A Noise

I regularty used several general purpose noise reduction programs to reduce the noise in my digital camera photographs, my film scans, and in the print scans. I do as part of my restoration business. Noise reduction in all its varied form is a staple of my work. I’ve tested many and settled on three, neat image pro, noise ninja pro, and noise ware pro. I did not test or investigate noise reduction program that use camera specific profiles, of which there are many. All are available as photoshop plug-in and stand alone apps. I use all three often enough to say they all have their merits. They all also have substantial differences, and you may very well find that one or more of them suit you not at all, or that one is so perfect for your needs that you don’t need to bother with the rest. It’s one of those cases where your mileage almost surely will different from mine.

Customize ability matters as much or more to me than the program’s default behaviour and just what noise reduction algorithm it uses. I’m always running into situations that require me to customize the noise reduction setting to get the very best results, so how well a program lets me do that is extremely improtant to me. Overly aggressive noise reduction tends to make everything look like it’s made of viny smooth, shiny, sharp edged, and completely lacking in surface texture. The plastic look does not appeal to me at all. In almost every case, i didn’t care for the results I got using the software’s default settings. Most of the time, it was because the plug in worked to well. It so thoroughly obliterated noise that it wiped out too much fine detail and produced that viny look that I want to avoid.