Noise Reduction Software

travischance · August 24, 2011

I've been using the noise reduction tools in CS4 & have not been thrilled with the results. There are a multitude of reviews on the web & truthfully, it all begins to sound the same after one has read review after review. It appears that no one tool does everything the best! What are your experiences? If you had to choose one, which would it be (Noise Ninja, Noiseware Pro, Neat Image, Nik Dfine or Topaz Denoise)?

The ideal software for me would combine very good to great reduction, work as a CS4 plug-in & have the ability to process batch images quickly. From what I've found thus far, it appears that Topaz Denoise is excellent at noise reduction quality but was really slow as well. Additionally, Noiseware seemed to have a good mix of both quality & speed. Thank you in advance for your time....

anonymouscuban · August 24, 2011

Lightroom 3 has the best NR tool there is. Hands down.

pathfinder · August 24, 2011

Travis, I agree that the noise reduction tools in CS4 are not very capable. There are techniques you can use in CS4, blurring only the blue channel for a start, but you either have to do a lot of work, and still not a very good file, unless you are willing to spend a great deal of further effort in native CS4 - and like you, I am just not.

I have tried all most of the available plug ins at one time or another. Today, for me, Noiseware wins hands down. I still use CS4 ( in OS X ) mostly so I can make use of Noiseware.

I do most of my routine RAW processing in LR3 ( or ACR 6+ same engine ) , and its noise reduction is much better than CS4 ever was. But I still need more noise control at times, and NoiseWare is where I prefer to go. I do have DeNoise 5 in CS5 as well, and I usually prefer the file that has been through NoiseWare, over DeNoise 5. DeNoise 5 is better than LR3 only, but not sufficient for me.

The thing I like about NoiseWare is that it requires very little thought or effort on my part - just check default, nighttime, landscape or portrait - click the box, it's is just that is easy, and bang I am done. With DeNoise 5 I have to choose the amount and just fiddle around more with it, and I prefer the look I get from NoiseWare. I have all the plug ins from Tpoaz, and I like them, especially Topaz Adjust, but DeNoise just does not thrill me as much.

Make a copy of your image on a new layer, and then do your noise reduction on the layer, so you can adjust the blend, or mask out where you do not want noise processed.

I think Richard feels as I do about noise reduction also.

For many of my images, only the sky gets run through NoiseWare, to give me that smooth creamy sky I prefer.

Richard · August 24, 2011

pathfinder wrote: »

I think Richard feels as I do about noise reduction also.

Yep. ACR 6 / LR 3 does a very competent job, but when you really have a problem, Noiseware Pro solves it fast.

travischance · August 24, 2011

I downloaded the free trials of both Topaz DeNoise & Imagenomic Noiseware & the results were about the same; excellent. The Topaz version was extremely slooooooow (roughly 20 seconds to process) but I really liked how I could choose the type of image + noise (jpeg moderate, RAW moderate). It is a 30-day trial but the time to process could become an issue.

Then there's Noiseware & boy was it not only quick, but painlesss! I'm not sure why they wouldn't allow a free trial without those stupid gridlines but the results too were very impressive. I'm torn because I can see more detail with Topaz but really like the speed of Noiseware. The following images were processed using both (7D f8 @ 1/20 ISO 3200):

#1
Noiseware

#2
DeNoise

pathfinder · August 24, 2011

That was an interesting video, Travis.

Try them both and come back with your opinion.

I think some images respond better than others to a specific software rendering.

travischance · August 24, 2011

pathfinder wrote: »

That was an interesting video, Travis.

Try them both and come back with your opinion.

I think some images respond better than others to a specific software rendering.

Just posted images a few seconds ago.

MarkR · August 25, 2011

There are definite advantages to doing NR in the raw stage of the pipeline. And the Adobe Camera Raw bundled in CS5 and LR3 is definitely A-list material.

For the rare occassions where I need more control, I use Topaz Denoise. However, I'll freely admit that was as much a result of some special pricing on Topaz Labs' part. (The fact that they have yet to charge me for a software upgrade is another nice bonus!)

If you go with DeNoise, check out the Detailed Overview (part 1 and 2) videos hosted here: http://www.topazlabs.com/tutorials/denoise.html It was a definite "lightbulb moment" for me about how to more optimally approach noise removal in DeNoise.

And check out this blog post from Topaz Labs: http://www.topazlabs.com/blog/image-noise-reduction-workflow-tip/

travischance · August 25, 2011

That was an amazing tutorial of noise reduction & worth the 20 total minutes. I really like how much it made a difference & it seems Topaz has a great product. However, I'm really focused on sports & there is no way possible I'd be able to invest that amount of time on that many images. Even if I were to create an action, it would take at least an hour to apply NR to say 50 images. It's a no brainer when you have a few high ISO images to process. It's still a consideration though!

Noiseware had a nice video tutorial (http://imagenomic.cachefly.net/NW1g/NW1g.html) as well & while not as intuitive as DeNoise, seemed to produce great results. For the images I've posted above, they were done at the default. Now I'm not sure which way I'm going!

arodney · August 25, 2011

Whenever possible, deal with noise when you render the raw data. As suggested, Lightroom or ACR (both the same in this context) are your first stop to reducing noise among other issues.
IF you have existing rendered images (or you haven’t yet learned to shoot raw and have piles of noise in JPEG), I find that Noiseware does a very good job with just its default settings. Of course there are a zillion sliders if you want to futz around.

travischance · August 25, 2011

arodney wrote: »

Whenever possible, deal with noise when you render the raw data. As suggested, Lightroom or ACR (both the same in this context) are your first stop to reducing noise among other issues.
IF you have existing rendered images (or you haven’t yet learned to shoot raw and have piles of noise in JPEG), I find that Noiseware does a very good job with just its default settings. Of course there are a zillion sliders if you want to futz around.

Thanks. Previously, I'd applied NR after other adjustments had been made & was never thrilled with the results even at ISO 1000. I always shoot RAW & will be re-editing most of my noisier images. Thanks.

canon400d · August 25, 2011

travischance wrote: »

Thanks. Previously, I'd applied NR after other adjustments had been made & was never thrilled with the results even at ISO 1000. I always shoot RAW & will be re-editing most of my noisier images. Thanks.

I have always used Noiseware Community Edition and it was free. Can anyone tell me if Noiseware is better?
Cheers
Bob

MarkR · August 25, 2011

canon400d wrote: »

I have always used Noiseware Community Edition and it was free. Can anyone tell me if Noiseware is better?
Cheers
Bob

IIRC, the free Community Edition strips the EXIF. :nono

canon400d · August 25, 2011

MarkR wrote: »

IIRC, the free Community Edition strips the EXIF. :nono

Yes that is quite correct.
Cheers
Bob

BinaryFx · August 25, 2011

MarkR wrote: »

IIRC, the free Community Edition strips the EXIF. :nono

Mark, I always used to run it on a dupe of the original. I would then layer the NCE file over the top of the original file (perhaps using maks or reduced opacity) - which preserved the metadata. What was more of a concern, was that NCE would only save out JPEG's if I recall correctly.

Stephen Marsh

ziggy53 · August 25, 2011

I am compelled to add a plug for Neat Image noise reduction software. They have a very comprehensive NR algorithm and a number of products to meet many needs. (Win/Mac/Linux versions too.)

IMO it's also important to learn how to use NR software in layers in Photoshop with different blending techniques for the very best results, when necessary. (You can apply different levels of NR to different tone densities and different color channels in Neat Image, but ultimately the layered approach in Photoshop gives more control.)

Neat Image also has excellent noise control for scanned images, when that matters.

Do be aware that their "demo/trial" version is ancient code and not representative of the commercial product (IMO).

http://www.neatimage.com/

canon400d · August 28, 2011

ziggy53 wrote: »

I am compelled to add a plug for Neat Image noise reduction software. They have a very comprehensive NR algorithm and a number of products to meet many needs. (Win/Mac/Linux versions too.)

IMO it's also important to learn how to use NR software in layers in Photoshop with different blending techniques for the very best results, when necessary. (You can apply different levels of NR to different tone densities and different color channels in Neat Image, but ultimately the layered approach in Photoshop gives more control.)

Neat Image also has excellent noise control for scanned images, when that matters.

Do be aware that their "demo/trial" version is ancient code and not representative of the commercial product (IMO).

http://www.neatimage.com/

Hi Pathfinder
I looked at your first entry on this post about Noiseware and as you will see I was advised to use Noiseware Community Edition. Yes this does strip the Exif. However in view of what you have said and Richard in total agreeance. I have purchased Noiseware. I was wondering if you had any advice for me on using this software. Digressing, I have received the battery pack and it is spot on. A big thanks.
Cheers
Bob

pathfinder · August 28, 2011

I am glad the battery pack is working out, Bob.

To denoise just a sky, you can select the sky with a Quick Mask by typing "Q" and then painting over the sky to select it, or you can use the Color Select tool, or the Quick Selection Tool ( which is my first choice for most selections today ). You can refine the edge of your selection with the Refine Edge command. YOu may want to save your selection at this time if you will be using it again later by typing Selection -> Save Selection, so that is it not lost and you do not have to redoe all the selection work a second time.

Now you need to hit CTRL-J to duplicate your selection on a new layer. Make sure your new layer is selected in the Layers palette, and then run NoiseWare or whatever you want to use to denoise on this layer. After the plug in has run, and you have adjusted the Opacity slider to taste, hit Comand-Optio-Shift-E ( Mac) or CTRL-Alt- Shift-E ( Win ) to create a new final layer that is created by what all is below it in the Layers palette. And you have denoised a selected portion of your image. You can do this to any part of the image you can select. YOu could even add noise to a selection by using Filter -> Noise -> Add Noise on a selection also. Noise can b added to gradient blends to smooth out any banding that occurs in the gradient blend step..

canon400d · August 29, 2011

pathfinder wrote: »

I am glad the battery pack is working out, Bob.

To denoise just a sky, you can select the sky with a Quick Mask by typing "Q" and then painting over the sky to select it, or you can use the Color Select tool, or the Quick Selection Tool ( which is my first choice for most selections today ). You can refine the edge of your selection with the Refine Edge command. YOu may want to save your selection at this time if you will be using it again later by typing Selection -> Save Selection, so that is it not lost and you do not have to redoe all the selection work a second time.

Now you need to hit CTRL-J to duplicate your selection on a new layer. Make sure your new layer is selected in the Layers palette, and then run NoiseWare or whatever you want to use to denoise on this layer. After the plug in has run, and you have adjusted the Opacity slider to taste, hit Comand-Optio-Shift-E ( Mac) or CTRL-Alt- Shift-E ( Win ) to create a new final layer that is created by what all is below it in the Layers palette. And you have denoised a selected portion of your image. You can do this to any part of the image you can select. YOu could even add noise to a selection by using Filter -> Noise -> Add Noise on a selection also. Noise can b added to gradient blends to smooth out any banding that occurs in the gradient blend step..

Those instructions are first class and thanks once again.
Cheers
Bob

paddler4 · August 30, 2011

Not to complicate things, but when I faced this choice several years ago, I opted for noise ninja and have been satisfied. I forget now most of the differences I found. However, since the upgrade to LR 3, I have very rarely needed it. LR 3 is pretty good.

Noise Reduction Software

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