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For a better noise reduction


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Hi there,

 

I was checking some random snaps taken the other night and, to my surprise, I realized that the noise reduction which so far worked well for my needs, let me down on this task.

 

Here are some samples:

 

ACR Noise Reduction 100% zoom

ACR_Noise_Reduction_100.png

 

And now, Develop Persona Noise Reduction, 100% zoom:

AP_Noise_Reduction_100.png

 

Keep an eye on those edges, because now it's getting interesting.

 

Photoshop Vibrance:

PS_Vibrance.png

 

AP Vibrance:

AP_Vibrance.png

 

PS 100% zoom:

PS_Vibrance_100.png

 

AP 100% zoom:

AP_Vibrance_100.png

 

On top of the edges issue, there's also a pattern in the sky which is badly affecting the final result.

Andrew
-
Win10 x64 AMD Threadripper 1950x, 64GB, 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD + 2TB, dual GTX 1080ti
Dual Monitor Dell Ultra HD 4k P2715Q 27-Inch

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Totally.

 

Just wanted to point this out with the hope that they will consider some improvement in this area - unless they already are :)

Andrew
-
Win10 x64 AMD Threadripper 1950x, 64GB, 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD + 2TB, dual GTX 1080ti
Dual Monitor Dell Ultra HD 4k P2715Q 27-Inch

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Nik is great - especially for the price - but if you really want superlative results, I'd strongly recommend Topaz DeNoise.

 

Or - what I do now - Raw conversion with Photo Ninja: I've literally not used DeNoise once since I made Photo Ninja my default Raw converter.

Keith Reeder

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Nik is great - especially for the price - but if you really want superlative results, I'd strongly recommend Topaz DeNoise.

 

... or ABSoft NeatImage https://ni.neatvideo.com/

 

I should add, I've never used Topaz DeNoise (I do have other Topaz plugins) because I am a long-time user of NeatImage and NeatVideo and find them both excellent.

 

Jeff

Win 10 Pro, i7 6700K, 32Gb RAM, NVidia GTX1660 Ti and Intel HD530 Graphics

Long-time user of Serif products, chiefly PagePlus and PhotoPlus, but also WebPlus, CraftArtistProfessional and DrawPlus.  Delighted to be using Affinity Designer, Photo, and now Publisher, version 1 and now version 2.

iPad Pro (12.9") (iOS 17.4) running Affinity Photo and Designer version 1 and all three version 2 apps.

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Neat image 8 was releases some time ago. In my mind, huge improvements but also 'more of the same '. They added more 'assist views' to make life easier dialing the settings in.

 

Neat still has the tendency to make parts that become too blurry look weird.

 

I don't know if I can explain it,but imagine this: you have a tree in the background. You have to apply aggressive denoising , so the tree becomes blurry and/or looses a lot of detail. Most other noise plugins make the tree look like there is some kind of gaussian blur applied. Natural looking blur.

But neat doesn't get natural. It starts looking like triangles and weird shapes, which kinda stinks to be honest.

 

 

Topaz is still my 'if all else fails' plugin. Good results all the time, but requires careful dialing in and is slllooowww. But i live it in my toolbox.

 

Most denoisers work with settings to 'set noise level' and then other settings to 'set amount of reduction'. After setting noise level you dial in the amount to leave a preferable amount of noise in, giving a natural looking image that doesn't look so blurry and no banding.

 

Topaz doesn't have the 'amount' settings, just the level. In other words , topaz always goes for ultra smooth , removing all the noise entirely, giving it a too smooth unnatural feel. The trick is to then blend some of the original image back in using layers after the plugin has run.

(Or use their 'add noise' slider).

 

You gotta remember this. Go for an unnatural oversmoothed look in topaz, then blend layers to get the amount you want. Other plugins like Neat and Noiseware have this built in.

 

The preview assists in Topaz (and Neat now as well ) are extremely handy though , and missed in Noiseware or others . These views show you the chroma channels, or boost the shadows or show just the high frequencies as an example. Makes it very easy to dial in each slider.

 

Neat 8 and topaz 6 both work fine in Affinity for me. And both are under 100 bucks (well, Neat was for me with upgrade s. Don't know the new-customer-price). If you have noise issues, both are extremely good to have.

 

Shooting on an 6year old aps-c camera (the first 24mp aps-c ever I think ) , a m4/3 camera and a lot of analog film, dealing with noisy is large part of my photo hobby :).

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