bandwidth.

it says to permantly apply the PF2 file on the camera..how do you do this

Nevermind..i see this is for Jpg shooting

Perry Ge wrote in post #7765551
Sweet dris, thanks! Subscribing just in case somebody comes up with a Mac version.

Same.

Subscribing to try later! Thanks a ton!

Sauk wrote in post #7766935
I just tried to download it and it was removed?

I moved it to my permanent server with no bandwidth limitations. Let me know if there are any more problems getting the actions.

rdompor wrote in post #7767097
Aww, now I feel left out...

When you say that the results from your 1D2 Raws weren't good, exactly what do you mean? Are the results not as good as Raws from the 1D3, or are the results just not worth it?

What I meant was, I tried running this action on one of my 1D2 Raws for kicks, and the results were not very good (lots of noise left behind). The action really is tailored for use on images from the 1D3 sensor.
Out of camera, the 1D3 Raws are about 1 stop better than the 1D2 Raws (more so once you start heavy processing or recovering underexposed images because 1D3 files have no banding at all). This action improves the 1D3 images by another 1+ stops, but doesn't really improve 1D2 images much (leaves some artifacting behind too).

drisley,

Any reason you can think of not to run it with the 1DSIII?