Best NR plugin for a65/a77 high ISO noise?

[Marco Cinnirella]

Any ideas?



I already own LR4, Neat Image and Topaz Denoise 5. I am trialling Noiseware.

Is Noise Ninja/Photo Ninja worth a try?

I know the best thing is to download trials and try them out myself, but I wondered if any of you have already done this and arrived at a conclusion as to which one handles NR on those 24MP files the nicest?



Thanks !

 

[Mark Turnbull]

I'm no expert....but I've read so many people saying that lightroom has the best NR engine.

 

[Marco Cinnirella]

Mark Turnbull wrote:

I'm no expert....but I've read so many people saying that lightroom has the best NR engine.

LR4 is good but having been pretty used to working with LR4 on raws from my other cameras (Panasonic GH1, GH3, GX1, Sony a700, a57) I am now feeling like I'm not sure how best to use LR4 with a77 raws - there's something a bit more challenging about them when it comes to getting the balance between noise reduction and detail retention/sharpening.

 

[ValeryD]

Marco Cinnirella wrote:

Any ideas?

I already own LR4, Neat Image and Topaz Denoise 5. I am trialling Noiseware.

Is Noise Ninja/Photo Ninja worth a try?

I know the best thing is to download trials and try them out myself, but I wondered if any of you have already done this and arrived at a conclusion as to which one handles NR on those 24MP files the nicest?

Thanks !

You can try also Corel aftershot pro . The program include Ninja plugin. I can't see big different between LR4 with Topaz Denoise and Corel aftershot pro, but Ninja works great.

 

[bloodycape]

I can't say too much about photo ninja, but from what I have read and seen in the m4/3 forum it is give so far the best color production out of RAW, and that's with Panasonic models which aren't know for it's color output. I would say it's worth trying it out to see if it really work for you not.

 

[Stflbn]

Personally, I don't really want my denoising tool screwing with color.

They also say they're dropping Mac support, if that matters to anyone reading.

 

[bloodycape]

Well they are becoming more of an all around solution, like LR/ACR. You can still use the noise aspect of Photo Ninja still, which I am also told is suppose to be improved over previous versions, without affecting color or any other aspects of your image still.

 

[Alpha Doug]

Corel may drop Mac support (however, they haven't done any upgrading of After Shot Pro for any platform since they bought out the previous developer - hmmmmm..... does that sound like any other product that Corel bought?), but I doubt that the developer of Noise Ninja, and Photo Ninja will drop Mac support.

On the other hand, having tried almost every noise reduction program, I find that I like nik dFine the best. It works great in the auto mode, but has almost limitless customization. The biggest thing that is different between the built in noise reduction in LR and Aperture is that the third party noise reduction programs like dFine use a more "intelligent" method of calculating noise reduction in that they reduce noise more in areas with higher detail frequency, and less in areas with low detail frequencies such as skies. Plus, in dFine you can choose to use noise reduction in limited areas rather than the whole image.

 

[RichV]

The reason I'm suggesting Dfine (and I own a few different products - I used them based on the picture) is that you don't want to do NR on the entire image if you can help it (as you know, noise and NR are the enemies of detail). The ability to use U-points with Dfine makes it a much better product for challenging cameras like the A77 (you could also use layer masks with the other products, but that's also very time-intensive). Take if for a test drive, and be sure to view the documentation and/or tutorials.

 

[craig66]

Alpha Doug wrote:

Corel may drop Mac support (however, they haven't done any upgrading of After Shot Pro for any platform since they bought out the previous developer - hmmmmm..... does that sound like any other product that Corel bought?), but I doubt that the developer of Noise Ninja, and Photo Ninja will drop Mac support.

That's not true. There has been a recent update to ASP - Version 1.1.0.30

 

[Marco Cinnirella]

RichV wrote:

The reason I'm suggesting Dfine (and I own a few different products - I used them based on the picture) is that you don't want to do NR on the entire image if you can help it (as you know, noise and NR are the enemies of detail). The ability to use U-points with Dfine makes it a much better product for challenging cameras like the A77 (you could also use layer masks with the other products, but that's also very time-intensive). Take if for a test drive, and be sure to view the documentation and/or tutorials.

 

[RichV]

Marco Cinnirella wrote:

RichV wrote:

The reason I'm suggesting Dfine (and I own a few different products - I used them based on the picture) is that you don't want to do NR on the entire image if you can help it (as you know, noise and NR are the enemies of detail). The ability to use U-points with Dfine makes it a much better product for challenging cameras like the A77 (you could also use layer masks with the other products, but that's also very time-intensive). Take if for a test drive, and be sure to view the documentation and/or tutorials.

 

[Alpha Doug]

Ooops. I guess you are right. Even though I am a registered owner, I don't use it much, so I hadn't noticed the update. It's a pretty good program, but a little quirky. I'd really like to see them work on some of the interface oddities. However speeding up the processing using OPEN CL libraries is something it really needed. Have to watch their progress.

 

[Amateur Sony Shooter]

Topaz DeNoise 5 hands down. I manage my RAW files in Aperture 3, but use Photoshop CS6 for "serious" editing, therefor Topaz plug-in is very handy. One trick I learned is selective sharpening (and NR) thus give you better result than simple global effect.

 

[Marco Cinnirella]

Amateur Sony Shooter wrote:

Topaz DeNoise 5 hands down. I manage my RAW files in Aperture 3, but use Photoshop CS6 for "serious" editing, therefor Topaz plug-in is very handy. One trick I learned is selective sharpening (and NR) thus give you better result than simple global effect.

i am getting strange artefacts in a7throws that I put through Topaz 5 - the dreaded squiggly worm artefacts

 

[Nordstjernen]

Marco Cinnirella wrote:

Any ideas?

I already own LR4, Neat Image and Topaz Denoise 5. I am trialling Noiseware.

Is Noise Ninja/Photo Ninja worth a try?

I know the best thing is to download trials and try them out myself, but I wondered if any of you have already done this and arrived at a conclusion as to which one handles NR on those 24MP files the nicest?

Thanks !

There is no best NR software, and there is no default setting that does the job for all files. What really matters is how you use the software.

For many, really learning to know what you already have would be a good start, and so learning to analyze diffferent types of photographs (light, contrast, atmosphere, detail etc.) with final visual appearance in mind.

 

[Nordstjernen]

Marco Cinnirella wrote:

Amateur Sony Shooter wrote:

Topaz DeNoise 5 hands down. I manage my RAW files in Aperture 3, but use Photoshop CS6 for "serious" editing, therefor Topaz plug-in is very handy. One trick I learned is selective sharpening (and NR) thus give you better result than simple global effect.

i am getting strange artefacts in a7throws that I put through Topaz 5 - the dreaded squiggly worm artefacts

You need to play with the settings to optimize the NR software for your files. Learn to know what each setting really do, and adjust individually to your files.

 

[Amateur Sony Shooter]

Marco Cinnirella wrote:

Amateur Sony Shooter wrote:

Topaz DeNoise 5 hands down. I manage my RAW files in Aperture 3, but use Photoshop CS6 for "serious" editing, therefor Topaz plug-in is very handy. One trick I learned is selective sharpening (and NR) thus give you better result than simple global effect.

i am getting strange artefacts in a7throws that I put through Topaz 5 - the dreaded squiggly worm artefacts

If you use different scale you can avoid it. For example, to really reduce noise at background (dark) you can simply do background selection and leave main subject intact.

 

[texascbx]

I tried Photo Ninja and I bought a license. It's pretty good and no one does a better job with noise. My fear is one of the big companies will buy them out just to be rid of them and their excellent RAW converter with it good noise reduction.

 

[Ronald A Yorko]

I did searches on all NR software, and from what I read Topaz had the least image degradation and the best restoration.

Since buying it I've not been disappointed and have had good results on the noisiest images. If you use a program that creates masks and takes plugins, you can run it on just the masked area. Topaz also has free upgrades when a new version comes out- unlike some software companies.

Hopefully Topaz will include a masking module within the plugin on the next update as they have in the new Detail 3.