Picture so grainy...how to improve it

[Kris Kadela]

Hi,

My thanks to all the tips and help in improving the photos. I
really appreciate that.....I will definitely get the software and
test it out personally.

Thanks!

loowl

Here is another stab at it. The full size one is almost as smooth. For really noisy stuff I blur the Q and I channels, do 2 lower intensity passes with Neat Image and use Sharp Control to sharpen.

 

[akaroyd]

Hi,

My thanks to all the tips and help in improving the photos. I
really appreciate that.....I will definitely get the software and
test it out personally.

Thanks!

loowl

Here is another stab at it. The full size one is almost as smooth.
For really noisy stuff I blur the Q and I channels, do 2 lower
intensity passes with Neat Image and use Sharp Control to sharpen.

I had another go at this after taking Isabel's advice re sliders, basically just pushed (almost) everything to the right, as you can see here:



And here is the result here:



The result truly amazed me, thanks again Isabel for the advice, and loowl for raising the question.

Regards

 

[Mathias Vejerslev]

I passed the image through the Beta of De-noise X, an all-round de-noiser for Photoshop.

It took about 15 seconds to process.

The original De-noise Deluxe: http://www.2morrow.dk/75ppi/coolpix/actions/ should do quite well with this image as well.



Mathias

I took the photo of my niece. My sister likes the photo v much.
Unfortunately, when we print out the photos, it looks very grainy.
How should we improve the photos such that it does not look so
grainy?

http://www.pbase.com/image/10515215

The ISO rating is 155.

Thanks.
-loowl

 

[loowl]

Hi Mathias,

Where can I find the Beta of De-noise X de-noiser?

Thanks and best regards!
William.

It took about 15 seconds to process.

The original De-noise Deluxe:
http://www.2morrow.dk/75ppi/coolpix/actions/ should do quite well
with this image as well.



Mathias

I took the photo of my niece. My sister likes the photo v much.
Unfortunately, when we print out the photos, it looks very grainy.
How should we improve the photos such that it does not look so
grainy?

http://www.pbase.com/image/10515215

The ISO rating is 155.

Thanks.
-loowl

 

[Mathias Vejerslev]

Hello William,

So far, the only existing copy resides on my harddisk.

It is close to completion, but there is no release date so far. - I refer you to de-noise deluxe in the link provided.

Regards

Mathias Vejerslev

Where can I find the Beta of De-noise X de-noiser?

Thanks and best regards!
William.

It took about 15 seconds to process.

The original De-noise Deluxe:
http://www.2morrow.dk/75ppi/coolpix/actions/ should do quite well
with this image as well.



Mathias

I took the photo of my niece. My sister likes the photo v much.
Unfortunately, when we print out the photos, it looks very grainy.
How should we improve the photos such that it does not look so
grainy?

http://www.pbase.com/image/10515215

The ISO rating is 155.

Thanks.
-loowl

 

[loowl]

Hi Mathias,

Looking forward to the release date for De-noise X. I really like the original De-noise Deluxe.

Thanks and best regards!
William.

So far, the only existing copy resides on my harddisk.

It is close to completion, but there is no release date so far. - I
refer you to de-noise deluxe in the link provided.

Regards

Mathias Vejerslev

Where can I find the Beta of De-noise X de-noiser?

Thanks and best regards!
William.

It took about 15 seconds to process.

The original De-noise Deluxe:
http://www.2morrow.dk/75ppi/coolpix/actions/ should do quite well
with this image as well.



Mathias

I took the photo of my niece. My sister likes the photo v much.
Unfortunately, when we print out the photos, it looks very grainy.
How should we improve the photos such that it does not look so
grainy?

http://www.pbase.com/image/10515215

The ISO rating is 155.

Thanks.
-loowl

 

[akaroyd]

Hello William,

So far, the only existing copy resides on my harddisk.

And "hopefully" backed up somewhere?

Regards

 

[Vlad Neat Image]

For the viewer convenience, here is a small (50% downsized) comparison of all the above methods applied to the girl's photo:



(scroll in if necessary)

Open a 100% size version from:
http://www.neatimage.net/file/4/compare_big.jpg

Open it in your editor/viewer to compare side by side.

Hope this helps.

Vladimir

 

[Raymond Fingas]

Yours sure does a nice job on the colour blotches (yellow and magenta mostly) on the face. Is it going to be available as a PS plugin anytime soon? I thought the ones other than Grain Surgery and Neat Image resulted in significantly more loss of detail. I suspect that those two use the same algorithm for noise removal, and the difference is in the noise modelling.

I worked for Visual Infinity a while ago when Grain Surgery was in development, but I don't anymore.

 

[Kiran P]

Good job with the comparison!

I personally think that mine looks the best!!!! (hehe.... its the one on the bottom right with PS+actions title). But you have to pull up the 100% crop sample to see this cause they all look pretty good in half size. I mostly used the de-noise deluxe set of actions so its interesting to see a new version coming out. I do think that the chin looks a little bit pixelated, but I don't think it would show up in print too much. Also, because I had an action to remove RGB noise, I think that mine suffers from this the least. I can see yellow and red splotches over all the other samples. The neat image samples that most people produce are usually always over done and stop looking like a real photograph. The one here is toned down, but you can see the yellow pixels and grain more as a result of not going all out. Hmm... maybe if I didn't sharpen it a little bit the chin would have a better line.

Kiran

For the viewer convenience, here is a small (50% downsized)
comparison of all the above methods applied to the girl's photo:



(scroll in if necessary)

Open a 100% size version from:
http://www.neatimage.net/file/4/compare_big.jpg

Open it in your editor/viewer to compare side by side.

Hope this helps.

Vladimir

--

 

[Pam R]

Wow, thank you for this comparison, Vladimir.

This is subjective, for the most part. Some people like their grain vaporized, others prefer a lighter touch on the grain repair. I'm of the latter group. For that reason I personally feel Denoise X has won out. It's kept the detail, and minimized the grain while staying true to the original image.

It's also nicely blended in those yellow splotches that appear in the original. Most of the other methods seem to have exacerbated the problem.

FYI, I'm a Neat Image "owner", very pleased with the program, but still learning how to control it with a light touch

Pam

For the viewer convenience, here is a small (50% downsized)
comparison of all the above methods applied to the girl's photo:

 

[Vlad Neat Image]

Raymond,

Yours sure does a nice job on the colour blotches (yellow and
magenta mostly) on the face. Is it going to be available as a PS
plugin anytime soon?

Yes, we are now working on a plugin version.

I thought the ones other than Grain Surgery
and Neat Image resulted in significantly more loss of detail. I
suspect that those two use the same algorithm for noise removal,

No, the algorithms are different.

I agree that other methods remove too much details and produce significant posterization.

Vladimir

 

[Vlad Neat Image]

Pam,

Did you see the 100% size image? A lot of posterization is visible there, which makes image look err.. hammered.

I personally feel Denoise X has won out. It's kept the detail, and
minimized the grain while staying true to the original image.

My eyes see exactly the opposite in the 100% version. Just take a look at the dress edge..

Vladimir

 

[Mathias Vejerslev]

I remind you guys that what I used was a beta, and it should be duely noted.

Posterization (or banding) is an issue that I am working on. Unfortunately, Photoshops tools, of which I´m limited (I´m not really smart enough to write my own kernels), has their limitations. It´s one of the things that I have to carefully balance as well as how much detail is to be kept vs how much grain removal.

But.. Take a look at a histogram (or a print), and you´ll see it´s not such a big problem after all.

All I can say is that these factors is left much more up to the user in this 'thing' I´m working on as opposed to fully automatic actions.

Mathias

Did you see the 100% size image? A lot of posterization is visible
there, which makes image look err.. hammered.

I personally feel Denoise X has won out. It's kept the detail, and
minimized the grain while staying true to the original image.

My eyes see exactly the opposite in the 100% version. Just take a
look at the dress edge..

Vladimir

 

[Mathias Vejerslev]

Hi Aruzinsky,

I thought I´d tell you, in case I haven´t done so before, that I am well impressed by your work in general, your SAR interpolation technology (as well as Xin Li´s papers), and have been following your work for about a year now. I´m not a big fan of novel resamplings á la Genuine fractals etc. but I´m always on the lookout for new possibilities. Keep up the good work!

Mathias

I took the photo of my niece. My sister likes the photo v much.
Unfortunately, when we print out the photos, it looks very grainy.
How should we improve the photos such that it does not look so
grainy?

http://www.pbase.com/image/10515215

The ISO rating is 155.

Thanks.
-loowl