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URL: www.alienskin.com
Cost: $129
Platforms: Mac & PC
Version Tested: 1.0
Demo available: yes
Image Doctor offers four separate filters for image retouching:
- JPEG Repair (the one I'm interested in for this test)
- Scratch Remover
- Smart Fill
- Spot Lifter
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The luminance noise is reduced nicely, but chroma
noise is hardly touched.
Settings:
- Remove artifacts: 12
- Blur edges: 1
- Add grain: 0
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With the lack of detail in this image, I could
use stronger settings and get great results.
Settings:
- Remove artifacts: 80
- Blur edges: 2
- Add grain: 0
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I like what Image Doctor did with this one, especially
how it cleaned up the edges between the mountains and the sky.
Settings:
- Remove artifacts: 40
- Blur edges: 2
- Add grain: 0
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Pros:
- The only filter (that I know of) that directly targets the patterns
of JPEG compression artifacts.
- Great doc that really explains how to use this plugin.
Cons:
- Can soften the image pretty quickly.
- Really only effective on luminance noise.
URL: www.digitalsecrets.net/secrets/denoiseISO.html
Cost: Free
Platforms: Mac & PC
Version Tested: 2.1
Since its a single action, there are no sliders or parameters to tweak
and explore, its the "fire and forget" of image manipulation
(and makes testing easy!).
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I'm impressed with how well this action cleaned
up this image, especially the chroma noise in the trees. |
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The luminance noise was not fully cleaned up,
but the results are pretty good. |
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This action worked less well on this image, the
noise in the sky is still very visible. |
Pros:
- Given the basically fixed nature of this action (you can
delve into the action to change some of the settings), it produces
pretty good results for chroma noise.
Cons:
- The use of "flatten image" in the action means it can
only be used with files that only contain a single layer.
- Luminance noise reduction is weak.
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