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Noise Reduction
#1

I was reading that the creators of Noise Ninja are supposedly "developing a powerful, differentiated raw converter" whose "image quality is indeed unprecedented" and provides noise reduction that is "a significant improvement over Noise Ninja." In fact, they claim that they've "been using early iterations of the software for months, and recently have switched to using only it for RAW conversion duties, so crisp and natural are the pictures it produces."

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/content...1674-12355

Just wondering what people use for noise reduction - do you just use photoshop, or an external RAW converter or a plugin to deal with noise? What methods do you prefer - are there certain workflows that work well for certain situations and applications?
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#2

I never, ever use it...if I wanted blurring I'd choose a manky lens or cover it with butter.
...But seriously and all that: no, I don't ever use it. I usually bleed and multiply blacks anyway, which is where much noise is most evident.
More importantly, for me it's fun turning something that is held to be a weakness into a strength if possible: I like the noise on my camera at high ISOs and purposefully dial it in for effect for the appropriate image, as it looks quite film-like(dare I say, "analogue").
For me, noise reduction is as fruitless a fool's errand as worrying that one's lens edges cannot match the resolving-power of a sensor. It seems to be more a concern for screen-based pixel-peeping(in my very biased and myopic view, that is!)

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#3

I try to shoot at the lowest ISO possible and have never thought of noise reduction. Only recently have I become aware of it.
If a shot is really noisy I consign it to the Trash, and go out and take it again on a better day.

Lumix LX5.
Canon 350 D.+ 18-55 Kit lens + Tamron 70-300 macro. + Canon 50mm f1.8 + Manfrotto tripod, in bag.
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#4

Boy, those are surprisingly extreme positions from NT and Zig. I use NIK plugin. When used properly in non-extreme circumstances, I consider the blurring imperceptible (by me in a side by side comparison at high res on my monitor). It extends the range of useable ISO by about 1 to 1.5 f-stop. The noise, particularly the chroma noise does not look at all like film grain and I am yet to see a photo where chroma noise made the photo more attractive. The BW noise also does not look like film grain and I do not find it appealing. NIK plugins have a grain engine to simulate film grain. It looks a lot more like a real thing and I have used it for good effect. If the noise removal software is used inappropriately, non-selectively, heavy-handedly or for cleaning up extreme ISO noise, smearing can be noticeable or indeed disturbing.

I can not say about other methods. Adobe uses NIK algorithms (I have read), but I like the simple and powerful interface of NIK software and it gives me the results I seek, so unless another software is hugely more powerful, I see no reason to switch.

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#5

I'm with Zig on this one. I used to use noise reduction on my D200 as its color noise was quite severe even at ISO 800. I don't like those little blobs of red and blue at all, but I always felt that critical detail died in the process.

The M9 doesn't really have that problem at all, so *color* noise reduction has become a thing of the past. It does show some grainy noise at high ISOs, but it is a lovely even grain that I use to effect in my photos.
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#6

I think the noise reduction thing is vastly over-rated. A lot of people are just hung up on it. Some of the world's best photos are noisy as hell. But the clean photo critics will condemn anything that has a grainy appearence.

Nikon D3100 with Tokina 28-70mm f3.5, (I like to use a Vivitar .43x aux on the 28-70mm Tokina), Nikkor 10.5 mm fisheye, Quanteray 70-300mm f4.5, ProOptic 500 mm f6.3 mirror lens. http://donschaefferphoto.blogspot.com/
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#7

My knowledge of plug ins, is to stop the bath overflowing. Sorry if this sounds like my humour, but it isn't really. Smile

Lumix LX5.
Canon 350 D.+ 18-55 Kit lens + Tamron 70-300 macro. + Canon 50mm f1.8 + Manfrotto tripod, in bag.
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#8

Robert, D200 sensor is not quite on par with D300, so I am not surprised that you were not removed the noise at that ISO on D200. I am sure that your Leica is wonderful - enjoy.

Is noise reduction overrated? I think it is a personal preference. Unless the photo visually benefits from digital noise (a personal call of course) I would remove it. I think that there are photos with film grain with a lot of charm and great photos may have had film grain. However I remember the effort most serious photographers made to keep the grain to the minimum most of the time. It is worth reiterating it seems, that digital noise looks quite different from film grain.

Pavel

Please see my photos at http://mullerpavel.smugmug.com (fewer, better image quality, not updated lately)
or at http://www.flickr.com/photos/pavel_photophile2008/ (all photos)
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#9

I can't say I really worry about noise; I put my photos through Lightroom at its default settings, and don't think about it beyond that. The one exception is that the noise reduction on the jpeg engine from my TS3 smears detail even at its base sensitivity, which bothers me more than any luminance speckling from any of the cameras that I've used.

The huge exception to this is the ugly 'banding' patterns that can appear from certain cameras at certain settings. I've never found a good way to deal with that, and instead just avoid the settings that cause it.

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