Here's a free tool to clean up high ISO noise

Justme said:

I recently had to retouch an image that was under-exposed and noisy
(ISO 200). I was shooting inside a Curling rink and found that ISO
50 and even 100 was giving me Camera Shake icon. I didn't have my
420ex with me and didn't want to use the internal flash. I
swallowed hard and switched to ISO 200 knowing this would mean less
than ideal pictures with the inherent high ISO noise. Well, better
than no pictures.

Someone in the Retouching forum took the under-exposed image and
showed me what could be done using a great tool called NeatImage.
I was very impressed to say the least. It works really well to
reduce noise in high ISO shots (Canon G2).

I downloaded the Demo version (does not expire). One of the limits
is you can only run 2 jobs at a time in the queue (not a problem
for me right now). The Home version allows you to run about 10
jobs at once. Then there's the Pro version. I think the site is
http://www.neatimage.com .

Look at this gallery for an example of what it can do (you'll be
amazed). Take a look at the last 2 shots (YuckChlorine).
http://www.pbase.com/isabel95/717iso800

--
http://www.pbase.com/golfpic/driving_range

Click to expand...

Justme said:

I recently had to retouch an image that was under-exposed and noisy
(ISO 200). I was shooting inside a Curling rink and found that ISO
50 and even 100 was giving me Camera Shake icon. I didn't have my
420ex with me and didn't want to use the internal flash. I
swallowed hard and switched to ISO 200 knowing this would mean less
than ideal pictures with the inherent high ISO noise. Well, better
than no pictures.

Someone in the Retouching forum took the under-exposed image and
showed me what could be done using a great tool called NeatImage.
I was very impressed to say the least. It works really well to
reduce noise in high ISO shots (Canon G2).

I downloaded the Demo version (does not expire). One of the limits
is you can only run 2 jobs at a time in the queue (not a problem
for me right now). The Home version allows you to run about 10
jobs at once. Then there's the Pro version. I think the site is
http://www.neatimage.com .

Look at this gallery for an example of what it can do (you'll be
amazed). Take a look at the last 2 shots (YuckChlorine).
http://www.pbase.com/isabel95/717iso800

--
http://www.pbase.com/golfpic/driving_range

Click to expand...

Walter001 said:

Justme said:

I recently had to retouch an image that was under-exposed and noisy
(ISO 200). I was shooting inside a Curling rink and found that ISO
50 and even 100 was giving me Camera Shake icon. I didn't have my
420ex with me and didn't want to use the internal flash. I
swallowed hard and switched to ISO 200 knowing this would mean less
than ideal pictures with the inherent high ISO noise. Well, better
than no pictures.

Someone in the Retouching forum took the under-exposed image and
showed me what could be done using a great tool called NeatImage.
I was very impressed to say the least. It works really well to
reduce noise in high ISO shots (Canon G2).

I downloaded the Demo version (does not expire). One of the limits
is you can only run 2 jobs at a time in the queue (not a problem
for me right now). The Home version allows you to run about 10
jobs at once. Then there's the Pro version. I think the site is
http://www.neatimage.com .

Look at this gallery for an example of what it can do (you'll be
amazed). Take a look at the last 2 shots (YuckChlorine).
http://www.pbase.com/isabel95/717iso800

--
http://www.pbase.com/golfpic/driving_range

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Justme said:

There's no harm in downloading the free version and giving it a try.

Now, I'm not using it properly when I do this (as described above)
but it still works well most of the time. To really do a good job
I will have to read the manual. Some people prefer to set the
sharpening to OFF in NeatImage app itself and do everything else
(except the actual noise removal) in their main edit imaging
application, whether it be PS, Elements or some other one.

Walter001 said:

Justme said:

I recently had to retouch an image that was under-exposed and noisy
(ISO 200). I was shooting inside a Curling rink and found that ISO
50 and even 100 was giving me Camera Shake icon. I didn't have my
420ex with me and didn't want to use the internal flash. I
swallowed hard and switched to ISO 200 knowing this would mean less
than ideal pictures with the inherent high ISO noise. Well, better
than no pictures.

Someone in the Retouching forum took the under-exposed image and
showed me what could be done using a great tool called NeatImage.
I was very impressed to say the least. It works really well to
reduce noise in high ISO shots (Canon G2).

I downloaded the Demo version (does not expire). One of the limits
is you can only run 2 jobs at a time in the queue (not a problem
for me right now). The Home version allows you to run about 10
jobs at once. Then there's the Pro version. I think the site is
http://www.neatimage.com .

Look at this gallery for an example of what it can do (you'll be
amazed). Take a look at the last 2 shots (YuckChlorine).
http://www.pbase.com/isabel95/717iso800

--
http://www.pbase.com/golfpic/driving_range

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
http://www.pbase.com/golfpic/driving_range

Click to expand...

Walter001 said:

Interesting. I actually downloaded it but never installed it
because the instructions were a bit intimidating. I mean they
seemed easy enough to understand, but they left me with the
impression that usage of this program would be very time- and
labor-intensive - something I wasn't inclined to deal with unless I
absolutely had to.

But since you say it performs pretty well even with settings set to
default, I think I will try it out.

Thanks.

By the way, what's the difference with the paid version?

Click to expand...

Chuck Martin said:

Neat Image is a great little tool, and nowhere near as difficult to
learn as it may at first appear, at least for high ISO noise.
Learning to use Neat Image effectively takes only a couple of hours.

Click to expand...

Chuck Martin said:

Noise profiles and filters can be saved, so once you've set the
program up for a given situation, say a G3 at ISO 200 in Tungsten
lighting, you can load those settings to correct subsequent photos
shot under the same or similar conditions. When using stored
profiles and filters, I find that I seldom have to fiddle with
anything other than the filtering intensity.

The big thing you don't get with the demo is the ability to save in
a lossless format, you are restricted to a medium compression JPEG.
You knew there had to be a catch, didn't you?

Chuck

Walter001 said:

Interesting. I actually downloaded it but never installed it
because the instructions were a bit intimidating. I mean they
seemed easy enough to understand, but they left me with the
impression that usage of this program would be very time- and
labor-intensive - something I wasn't inclined to deal with unless I
absolutely had to.

But since you say it performs pretty well even with settings set to
default, I think I will try it out.

Thanks.

By the way, what's the difference with the paid version?

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Justme said:

I recently had to retouch an image that was under-exposed and noisy
(ISO 200). I was shooting inside a Curling rink and found that ISO
50 and even 100 was giving me Camera Shake icon. I didn't have my
420ex with me and didn't want to use the internal flash. I
swallowed hard and switched to ISO 200 knowing this would mean less
than ideal pictures with the inherent high ISO noise. Well, better
than no pictures.

Someone in the Retouching forum took the under-exposed image and
showed me what could be done using a great tool called NeatImage.
I was very impressed to say the least. It works really well to
reduce noise in high ISO shots (Canon G2).

I downloaded the Demo version (does not expire). One of the limits
is you can only run 2 jobs at a time in the queue (not a problem
for me right now). The Home version allows you to run about 10
jobs at once. Then there's the Pro version. I think the site is
http://www.neatimage.com .

Look at this gallery for an example of what it can do (you'll be
amazed). Take a look at the last 2 shots (YuckChlorine).
http://www.pbase.com/isabel95/717iso800

--
http://www.pbase.com/golfpic/driving_range

Click to expand...

Mad Hatter said:

I tried it. The results are exceptional. I found it works best with
photos without people as they soften up a bit ... Probably with
some tweaking it will be better.

I denoised some of my badly noised slidescans (B&W) with great
results!

Click to expand...

Frash said:

Mad Hatter said:

I tried it. The results are exceptional. I found it works best with
photos without people as they soften up a bit ... Probably with
some tweaking it will be better.

I denoised some of my badly noised slidescans (B&W) with great
results!

Click to expand...

Glad to hear that. I was hoping we'd get some more reviews of this
software. Igave Neat Image a try a while back, when it first
popped up on the board. It seemed to work well, but I didn't
really have time to give it a full workout. The photos I tried it
on were of some totem poles. The details in the wood grain got a
bit blurred, but it wasn't altogether unacceptable. Seems like a
pretty good tool.

http://www.neatimage.com/

Click to expand...