Neat Image - comparative shots

[Hacker]

Having a few shots in my library that suffered from noise I thought I'd give Neat Image NR software a try, as per usual I didn't RTFM and made a hash of it at my first attempt but after following the proper process the results were very good. Here is a before and after, hope you can see the difference at this size.

Original image:

After applying Neat Image:

 

[Hoodi]

Am I the only one who likes a bit of grain, even in this context?

That said, it has been cleaned up very well - the sky has become very smooth but the foreground seems unnafected.

Probably not what you're looking for in this thread [and mebbe you've posted it before] - but that's an ace shot. Really lovely. I could spend all day shooting that tree!

 

[Ally]

Very nice indeed. I don't really see the need for NR with this shot, but it has done a good job. where abouts did you get that software?

 

[Gandhi]

no, your not the only one hoodi. It's more that I'm just not bothered these days by it. I used to pixel peep all the time, then decided that the content was more important than the technical side of things (that's not a dig at you btw col)

If I'm gonna do a big print though of something with a lot of smooth tones in it then I can get a bit more fussy about it. Sometimes clean is good. and if I feel the shot need it then I'll run Nr selectively using masks.

Nice to see taht one not overcooked Mr hacker, it's easy to lose the fine detail if you're not careful.

btw, quick tip. If you havea lot of chroma noise, you can get rid of it quite effectively by blurring the image by 6ish pixels using gaussian blur then go to the edit menu, fade gaussian blur and choose colour from the drop down list.

 

[Fangman]

That looks like a good tip as there is a lot of sky in the Fens and noise always seems to show.

Two cracking images above - with or without treatment - and most of us would have been very happy to have taken it in the first place.

 

[moomike]

Am I the only one who likes a bit of grain, even in this context?

Nope, I like grain too (I especially have to like it now I've got my 1D (the original one) as if I didn't I'd have to nail the exposure every time & I just can't take that kind of pressure )

Really like the image Hacker, but definately prefer the unedited version, has a nice feel to it.
Nicely done on getting a grasp on Neat Image - may have to give that a go (have the demo but am happy with NoiseNinja at the mo)

 

[HIMUPNORTH]

I could spend all day shooting that tree!

Looks like someone has!

Both work for me but an interesting exercise. Thanks for sharing the results Colin.