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Noise Reducuction Comparisons

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DerekSurfs

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I had been given some good tips from Ron Parr on noise removal which got my research started. Here is his site:
http://www.cs.duke.edu/~parr/iso2/

His technique partially uses PS 6. Unfortunately I only have PS5.5. Here are some of my preliminary results from various techniques :



Original shoot with G1 at ISO 400 indoors, no flash.
Larger View:
http://www.pbase.com/image/1123066



Same shot with photoshop adjustements described below( 5 min)
Larger View:
http://www.pbase.com/image/1160369



Fred Mirandas PS Action for Canon G1/G2/Pro90
Larger View:
http://www.pbase.com/image/1160891



Neat Image(demo) after creating profile
Larger View:
http://www.pbase.com/image/1160936

I asked Fred Miranada to run a photo thru his action to test it before I buy it as a comparison with NeatImage and others out I've tried.

I also tried denoider by Dave Glick.
http://www.glickcreative.com
Fred's action results were a little cleaner.

The more you research this subject the most interesting it becomes.
It can become very scientific. The best noise reduction I have
seen came from a poster using Gaussian Bilateral
Filtering (Could take hours).

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=2023794

So far I like Fred Miranda's action the best, although NeatImage

have a lot more features and customizeable options. Fred's actions will be much faster than neat image.

I am still researching this area. But I got some of the best
advice far for free so. Go into photoshop add a new layer use the
noise filter on it despeckle unsharpen mask (experiement with
settings). Remember Fred Miranda actions are just a set of
commands in photoshop.

If anyone else is any good with PS or has other noise
reduction/smoothing tips let us know.

Derek

PS- I just saw this free action here but haven't tried it out yet:

http://home.att.net/~f.croce/Downloads/ForrestNoiseRemoval/NoiseRemovalforDigitalCameras.htm
 
Derek Sedillo said:
If anyone else is any good with PS or has other noise
reduction/smoothing tips let us know.

Derek
Click to expand...
The noise in your image is somewhat impulsive which suggests that much of it can be removed with the median operation. Here is the result on the full sized image (long download) of the following operations:

1. convert to YCrCb color space.
2. apply 31x31 median once to Cr and Cb channels.
3. apply 3x3 median 3 times to Y channel

Nothing else was done, however, in practice I would sharpen the subject and blur the background.

 
Hello Mathias,

Thanks for the link. I downloaded your action. Unfortunately it only works with PS 6.0 and I have 5.5. Until I get 6.0 I will have to cook up my own actions or use Fred Miranda's. (PS 5.0+). But If you would like to run the original image thru your action and post it, it would be good to see how it compares with the others.

Check out the post after yours by Aruzinsky. His results are impressive based on applying the median filter in PS.

Derek
Mathias Vejerslev said:
Sorry, I am in a haste. Here´s the real URL:

http://www.2morrow.dk/75ppi/coolpix/actions/
Click to expand...
 
Pardon me for being a Photoshop newbie, but how do you convert to YCrCb space ? I have checked all modes, help files etc. and I don't see how to do it. Thanks for your help.
aruzinsky said:
Derek Sedillo said:
If anyone else is any good with PS or has other noise
reduction/smoothing tips let us know.

Derek
Click to expand...
The noise in your image is somewhat impulsive which suggests that
much of it can be removed with the median operation. Here is the
result on the full sized image (long download) of the following
operations:

1. convert to YCrCb color space.
2. apply 31x31 median once to Cr and Cb channels.
3. apply 3x3 median 3 times to Y channel

Nothing else was done, however, in practice I would sharpen the
subject and blur the background.

Click to expand...
 
aruzinsky said:
Derek Sedillo said:
If anyone else is any good with PS or has other noise
reduction/smoothing tips let us know.

Derek
Click to expand...
The noise in your image is somewhat impulsive which suggests that
much of it can be removed with the median operation. Here is the
result on the full sized image (long download) of the following
operations:

1. convert to YCrCb color space.
2. apply 31x31 median once to Cr and Cb channels.
3. apply 3x3 median 3 times to Y channel

Nothing else was done, however, in practice I would sharpen the
subject and blur the background.

Click to expand...
 
Derek,
Another program well worth mentioning is YarcPlus at:
http://www.pictureflow.com

The authors have made some astounding progress in the noise reduction area. It does a very good job of isolating and removing noise without destroying edge, contrast, or color detail. Combine YarcPlus and PS with Neat Image and you are going to be hard pressed to beat the output, whether it be web or print based. I have tried all of the progs from the high dollar ones right down to the free actions and these two (for conversion and noise reduction) suit my workflow and expected output of my D30 the absolute best.
Regards,
VG
Derek Sedillo said:
I had been given some good tips from Ron Parr on noise removal
which got my research started. Here is his site:
http://www.cs.duke.edu/~parr/iso2/

His technique partially uses PS 6. Unfortunately I only have PS5.5.
Here are some of my preliminary results from various techniques :



Original shoot with G1 at ISO 400 indoors, no flash.
Larger View:
http://www.pbase.com/image/1123066



Same shot with photoshop adjustements described below( 5 min)
Larger View:
http://www.pbase.com/image/1160369



Fred Mirandas PS Action for Canon G1/G2/Pro90
Larger View:
http://www.pbase.com/image/1160891



Neat Image(demo) after creating profile
Larger View:
http://www.pbase.com/image/1160936

I asked Fred Miranada to run a photo thru his action to test it
before I buy it as a comparison with NeatImage and others out I've
tried.

I also tried denoider by Dave Glick.
http://www.glickcreative.com
Fred's action results were a little cleaner.

The more you research this subject the most interesting it becomes.
It can become very scientific. The best noise reduction I have
seen came from a poster using Gaussian Bilateral
Filtering (Could take hours).

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=2023794

So far I like Fred Miranda's action the best, although NeatImage
have a lot more features and customizeable options. Fred's actions
will be much faster than neat image.

I am still researching this area. But I got some of the best
advice far for free so. Go into photoshop add a new layer use the
noise filter on it despeckle unsharpen mask (experiement with
settings). Remember Fred Miranda actions are just a set of
commands in photoshop.

If anyone else is any good with PS or has other noise
reduction/smoothing tips let us know.

Derek

PS- I just saw this free action here but haven't tried it out yet:

http://home.att.net/~f.croce/Downloads/ForrestNoiseRemoval/NoiseRemovalforDigitalCameras.htm
Click to expand...
 
Sorry, I was responding to "or has other noise reduction/smoothing tips let us know." I do not use PS, but custom software. I think you can get similar results with Lab color space.

The important thing here is to learn to recognize "impulsive noise" when you see it. Although "impulsive noise" has a definition that may require a statistical background to understand, it should not be hard to learn by example.

This is an example an image with RGB channels contaminated by extremely impulsive noise:



while this is an example of non-impulsive noise:



You can easily verfy that a simple 3x3 median will clean up the first image but not the second. In non-extreme cases, the median should be applied before applying other techniques such as Neat Image. Also, although I haven't tested it, I doubt that techniques such as Neat Image alone will clean up the first image. You may want to test this.
Markep said:
aruzinsky said:
Derek Sedillo said:
If anyone else is any good with PS or has other noise
reduction/smoothing tips let us know.

Derek
Click to expand...
The noise in your image is somewhat impulsive which suggests that
much of it can be removed with the median operation. Here is the
result on the full sized image (long download) of the following
operations:

1. convert to YCrCb color space.
2. apply 31x31 median once to Cr and Cb channels.
3. apply 3x3 median 3 times to Y channel

Nothing else was done, however, in practice I would sharpen the
subject and blur the background.

Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Aruzinsky,

I was very impressed with what you were able to accomplish in several straight forward steps. I am relatively new to this area, but as a computer programmer found your input here to be the most interesting.

I was amazed at the quality and clarity of your work using the Gaussian Bilateral Filtering algorithm. Your results of the filtered half dome image were by far the best. I also noticed that you mentioned running this algorithm can take several hours. I can image that it would be well worth the wait for certain enlargements that one is planning to sell or frame. In what cases do you use Gaussian Bilateral Filtering.

You noticed that the noise in my image is somewhat impulsive and you were right that the median filter worked well on it. In some cases like several select PS techniques can make a big difference. Do you handle this on a case by case basis, depending on the type of noise?

In sharpening the subject and dulling the background I would guess you extract the subject into a new layer and sharpen. Is this your approach?

Thanks,

Derek
 
Derek Sedillo said:
Aruzinsky,

I was very impressed with what you were able to accomplish in
several straight forward steps. I am relatively new to this area,
but as a computer programmer found your input here to be the most
interesting.
Click to expand...
If you start programming your own image processing software, we could have a lot to talk about.
DerekSurfs said:
I was amazed at the quality and clarity of your work using the
Gaussian Bilateral Filtering algorithm. Your results of the
filtered half dome image were by far the best. I also noticed that
you mentioned running this algorithm can take several hours. I can
image that it would be well worth the wait for certain enlargements
that one is planning to sell or frame. In what cases do you use
Gaussian Bilateral Filtering.
Click to expand...
I am not sure which image that is, but apparently there is a Corel Smart Blur used by Bobbo which produces better results very fast. Maybe, Bobbo deleted his image? There is a method called "wavelet lifting" that is very fast. I suspect that Corel Smart Blur may be a sophisticated form of wavelet lifting. These methods are useful for removing non-impulsive noise.
DerekSurfs said:
You noticed that the noise in my image is somewhat impulsive and
you were right that the median filter worked well on it. In some
cases like several select PS techniques can make a big difference.
Do you handle this on a case by case basis, depending on the type
of noise?
Click to expand...
I really don't have much practical experience with image noise. I have more experience, mostly academic, with noise in one dimensional signals.
DerekSurfs said:
In sharpening the subject and dulling the background I would guess
you extract the subject into a new layer and sharpen. Is this your
approach?

Thanks,

Derek
Click to expand...
With the software I have written, I have exactly two layers which I just call "buffers." The easiest approach for me would be to put a completely sharpened image in one buffer and a completely blurred image in the other buffer. Then, by using paint-like strokes with the mouse cursor, I transfer portions of one buffer to the other.
 
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