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800 and 1600 noise tips
- Thread starter Tom Bonge
- Start date
Paul Greenleaf
Senior Member
Karl Guttag
Senior Member
The filters by jes work very well IMO and evaluation. They do involve a lot of steps and take time (even on a 1.7GHz P4). Also note that they only fix the color noise. You need to follow them up with a Luma noise filter such as a median with a Radius of 1.
Karl
Karl
Mike
Forum Enthusiast
have a look a http://www.fredmiranda.com .
He offers for only USD 7.- (that's nothing according to the prices of a D30 and its lenses ...) two Photoshop actions to reduce ISO 800 and ISO 1600 very well. See his samples.
He offers for only USD 7.- (that's nothing according to the prices of a D30 and its lenses ...) two Photoshop actions to reduce ISO 800 and ISO 1600 very well. See his samples.
Paul Greenleaf
Senior Member
I just looked at that site, the price is very cheep, but I don't beleive it. The before and after pictures of the jeep look too good. It looks like he took it at 1600 and again at 400 and didn't realy run the 1600 version through his action. Has anyone actualy used his actions? Do they realy work that good?
If they are just actions he recorded, that means they use some combination of photoshop filters and wont have any user controlable adjustments. I never heard of someone selling actions, if someone comes up with a good technique why not just share it?
If they are just actions he recorded, that means they use some combination of photoshop filters and wont have any user controlable adjustments. I never heard of someone selling actions, if someone comes up with a good technique why not just share it?
Greg Wilder
Well-known member
I purchased both the 800 and 1600 ISO noise reduction actions.
Let me say that .... YES THEY WORK !!!!!!!
Honestly, I was amazed at the job it does, while not removing fine details. You should really give it a try. To my non-professional eyes, it takes the ISO from 800/1600 down to a comparable 200-400 ISO image. Truly amazing!
Come on ... it's only $7 dollars for both.
Greg W.
Let me say that .... YES THEY WORK !!!!!!!
Honestly, I was amazed at the job it does, while not removing fine details. You should really give it a try. To my non-professional eyes, it takes the ISO from 800/1600 down to a comparable 200-400 ISO image. Truly amazing!
Come on ... it's only $7 dollars for both.
Greg W.
J
jes
Guest
I've tried my hand at some actions and techniques and whatnot. But it is almost impossible to get one single automatic fix that works well with all types of images.
Here are a few relatively simple techniques I have been messing around with as of late...
Before working on grain removal, I now like to convert to Lab mode first to minimize unnecessary steps and get right to the task at hand.
(1.) In Lab mode, duplicate the luminosity channel in channels palette. Create an edge mask in PS on this channel. This can be easily accomplished by performing the Find Edges filter under Stylize heading. Then aditionally, say, perform the Poster Edges filter under Artistic heading with settings of 0,10,0. Now perform Image> Adjust> Posterize with level setting of "2". Your duplicate channel should Now look like "line art", with well defined edges. Optional: perform a 1 pixel median to remove some stray specs/grain unnecessary for the mask.
Now you can simply ctrl click this channel to activate the mask, and select the inverse of this selection.
(2.) With selection active, select the A or B channel. Perform a smart blur on both of these channels separately. Use the preview window to examine the settings as you adjust them to suit your image. This should be where most of the random grain is gone but the harder edges of color details are not much affected. Additonallly the mask protects the edges in the image from having color blurred over them. You may want to follow up the smart blur with a light dust & scratches filter.
(3.) You can now attempt to remove luma noise from the luminosity channel with the mask still active, but this is trickier. Again I like to use a combination of smart blur followed up by a light dust & scratches filter. I usually like to fade the smart blur by 50% after performing so as not to overdue it.
Lastly, you can use the edge mask to sharpen your image by selecting the inverse once again while still on the luminosity channel, this time having only the edges selected. I sometimes contract the selection by a pixel or two off from the edges and feather by a pixel or 2. My current fav. unsharp mask settings are around 500/ .2/ 0 and 500/ .3/ 5-15 going from top to bottom in the settings.
Whew, is this a good method or what?
Here are a few relatively simple techniques I have been messing around with as of late...
Before working on grain removal, I now like to convert to Lab mode first to minimize unnecessary steps and get right to the task at hand.
(1.) In Lab mode, duplicate the luminosity channel in channels palette. Create an edge mask in PS on this channel. This can be easily accomplished by performing the Find Edges filter under Stylize heading. Then aditionally, say, perform the Poster Edges filter under Artistic heading with settings of 0,10,0. Now perform Image> Adjust> Posterize with level setting of "2". Your duplicate channel should Now look like "line art", with well defined edges. Optional: perform a 1 pixel median to remove some stray specs/grain unnecessary for the mask.
Now you can simply ctrl click this channel to activate the mask, and select the inverse of this selection.
(2.) With selection active, select the A or B channel. Perform a smart blur on both of these channels separately. Use the preview window to examine the settings as you adjust them to suit your image. This should be where most of the random grain is gone but the harder edges of color details are not much affected. Additonallly the mask protects the edges in the image from having color blurred over them. You may want to follow up the smart blur with a light dust & scratches filter.
(3.) You can now attempt to remove luma noise from the luminosity channel with the mask still active, but this is trickier. Again I like to use a combination of smart blur followed up by a light dust & scratches filter. I usually like to fade the smart blur by 50% after performing so as not to overdue it.
Lastly, you can use the edge mask to sharpen your image by selecting the inverse once again while still on the luminosity channel, this time having only the edges selected. I sometimes contract the selection by a pixel or two off from the edges and feather by a pixel or 2. My current fav. unsharp mask settings are around 500/ .2/ 0 and 500/ .3/ 5-15 going from top to bottom in the settings.
Whew, is this a good method or what?
DavidP #28649
Forum Pro
Are you using this to replace your luma and chroma noise reduction methods you used previously ?
Maybe one day I'll be able to follow all this.
I'm printing it out, and when I get time, I'll attempt to record it as an action -- hopefully starting to understand what's being done a litlte better each time.
Maybe one day I'll be able to follow all this.
I'm printing it out, and when I get time, I'll attempt to record it as an action -- hopefully starting to understand what's being done a litlte better each time.
LMC54
Forum Pro
J
jes
Guest
No it's not to replace, as the end result is very similar. Medians can still be used instead of smart blurs with the edge mask, but the smart blur used on the color channels in Lab mode can protect some color details that the median will sometimes tend to bleed a bit.
It's odd that smart blur does not work on color (only luma detail) unless your perform it on the color channels themselves. You could try to do smart blur on each of the RGB channels without converting to Lab, but then you would still have to go back and Fill your image with 100% Luminosity, History as color and luma details are inseparable in RGB mode, at least from the channels.
It's also odd that you can perform median on a duplicate layer set to color, but smart blur has no effects in this manner.
It's odd that smart blur does not work on color (only luma detail) unless your perform it on the color channels themselves. You could try to do smart blur on each of the RGB channels without converting to Lab, but then you would still have to go back and Fill your image with 100% Luminosity, History as color and luma details are inseparable in RGB mode, at least from the channels.
It's also odd that you can perform median on a duplicate layer set to color, but smart blur has no effects in this manner.
Maybe one day I'll be able to follow all this.
I'm printing it out, and when I get time, I'll attempt to record it
as an action -- hopefully starting to understand what's being done
a litlte better each time.
J
jes
Guest
Yeah, your right. It was you who first thought of working in Lab mode in this manner, as far as I know. But, I still thought best to keep the edge mask technique from my previous work and incorporate a dust & scratches filter that removes what the smart blur misses to really get the best of both of our techniques. Damn we're good....eh?
LMC54
Forum Pro
LMC54
Forum Pro
J
jes
Guest
And don't think I don't know about Sony cams...my Sony cam was the reason I first started making actions in PS for "cleaning" shots, many months ago. I mainly use it for its mpeg movie mode though...hehe
J
jes
Guest
I forgot to mention hiding the edge mask selection by pressing ctrl H when performing the filters on the color and luminosity channels. Otherwise you won't see the effects in the main image. And after using smart blurs on color (A,B) channels, it is good to deselect the edge mask and perform a light median or specially set dust & scratches filter on the whole image to remove stray color grain leftover. Then just do reselect to continue with edge mask sharpening method.
I just bought them and tried the 1600 filter.
1. It works to remove noise
2. It leaves the picture very unsharp
3. If you sharpen, the noise comes back
This is the result of trying it only once on one picture.....YMMV.
-------------------------
1. It works to remove noise
2. It leaves the picture very unsharp
3. If you sharpen, the noise comes back
This is the result of trying it only once on one picture.....YMMV.
-------------------------
Greg Wilder
Well-known member
Yes YMMV, but I have done around 30-40 different photos with it, and had superb success. Everything from clear blue skies to detailed macro shots. I suspect there is some loss of detail, but I have yet to see any at up to 200%. I find that you need to run the ISO actions BEFORE doing any other processing. (Of course RAW is even better.) After it has done its thing, I do other corrections or processes and finally a USM usually. I have not seem where the USM adds any of the noise back into the picture, any more than usual. USM is great, but the settings are critical depending on the type of photo.
Nothing is perfect, free, or now. But I find this does a better job than I can do manually in PS (and I'm fairly proficient) and cheaper than many other solutions. I don't shoot 800 or 1600 unless I am "forced" to. But those those few occasions you do, I find Freds actions work great.
Anyone else with actual experience with them?
Greg W..
Nothing is perfect, free, or now. But I find this does a better job than I can do manually in PS (and I'm fairly proficient) and cheaper than many other solutions. I don't shoot 800 or 1600 unless I am "forced" to. But those those few occasions you do, I find Freds actions work great.
Anyone else with actual experience with them?
Greg W..
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