Noise Reduction Software

[S_J_P]

Following on from comments about the pros and cons of Canon's DPP regarding noise reduction on some high ISO images I captured and posted in another thread, I thought I'd do a quick comparison between canon Digital Photo Professional (DPP), Adobe Lightroom 4, and Nik Software DFine 2.0.

Here's a screen grab showing the raw image without any noise reduction, DFine auto, and my typical noise reduction settings in LR and DPP (10 seconds worth of adjustments).

What was interesting was that the unprocessed LR file (I turn the default LR NR off for my imports) was noisy, whilst the unprocessed DPP file had what looked like artefacts as well as noise.

In terms of the quality of the processing, both the LR & DPP images look less noisy, but are slightly smeared, but I think the quality of the images is very similar between the two packages and I wouldn't lean towards one over the other. DFine in auto retains more detail but also more noise, so I wouldn't favour it.

Processing parameters were: In DFine automatic, in LR 65 luminance at 50 detail and 25 colour at 50 detail, in DPP 14 luminance and 14 chrominance.

Aaargh! 503 error, so I've uploaded the file to the forum. Flickr link is here: Aaargh, it won't even let me post a Flickr link! Here's the link without http:// at the front www.flickr.com/photos/s_j_p/10908419683/ Aha! That seems to have resolved the 503 error, removing the http:// allowed me to post the link

Screen Shot 2013-11-17 at 17.18.29.jpg

[DeeGee]

Re: Noise Reduction Software

Seems to make quite a difference.

[Dave_S]

Re: Noise Reduction Software

Interesting Steve

Noise reduction software is pretty essential in astro-image processing, and the two most popular applications are Noise Ninja, and Neat Image.

In an in-depth comparison test between a variety of noise reduction software packages, Noise Ninja scored best.

I use this as a Photoshop 'plug in', for both astro and terrestrial image processing.

Dave

[Stan]

Re: Noise Reduction Software

I used to use noise ninja but changed to neat image about 4 years ago as it seemed to do a better job. The advantage with either of these, using them as a photoshop plug in is that noise reduction can be applied to the image selectively via layers as like with sharpening you very rarely nead to apply either to the whole image

Stan

[Les McLean]

Re: Noise Reduction Software

That's really interesting, and quite a difference. The LR seems to be the best compromise between detail/NR

[S_J_P]

Re: Noise Reduction Software

Stan, I've heard that Noise Ninja was good but the cost is exorbitant as I recall, being an annual licence fee rather than a one-off charge

Les, Lightroom does seem to give the best compromise to me, even though before I undertook the comparison I thought that DPP would win the day! In this particular test the beard looks better in the LR example. I have no doubt that with a slightly different set of tweaks the DPP example could be made to look the best, there's little to choose between them.

For info the original image was shot at ISO6400 and the exposure was around 1 stop underexposed so a difficult task for any noise reduction software.