To create a noise profile all one needs to do is step out of the house, point the camera at the sky, and take a frame at each ISO setting. This is also where you apply one of these noise profiles to a new image for processing. Here you can create noise profiles for specific camera and one of each combination of ISO, white balance, exposure time, etc. The second Tab is Device Noise Profileseen in Fig. If you have the Proversion you can import 16 bit images, which is preferred for highest quality noise reduction. The first, Input Image, allows you to select the file that you wish to work on. One works along, left to right, thorough each of the tabs. Along the top are 4 tabs, which can be better seen in Fig. 1 above shows the program’s primary screen. The truly compulsive can create custom noise profiles for all of these variables and each permutation and combination of them, but I’ve found that simply creating a noise profile for a camera’s major ISO settings is all that’s really needed. My experience with Neatimageshows that ISO is the most important variable. Other variables include length of exposure (particularly with long time exposures) and white balance setting. And, to be most effective it needs to know these characteristics at each different ISO setting, because increasing ISO has the greatest effect on noise. To do this it needs to know the unique fingerprintof the noise characteristics that a particular model camera produces. The way Neatimageworks is by analyzing the true noise component in an image. My feeling is that it would be somewhat more versatile if it were a plug in, but this isn’t a major obstacle. Neatimageis a stand alone program, not a Photoshop plug in. What you get for the money is such a great value that you shouldn’t hesitate. Skip the demo, because you’re definitely going to want this program, and skip the Homeversion because it won’t work on 16 bit images. The program comes in three versions - a free limited demo, A Homeversion at $29.90, and a Proversion for $59.90. Let’s look at what it is and what it does. Neatimageis in my experience the most effective and comprehensive program available for reducing and even eliminating noise in either scanned or digital original images. There are programs available that can help us though, but none that I’ve yet seen can hold a candle to Neatimage. Nikon and Fuji DSLRs have very good to excellent performance in terms of noise, up to about ISO 400.īut while we rely on manufactures to provide us with better and better in-camera noise reduction capability there are still instances when we have to shoot at very high ISOs, or the camera that we’re using has inherent limitations in this regard. On the other hand, among other contemporary cameras the Kodak DCS 14nhas very disappointing noise characteristics at medium to high ISOs. From ISO 100 to 400 is essentially noise free and even ISO 8 are quite usable. The new (Spring 2003) EOS 10Dis simply amazing in this regard. Canon, for example, has found ways to produce low noise images at high ISOs in their CMOS-based DSRLs that are quite remarkable. Some manufacturers have excelled in this area. With the advent of digital cameras the struggle changed to reducing noise, and as each successive generation of digital camera has come along we have seen improvements. Kodak and Fuji struggled to give us fine grain along with high speed, though the two were for the most part inimical. When we were shooting film, grain was the enemy.
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