Noise Reduction Tool Comparison
by Michael Almond (www.michaelalmond.com)
Version History
Oct 2002 |
Initial version. |
Nov 2002 |
Added two new tools (DCE AutoEnhance and Fred Miranda ISOx) and updated
Neat Image to version 2. |
Aug 2003 |
Added five new tools (DFine, NoiseFixer, dSLR Tools, UltraISO, SmarterNR) and
updated two with newer versions (Neat Image 2.5, Grain Surgery 2) |
Nov 2003 |
Added one new tool (Noise Ninja) |
Feb 2005 |
Added four new tools (PureImage, Noiseware Pro, Digital GEM Pro, PictureCooler) and updated two with newer versions (Neat Image 4.4, Noise Ninja 2) |
Introduction
There is a lot of discussion about how best to remove noise in digital
camera images and a lot of tools to do it. For this article I have compared
just about every tool possible to try and find the best one.
CCD noise comes in two parts, luminance noise and chroma noise. Luminance
noise makes an image look grainy on screen, but is usually not visible
when printed. Chroma noise is visible as random red and blue pixels
and is usually less obvious both on screen and printed. Removing luminance
noise reduces the sharpness of the image and removing the chroma noise
damages some of the correct color. So noise reduction is a balance between
how much softness and color damage you are willing to accept vs. how
much noise you want to remove. Unless you use an uncompressed mode with
your camera, JPEG artifacts also get added into the mix.
I was interested in seeing how much noise each tool could remove before
the image got too soft (for my tastes). I did not do any sharpening
after the noise reduction (even if the tool had that capability built
in), that will be another test.
I used the following three source images, each one providing a unique
challenge. Click on the thumbnail for the original, straight out of
the camera images.
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 |
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Camera: Olympus C-3000
Quality: HQ
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/160
F-Stop: 2.8
This image has quite a bit of chroma noise, especially in the
dark tree line. |
Camera: Minolta DiMage 7i
Quality: fine
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/125
F-Stop: 8
This image has quite a bit of luminance noise with little detail
(so should clean up very easily). |
Camera: Minolta DiMage 7i
Quality: fine
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/125
F-Stop: 3.5
This image has a lot of luminance noise in the sky, but needs
to retain the detail of the mountain. |
Due to disk space constraints I can only show a 400x400 sample patch
from each image. Rolling over a sample will show the original, noisy
image. The sample patches for the top four tools are presented as PNGs to prevent introducing new JPEG
artifacts, but for the runners-up I used JPEGs set to 90% for disk space and bandwidth considerations.
I tested the following 22 products:
- ABSoft Neat Image
- Visual Infinity Grain Surgery
- Camera Bits Quantum Mechanic Pro
- The Imaging Factory Noise Reduction Pro
- PowerRetouche Noise Corrector
- AutoFX AutoEye 2
- Alien Skin Image Doctor
- Digital Secrets DeNoise ISO (Action)
- Digital Deluxe Toolbox (Action)
- E10 NR (Action)
- Fred Miranda Noise Reducer ISOx (Action)
- Media Chance DCE AutoEnhance
- Nik Multimedia DFine
- Fixer Labs NoiseFixer
- Noel's dSLR Tools (Action)
- iMAGING Concepts UltraISO (Action)
- SmarterNR
- PictureCode Noise Ninja
- Media Chance PureImage
- PictureCooler
- Imagenomic Noiseware Professional
- Kodak DIGITAL GEM Professional
URL: www.neatimage.com
Cost: Free, $30, $50, $60, $75 (see here
for features for each version)
Platforms: PC and Mac
Version tested: 4.4 Pro+
Demo available: yes
Neat Image is a cheap, but very sophisticated stand-alone program (the
Pro+ version comes with a Photoshop plugin too) that analyses the actual
noise in your image and removes it. You define the areas that contain
the noise (and no photographic detail) and it builds a noise profile
that it then uses on the entire image to remove the noise. To really
do its job, you need at least a 100x100 sample area which can be difficult
to find in a lot of images. To counter that, Neat Image lets you create
and save a noise profile for use in images where large detail-free areas
do not exist. Profiles for many cameras are available on the Neat Image
web site.
 |
This one was tricky for Neat Image because it
lacks large areas of the image that have no detail to analyze
the noise profile, but the final results are rather good. Tweaking
the strength of the chroma noise reduction values really helped clean
it up. The very low frequency noise reduction really helps
reduce JPG artifacts.
Settings:
- Initial 226x100 sample in the sky
- Second 200x69 sample in the trees
- Noise Levels:
- High: 30%
- Mid: 0%
- Low: 0%
- Y: 0%
- Cr: 30%
- Cb: 30%
- Noise Reduction Amounts:
- High: 100%
- Mid: 100%
- Low: 100%
- Y: 40%
- Cr: 100%
- Cb: 100%
- Very low freq turned on
- Sharpening turned off
- All other setting at default
|
 |
Neat Image did a great job on this one.
Settings:
- Pre-built camera profile downloaded from neatimage.com
- Automatic fine-tune
- Noise Levels:
- High: 30%
- Mid: 0%
- Low: 0%
- Noise Reduction Amounts:
- High: 100%
- Mid: 100%
- Low: 100%
- Y: 50%
- Cr: 100%
- Cb: 100%
- Very low freq turned on
- Sharpening turned off
- All other setting at default
|
 |
With this kind of image it is easy to get good
results with Neat Image. The large expanse of blue sky gives it
plenty of information to work out a good noise profile, although
some detail did get lost in the shadows.
Settings:
- Single 300x300 sample in the sky
- Noise Levels:
- High: 10%
- Mid: 10%
- Low: 0%
- Noise Reduction Amounts:
- High: 100%
- Mid: 100%
- Low: 100%
- Y: 50%
- Cr: 60%
- Cb: 50%
- Very low freq turned on
- Sharpening turned off
- All other setting at default
|
Pros:
- Can clean an image completely of noise without making it blurry
(although that can produce an image that is very plasticy if you have
the settings too high, 30-50% seems better than the default 60%).
- Works great on both luminance and chroma noise. The latest version does an even better job.
- Incredible amount of control over the algorithms (e.g., how much
high, med, low frequency noise to remove), which lets you really get
the best out of it. A simpler version of the interface can also be used for faster results.
- Can store noise profiles which can then be used on images that do
not have large detail-free areas to sample from.
- The preview window can instantly switch between the original and
cleaned versions to help with tweaking.
- Cheap! There is a free version that lacks some features, but the
actual noise reduction capabilities are the same in all versions.
- Version 4 is much faster than the older versions.
Cons:
- A little slow, but version 4 is much faster than the older versions.
- Works best on images that have some large areas that have no details
to provide a noise profile.
- Mac version is behind the Windows version in features (but the noise reduction algorithm is the same).
URL: www.visinf.com
Cost: $179
platforms: Mac & PC
Version tested: 2.0
Demo available: Yes
Grain Surgery is a Photoshop plugin that uses a similar technique to
Neat Image for removing noise (but is a lot more expensive). It can
also automatically select sample areas for you and has great previewing
options. It does not just remove grain (noise), but can also add grain
and match grain (for image compositing for example). You can also sample
grain from one image and add it to another.
 |
Grain Surgery did a good job on this one. Boosting
the chroma suppression took care of the strong chroma noise.
Settings:
- Automatic samples
- Number of samples: 8
- Sample size: 40
- Noise Reduction: 60%
- Chroma suppression: 1.5
- Image texture: 10%
- Clean solid areas: 50%
- Degraining passes: 3
- Degraining mode: multichannel
|
 |
With Version 1, I had a very hard time getting
Grain Surgery to not completely blur this one, ending up with
something that was still a little too soft for my liking. Version
2 is dramatically better, achieving excellent results.
Settings:
- Automatic samples
- Number of samples: 8
- Sample size: 64
- Noise Reduction: 70%
- Image texture: 10%
- Clean solid areas: 50%
- Degraining passes: 3
- Degraining mode: multichannel
|
 |
Grain Surgery did a great job with this one, losing
just a little detail in the shadows. Version 2 did a slightly
better job on the sky than version 1 (thanks to the new "clean
solid areas" control).
Settings:
- Automatic samples
- Number of samples: 8
- Sample size: 32
- Noise Reduction: 70%
- Image texture: 40%
- Clean solid areas: 50%
- Degraining passes: 3
- Degraining mode: multichannel
|
Version 1 vs. Version 2
- Redesigned noise engine produces noticeably better results.
- Improved UI.
- New clean solid areas works great for skies.
- Create and compare four preview snapshots.
- Ability to save settings.
- $20 cheaper!
Pros:
- Can automatically select noise samples from the image.
- Uses multiple, smaller sample areas, rather than a few larger areas.
- Large preview (but consequently slower to update too).
- Can instantly switch between original and processed version to help
with tweaking.
- Can take up to 4 snapshots of different settings and quickly switch
between them.
Cons:
- Slow, but still about twice as fast as Neat Image.
- Still expensive compared to the competition.
URL: www.camerabits.com
Cost: $189
Platforms: Mac & PC
Version Tested: 2.1r3
Demo available: yes
Quantum mechanic Pro is a plugin that reduces noise and artifacts in
the chrominance by using an adaptive median-like filter. It can also
despeckle luminance and sharpen the image.
 |
The large amount of chroma noise in this image
proved just a little too much for Quantum Mechanic Pro. It did
a good job of holding color where I wanted it though. After trying
many settings, a very low theshold had most of the noise under
control.
Settings:
- Filter amount: 100%
- Red radius: 8
- Red threshold: 1
- Blue radius: 8
- Blue threshold: 1
- Despeckle luminance: on
|
 |
The simple despeckle luminance algorithm cannot
clean up this image as well as other techniques. The minor chroma
noise is effectively removed however.
Settings:
- Filter amount: 100%
- Red radius: 10
- Red threshold: 1
- Blue radius: 10
- Blue threshold: 1
- Despeckle luminance: on
|
 |
As with the previous image, despeckle luminance
just doesn't cut it.
Settings:
- Filter amount: 100%
- Red radius: 10
- Red threshold: 1
- Blue radius: 10
- Blue threshold: 1
- Despeckle luminance: on
|
Pros:
- Fast way of doing standard noise reduction methods, without having
to use inflexible actions.
- Good at removing chroma noise without destroying desired color details.
Cons:
- Not very good at removing luminance noise due to inflexible, simple
despeckle method.
- Expensive
URL: www.theimagingfactory.com
Cost: $100
Platforms: Mac & PC
Version tested: 1.28
Demo available: yes
Noise Reduction Pro is similar to Quantum Mechanic Pro, but allows
a lot more control over the luminance channel.
 |
The large amount of chroma noise in this image
was easily dispatched by Noise Reduction Pro, although it did
result in a reduction in color saturation overall in the image
(which can easily be boosted back). The luminance noise could
not be reduced as effectively before it got too blurry.
Settings:
- Luminance radius: 2
- Luminance reduction: 40
- Light tones: 100%
- Mid tones: 30%
- Dark tones: 100%
- Red radius: 9
- Red reduction: 50
- Blue radius: 9
- Blue reduction: 50
|
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Noise Reduction Pro does a pretty good job with
this image's limited luminance and chroma noise, a better job
than Quantum Mechanic Pro.
Settings:
- Luminance radius: 1.5
- Luminance reduction: 40
- Light tones: 100%
- Mid tones: 100%
- Dark tones: 100%
- Red radius: 6
- Red reduction: 50
- Blue radius: 6
- Blue reduction: 50
|
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As with the first image, luminance noise is not
reduced very effectively before blurring occurs. Color also suffers.
Settings:
- Luminance radius: 1.5
- Luminance reduction: 40
- Light tones: 100%
- Mid tones: 100%
- Dark tones: 100%
- Red radius: 6.5
- Red reduction: 50
- Blue radius: 4
- Blue reduction: 50
|
Pros:
- Great at removing chroma noise, slight tweaks to the settings can
be made to remove most, if not all, chroma noise.
- Very large preview.
- Fast.
Cons:
- Even with great flexibility in its algorithm (radius, strength,
degree to apply to light, mid and dark tones) Noise Reduction Pro
does not seem to be able to remove much luminance noise before the
image gets too blurry.
URL: www.powerretouche.com
Cost: $54
Platforms: Mac & PC
Version Tested: 2.0 (current version is 4.0)
Demo available: yes
PowerRetouche Noise Corrector offers five noise reduction methods:
- Soft focus - a smart blur
- Film-grain leveling - remove chroma noise
- Despeckle - a smart despeckle
- Patch RGB - a median filter
- Blur - an averaging filter
For each image I tried all five methods to see which one worked the
best for that image.
 |
I had a hard time choosing between soft focus
(which produced a slightly soft image) and film-grain leveling
(which produced a slightly desaturated image). Both worked well,
but in the end I chose film-grain leveling, which reduced the
saturation of the colors a little (fixable), but kept the sharpness
(and quite a bit of the luminance noise).
Settings:
- Method: film-gain leveling
- Filter size: 2
- Effect: 70%
- Preserve details: on, with default settings (this basically
excluded areas of high detail (eg. the large rock) from the
filter)
- Clean up stray pixels: on, 80%
|
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I really liked how Noise Corrector handled this
image. The preserve detail option did exactly that, preserved
the fine detail of the trees.
Settings:
- Method: despeckle
- Filter size: 3
- Effect: 80%
- Preserve details: on, with default settings
- Clean up stray pixels: on, 80%
|
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All the methods produced very similar results,
but I had to use Noise Corrector's built-in masking abilities
to prevent the details and particularly the dark areas getting
too blurry.
Settings:
- Method: soft focus
- Filter size: 1
- Effect: 80%
- Preserve details: on, with selection level 85%
- Use target range: on, with dark limit 79 (to reduce the effect
in the dark areas)
- Clean up stray pixels: on, 80%
|
Pros:
- Offers five noise reduction methods, each one very customizable.
- Can mask areas of high detail to help preserve sharpness where it
counts.
- Can remove hot pixels.
- Great doc that really explains how to use this plugin.
- Good value for money.
Cons:
- Small preview with 100% maximum zoom in (however, latest version
can zoom in up to 1600% and has a larger preview).
- You generally have to choose between doing luminance or chroma noise
reduction (I did not investigate doing two passes with different methods)
- Slow.
URL: www.autofx.com
Cost: $129
Platforms: Mac & PC
Version Tested: 2.0
Demo available: yes, but cannot use own images!
AutoEye is one of those "automatically fix my image for me"
plugins, and I'm sure its very good at that, but I was only interested
to see if it could fix noise.
 |
Since AutoEye wants to fix my image,
it did more than just remove noise, because certain parameters
could not be completely turned off. With this image, because of
the contrast and color cast changes, it actually increased the
chroma noise in the trees, and doesn't really seem to have fixed
the luminance noise in the sky!
Settings:
- Strength: 0x
- Remove color cast: 10 (the lowest it will go)
- Rebuild detail: 70 (half way)
- Smooth noise: 130 (max value)
- Contrast: 10 (the lowest it will go)
|
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Similar results as the first image, ie. not good!
Settings:
- Strength: 0x
- Remove color cast: 10 (the lowest it will go)
- Rebuild detail: 10 (the lowest it will go)
- Smooth noise: 130 (max value)
- Contrast: 10 (the lowest it will go)
|
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More disappointing results. I could see zero difference
between a smooth noise setting of 10 and 130, so I must be doing
something wrong!
Settings:
- Strength: 0x
- Remove color cast: 10 (the lowest it will go)
- Rebuild detail: 10 (the lowest it will go)
- Smooth noise: 130 (max value)
- Contrast: 10 (the lowest it will go)
|
Pros:
- None (for noise reduction uses only).
Cons:
- AutoEye is simply not the tool for noise reduction (nor does it
claim to be, I just hoped it would be able to!).
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
 |
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
|
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!).
 |
I'm impressed with how well this action cleaned
up this image, especially the chroma noise in the trees. |
 |
The luminance noise was not fully cleaned up,
but the results are pretty good. |
 |
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.
URL: www.2morrow.dk/75ppi/coolpix/actions/
Cost: Free
Platforms: PC Only
Version Tested: 1.0
This is a very advanced set of actions offering a choice of three levels
of noise reduction, a base level of noise reduction and two stromger
ISO-noise removal options that can run after the base if needed. It
has the nice feature of putting the cleaned image in a separate layer,
making it very easy to compare the results.
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Digital Deluxe Toolbox did a great job of keeping
sharpness (thanks to an edge mask) while removing both luminance
and chroma noise. I used just the base NR action. |
 |
This image needed the extra step of the mid-ISO
noise removal which resulted in a beautifully clean image, while
still retaining the detail of the trees without too much blurring. |
 |
This image also needed the extra mid-ISO NR step
to further cut down the luminance noise in the sky. Sharpness
is mostly maintained, but some blurring is evident between the
mountain edge and the sky. |
Pros:
- The use of an edge mask helps keep the image sharp while still greatly
reducing noise.
- Three levels of NR to choose from.
- Results are placed in a separate layer.
- Seems like it can work on a single layer of a multi-layer image
(complained about the lack of a background layer a few times, but
the results looked fine).
Cons:
- Not sure why the edge between the sky and the mountains in the last
image was blurred so much.
URL: netnet.net/~llueck/NR.htm
Cost: Free
Platforms: Mac & PC
Version Tested: 01/26/2002
This is a another advanced set of actions offering three levels of
noise reduction and a separate hot pixel removal action. The actions
build a separate edge mask for each of the RGB channels and stop to
allow you to interactively define each edge mask. It takes a very long
time to complete - 20 minutes on my PII-300 laptop and used 1.3GB of
scratch space! This is mostly because it doubles the size of the original
image before working on it.
 |
The medium NR action softened the image too much,
so I had to use the low one. The low one did an acceptable, but
not quite as good, job on the chroma noise.
Settings:
- Red threshold: 228
- Green threshold: 233
- Blue threshold:234
|
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The low NR action left a little bit of luminance
noise, so I ended up settling for the medium NR action, which
cleaned this image up almost perfectly. The edge masks that the
action builds kept the trees pretty sharp.
Settings:
- Red threshold: 215
- Green threshold: 213
- Blue threshold:213
|
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For this one the high NR action worked the best,
nicely smoothing the sky (except for some nasty JPEG artifacts),
while retaining the detail in the mountain.
Settings:
- Red threshold: 218
- Green threshold: 215
- Blue threshold:213
|
Pros:
- The use of not just one, but a per-channel edge mask, results in
a clean but surprisingly sharp image.
- Three levels of NR to choose from.
Cons:
- As with most actions, can only be used with files that only contain
a single layer.
- Very, very slow.
URL: www.fredmiranda.com
Cost: $15
Platforms: Mac & PC
Version Tested: 2.0
This action set offers a choice of seven levels of noise reduction!
Fred Miranda also has some noise reduction actions specially tuned for
specific cameras for even better results. Details on these additional
actions can be found at his site.
 |
Just the lowest setting could be used on this
image (higher settings for some reason really blurred the very
tip of the large rock). But just the lowest setting did a great
job on both the luminance noise and a the chroma noise. |
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On this one I went all the way up to the highest
level (level 7) to get a nice clean image. The unsharp mask steps
included in the action did introduce a few sharpening artifacts
however. |
 |
Level 2 took care of the noise in the sky. As
with Digital Deluxe Toolbox, some blurring is evident between
the mountain edge and the sky. Would have prefered more noise
reduction, but higher levels introduced too much blurring. |
Pros:
- The use of an edge mask helps keep the image sharp while still greatly
reducing noise.
- Seven levels of NR to choose from.
- Cheap.
Cons:
- As with most actions, expects to run on a single layer image.
- As with DIgital Deluxe Toolbox, blurring of the mountain edge.
URL: www.mediachance.com/
Cost: Free, $35
Platforms: PC only
Version Tested: 2.0
Demo available: Yes
DCE AutoEnhance is stand-alone application that can adjust color balance,
remove color cast, remove hot pixels, sharpen and remove noise. There
is a free version that only provides basic enhancing and a $35 version
that has a lot more features such as batch processing files and setting
values based on EXIF data. For this test I turned off all the filters
except the denoiser and hot pixel remover.
 |
A stronger noise removal setting quickly got too
blurry. The luminance noise was reduced to acceptable level, but
the chroma noise was barely touched.
Settings:
- Noise removal: 98
- Filter repeat: 1
- All other settings turned off
|
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DCE did a great job here, especially on keeping
detail in the trees.
Settings:
- Noise removal: 162
- Filter repeat: 1
- All other settings turned off
|
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Not quite enough of the noise in the sky could
be removed before the mountains became blurred.
Settings:
- Noise removal: 102
- Filter repeat: 1
- All other settings turned off
|
Pros:
- Can read the EXIF data and adjust its settings based on the ISO
speed, shutter speed and whether the flash went off.
- Great results on luminance noise.
- Fantastic UI, very clean and easy to use.
Cons:
- Did not do that good a job on chroma noise.
- Tiny, un-zoomable preview.
- Not a Photoshop plugin, so you have to filter entire image using
the same settings.
URL: www.nikmultimedia.com
Cost: $99.95
Platforms: Mac & PC
Version Tested: 1.0
Demo available: Yes. As you can see below, the demo version stamps "DEMO"
throughout the image.
This Photoshop plugin offers a bewildering set of noise reduction algorithms.
For luminance reduction it offers the following algorithms, each with
their own specific configurable attributes:
- Quick fix - simple reduction, pick how noisy your image looks
- Print optimized with different low, normal and strong algorithms
- Reduce noise, also with different low, normal and strong algorithms
- Color targeted reduction to reduce noise in a certain color range
- perfect for just skys or dark shadows
- Camera specific profiles (which cost $35 extra for each camera)
for algorithms targeted for that particular model of camera.
That's just for luminance noise. For chroma noise you also get to choose
from:
- Quick fix - simple reduction, pick how noisy your image looks
- Global Reduction - general chroma noise reduction
- Protected Reduction - protects color detail
- JPG Reprocessing - fixes JPG artifacts as well as chroma noise
It can also fix up lighting/contrast and color cast/balance.
 |
Dfine did a fantastic job getting rid of the JPG
artifacts, especially in the sky.
Settings:
- Luminance: Reduce Noise: normal
- Noise Reduction Strength: 11
- Detail Protection Strength: 75%
- Chroma: JPG Reprocessing
- JPG Artifact Intensity: 100%
- Chrominance Noise Level: 6
|
 |
The transitions between the different tones got
blurred a little too much.
Settings:
- Luminance: Camera specific profile
- Chroma: JPG Reprocessing
- JPG Artifact Intensity: 100%
- Chrominance Noise Level: 3
|
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Detail was retained pretty well, but the overall
brightness of the image is noticeably lower in the shadows.
Settings:
- Luminance: Camera specific profile
- Chroma: JPG Reprocessing
- JPG Artifact Intensity: 100%
- Chrominance Noise Level: 4
|
Pros:
- Very good JPG artifact removal
- Multiple preview windows, lets you see the changes in detail in
different areas of the image at the same time.
- It can highlight what changes are going to be made, enabling you
to fine tune the results
- Special Dfine brushes let you selectively reduce noise and optimize
detail
- Lots of options
Cons:
- Lots of options!
- Camera specific profiles add to the overall cost.
- It is pretty slow
URL: www.fixerlabs.com
Cost: $17
Platforms: Mac & PC
Version Tested: 1.0
Demo available: Yes
Noise Fixer is a Photoshop plugin that has two noise reduction controls,
one for chroma noise and one for luminance noise. It has four preview
windows that are linked. One shows how the color noise is being effected,
one shows how the luminance noise is being effected, one shows the original
image and one shows the results.
 |
A surprising amount of detail remains, even though
all the noise is removed from the sky and trees. JPG artifacts
tend to remain though.
Settings:
- Color noise: 10
- Luminance noise: 19
|
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Higher levels of noise reduction could be used
and the outline of the trees still remained sharp. Strangely the
other transition areas did not remain as sharp.
Settings:
- Color noise: 9
- Luminance noise: 25
|
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It did not take a very high color noise setting
before things got blurry between the maintains and the sky, but
luminance noise was easily removed while keeping detail. JPG artifacts
in the sky were noticeably left behind.
Settings:
- Color noise: 5
- Luminance noise: 15
|
Pros:
- Great luminance noise removal, while preserving detail.
- Fast. Preview windows update almost instantly.
- Cheap.
Cons:
- Zooming in more than 100% stops the preview windows from working.
- Preview windows are pretty small and not resizeable.
- Color noise removal tends to smear the colors, blurring the image.
- JPG artifacts tend to be left behind.
URL: ncarboni.home.att.net/PhotoshopActionsForSale.html
Cost: $10
Platforms: Mac & PC
Version Tested: 1.1
Demo available: No
This a collection of 11 actions, not just limited to noise reduction:
- ColorBlotchReduction - Smoothes out color noise
- MildNoiseReduction - Mild shadow noise reduction
- MoreNoiseReduction - Medium shadow noise reduction
- MostNoiseReduction - Maximum shadow noise reduction
- ExposurePlus1 - One stop exposure increase with noise reduction
- ExposurePlus2 - Two stop exposure increase with noise reduction
- ExposureMinus1 - One stop exposure decrease
- ShadowsPlus1 - Lightens shadows
- ShadowsPlus2 - Lightens deep shadows
- 10DGreenCastOut - Removes the Canon 10D green cast
- IncandescentCastOut - Remove yellow/orange color cast from an incandescent
light shot
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ColorBlotchReduction nicely removed the chroma
noise. The mild strength noise reduction was not enough, I had
to step up to middle strength one, which removed a little too
much detail at the tip of the rock.
Settings:
- ColorBlotchReduction followed by MoreNoiseReduction
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Even using the maximum noise reduction action,
the sharpness of the transitions between the different tones was
kept, while the rest of the image was nicely smoothed. Good job.
Settings:
- ColorBlotchReduction followed by MostNoiseReduction
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dSLR Tools struggled a little with this one. To
remove the noise in the sky I had to use the MoreNoiseReduction,
but it also removed quite a bit of detail in the shadows.
Settings:
- ColorBlotchReduction followed by MoreNoiseReduction
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Pros:
- Excellent value for money, less than $1 per action!
- Does a very good job of removing noise while keeping detail (except
in the shadows)
- Unlike most actions, these work perfectly on multi-layer images,
limiting their effect to the (entire) layer currently selected at
the time of operation.
- Does not over do it, no plastic looking results here!
Cons:
- Tends to muddy the details in the shadows a little.
URL: feharmat@hotmail.com
Cost: ???
Platforms: Mac & PC
Version Tested: 1.9c
Demo available: No
UltraISO is a set of 14 actions that is custom designed for the Olympus
E-10, but it works just as well on other cameras as well. It consists
of a separate action for three ISO speeds (80, 160, 320), each with
five filtering levels (except ISO 80, which only has four) based on
exposure conditions (day light, medium light, low light and dark). For
this test I disabled the sharpening stage of the actions.
More information, examples and comments that can be found in the Oly
SLR Forum, hosted at www.dpreview.com.
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UltraISO did an excellent job here. I first tried
the "80-DAY Light" action, but it left a little too
much chroma noise. Moving up to the "80-MID Light" action
took care of the chroma noise, while leaving detail practically
untouched.
Settings:
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Good results here.
Settings:
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This image was a challenge for UltraISO. It was
a tricky balance between noise reduction and sharpness. 80-MID
ended up making this one just a little too blurry, so I settled
for 80-DAY and a little luminance noise.
Settings:
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Pros:
- Good range of options, I like the unique way the actions are based
on the exposure.
- Generally does a very good job of removing luminance noise but still
keeping detail.
- Very good job on chroma noise.
Cons:
- These actions go through a lot of steps, so they take a long time
URL: http://knm.homeip.net:8081/Public/SmarterNR
Cost: $20
Platforms: PC Only
Version Tested: 2.2
Demo available: Yes.
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Detail was retained, even in the tip of the rock.
Settings:
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Great job removing noise and keeping the transitions
sharp. A little bit of JPG artifacts remain.
Settings:
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I switched to the advanced settings to get the
best results for this one.
Settings:
- Window size: 1
- Detail: 40
- Blackpoint: 39
- Cb size: 3
- Cr size: 3
- Blend: 75
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Pros:
- The differences between setting are very subtle, which allows you
to really fine tune the results
- In the Advanced section, the preview can show the mask, which makes
it easy to adjust the sliders so that the detailed areas are masked
just right.
Cons:
- Fixed-size preview window that can only zoom in 100%
URL: www.picturecode.com
Cost: $35, $45, $70, $80 (see here for features for each version)
Platforms: PC and Mac
Version Tested: 2.0.2
Demo available: Yes
Noise Ninja is available as a standalone program and as a Photoshop plugin. It analyses your image and produces a noise profile in similar manner to Neat Image and Grain Surgery. The best results are obtained by using pre-built noise profiles for your camera. You can build your own using a special calibration target that Noise Ninja will automatically scan and process, or download one of the pre-built ones from PictureCode website. Unique to Noise Ninja is its ability to boost color saturation (noise reduction usually results in a loss of saturation) and contrast enhancement. Noise Ninja also has batch processing capabilities and a touch-up brush that lets you paint back the original image for critical areas (although I prefer to do that with layers in Photoshop).
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Noise Ninja did great on this one, noise in the trees was perfectly eliminated while still retaining detail in the rock.
Settings:
- Olympus C4100 profile
- Luminance:
- Strength: 1
- Smoothness: -5
- Contrast: 5
- Color:
- Strength: 1
- Smoothness: 0
- Saturation: 5
- Sharpening off
- Suppress halos on
- Turbo mode off
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Noise Ninja performed flawlessly on this one. Version 2 did an even better job of suppressing JPG artifacts.
Settings:
- Minolta 7Hi profile
- Luminance:
- Strength: 5
- Smoothness: 0
- Contrast: 5
- Color:
- Strength: 0
- Smoothness: 0
- Saturation: 5
- Sharpening off
- Suppress halos on
- Turbo mode off
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Again Noise Ninja did a really good job, removing noise in the sky, but keeping detail in the mountains.
Settings:
- Minolta 7Hi profile
- Luminance:
- Strength: -3
- Smoothness: -2
- Contrast: 2
- Color:
- Strength: 0
- Smoothness: 0
- Saturation: 5
- Sharpening off
- Suppress halos on
- Turbo mode off
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Pros:
- Noise Ninja produces more natural images, leaving behind less artifacts that stand out in otherwise smooth areas.
- Ability to apply specific filtering to specific colors, which is great for applying stronger noise reduction to skies
- Noise Ninja retains more overall brightness and color saturation than the competition.
- Faster than Neat Image.
- Great documentation, with an easy to follow tutorial that helps you get the best out of the program.
- Fixed from version 1: larger preview that can now be switched between the original and cleaned image for faster fine tuning of the settings.
- Fixed from version 1: now available for the Mac and as a plugin.
Cons:
- Building a profile from an image does not produce an optimal noise profile (but the automatic profiler in version 2 is much improved over version 1), building a noise profile from the calibration target is better.
- The range and default values of the settings are different between the standalone version and the plugin
URL: www.mediachance.com/pureimage/index.html
Cost: $35
Platforms: PC Only
Version Tested: 1.2
Demo available: Yes.
PureImage NR is a standalone program that uses an advanced wavelet noise reduction algorithm, which Media Chance says automatically
adjusts its noise reduction algorithm to different noise types within an image (for example applying more to smoother sections, less to more detailed sections). That certainly seemed the case in my testing. In addition to noise reduction PureImage can do color correction, color matching and curves adjustments.
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It seemed that stronger noise reduction was applied to the sky verses the trees, allowing the sky to become smooth while still retaining a lot of detail in the trees.
Settings:
- Noise level: 4.2
- Remove block noise on
- Advanced processing: nature mode
- Sharpen edges off
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I had a hard time getting results I liked for this one, either too much noise was left, or strange "lumps" appeared. I did discover that the advanced processing kept a sharper edge between the dark forground trees.
Settings:
- Noise level: 6.5
- Remove block noise on
- Advanced processing: default mode
- Sharpen edges off
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Nature mode left small artifacts in the sky, so I used the default mode for this one.
Settings:
- Noise level: 4.2
- Remove block noise on
- Advanced processing: default mode
- Sharpen edges off
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Pros:
- Very large preview via a split screen
- Nice, clean UI
- 4 different modes of noise reduction, based on the subject matter
Cons:
- Fixed-size preview windows that can only show the whole image scaled to the screen or zoomed in to 100%
- Stand-alone application and PC only, no plugin version.
- No built-in help.
URL: denoiser.shorturl.com
Cost: free (for now)
Platforms: PC only
Version Tested: 1.052
Demo available: N/A
Picture Cooler is a standalone program that uses an algorithm which, like PureImage, is able to apply more noise reduction to smoother areas of the image. It also is able to remove noise without noticeably effecting color saturation or contrast.
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A boost in color noise reduction was needed for this noisy image, and a fine balance of the open space smoothing to produce a smooth sky, while still retaining detail elsewhere in the image.
Settings:
- Luminance:
0
- Color:
3.2
- Open space: -2.9
- Kill noisy pixels on
- Deblur off
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Picture Cooler did an awesome job on this one, just a little imcrease in luminance reduction was needed.
Settings:
- Luminance: 0.4
- Color: 0
- Open space: 0
- Kill noisy pixels off
- Deblur off
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To clean up the sky, whilst still leaving detail in the mountains, required a balance between the settings for luminance and open space smoothing. Open space has the largest effect, so I reduced that until most of the sky was smooth and detail still remained. Then I reduced luminance a little to clean up the sky a little more, with minimal impact to detail in the mountains.
Settings:
- Luminance: -0.6
- Color: 0
- Open space: -1.2
- Kill noisy pixels: 0
- Deblur off
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Pros:
- Fast
- Ability to apply stronger noise reduction to smoother parts of the image - great for skies.
- The "kill noisy pixels" settings is great for getting rid of those specs of noise that usually can only be removed with higher overall noise reduction levels.
- Huge preview window, that can quickly switch between original and cleaned image.
Cons:
- No plugin, no batch capability.
URL: www.imagenomic.com
Cost: Free, $26 - $79
Platforms: PC and Mac
Version Tested: Professional 3.0 plug-in
Demo available: Yes
Noiseware is available seperately as a standalone program and a Photoshop plug-in, in free, standard, and pro versions. The all use the same noise reduction engine, with different file formats and capabilities (8bit v16bit, supported file formats, batch processing, etc). Noiseware's noise reduction engine automatically analyses each image and builds a noise profile. What makes Noiseware unique is that with each successive image, it learns and perfects the noise profile based on the EXIF data (camera make and model, ISO, exposure and image size). Pre-built noise profiles will also be available in the future. It's algorithm is very controllable, allowing the usual tweaking based on different noise frequencies (high, med, low, very low), but you can also apply reduction based on different tonal ranges (shadows, highlights, midtones), which really allows you get optimal results.
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Noiseware did a great job, the splochy noise in the sky was greatly reduced, while key detail was retained everywhere else.
Settings:
- Noise level
- Luminance: 0%
- Color: +10%
- High freq: +45%
- Med freq: 0%
- low freq: 0%
- very low: 0%
- Noise supression
- Luminance: 45%
- Color: 75%
- High freq: 100%
- Med freq: 80%
- low freq: 90%
- very low: 90%
- Tonal range
- Shandows: 0%
- Midtones: 0%
- Highlights: 0%
- Sharpening: -5
- Processing degree: Auto
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Noiseware performed flawlessly on this one, the noise is all gone and the transitions between the planes remain well defined.
Settings:
- Noise level
- Luminance: 0%
- Color: 0%
- High freq: +90%
- Med freq: 0%
- low freq: 0%
- very low: 0%
- Noise supression
- Luminance: 80%
- Color: 65%
- High freq: 75%
- Med freq: 100%
- low freq: 100%
- very low: 100%
- Tonal range
- Shandows: 0%
- Midtones: 0%
- Highlights: 0%
- Sharpening: -5
- Processing degree: High
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Noiseware worked very well on this one as well, on par with the best of them.
Settings:
- Noise level
- Luminance: 0%
- Color: 0%
- High freq: 0%
- Med freq: 0%
- low freq: 0%
- very low: 0%
- Noise supression
- Luminance: 50%
- Color: 50%
- High freq: 100%
- Med freq: 80%
- low freq: 90%
- very low: 90%
- Tonal range
- Shandows: +25%
- Midtones: 0%
- Highlights: 0%
- Sharpening: -5
- Processing degree: Auto
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Pros:
- Noiseware produces very natural-looking images, (ie. images that look like they are actually noise-free, rather than processed to be noise-free).
- Very fast, both for the preview and in applying.
- Very good, clearly laid-out UI, with a large preview that can be zoomed between 100 and 400%.
- Good value for money, plenty of purchasing options to suite your needs.
Cons:
- No built-in help, not even tooltips (will be fixed in a future version).
- No pre-built camera profiles (but they will be available soon).
- No ability to manualy select areas of an image to profile.
URL: www.asf.com
Cost: $50, $100
Platforms: PC and Mac
Version Tested: 1.0.1
Demo available: Yes
DIGITAl GEM is a Photoshop plugin available in two versions, regular and professional. The two versions of the plugin use different algorithms. The Professional version includes two noise reduction algorithms, "Coarse" for very aggressive noise reduction and "Fine" for less aggressive noise reduction. The regular plugin's algorithm is very similar to the course one. The professional version also adds 16-bit support, more control over the algorithms and the ability to blend the results with the original image. It can also show the noise that is going to be removed, as well as the usual before/after preview.
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The Detail Sensitivity setting does just what it says, it allows you to retain detail while removing noise in smoother areas like the sky. DIGITAL GEM did a great job on the JPG artifacts in the sky.
Settings:
- Suppression type: Fine
- Blending: 100%
- Suppression: 50
- Detail Sensitivity: 100
- Clarity: 0
- Radius: 1
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The Fine noise suppression type did not reduce this noisy image enough without blurring it a lot, so I used the coarse one, which gave good results.
Settings:
- Suppression type: Coarse
- Blending: 100%
- Highlights: 19
- Shadows: 75
- Clarity: 0
- Radius: 1
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DIGITAl GEM did a great job on the mountains, but left some of the stronger noise in the sky, which resulted in the appearance of pockets of noise.
Settings:
- Suppression type: Fine
- Blending: 100%
- Suppression: 61
- Detail Sensitivity: 70
- Clarity: 0
- Radius: 1
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Pros:
- Quick
- Two different noise reduction algorithms, which allows you to pick whichever approach works best for each image
- Detail Sensitivity option really works.
- Ability to see the noise that will be deleted
Cons:
- Relatively small preview window
- No ability to save settings
- No separate controls for color and luminance noise reduction
First, here's my pick for which tool produced the very best version
for each image. I viewed each final image at full resolution (not just
the 400x400 crops) and flipped back and forth between them, carefully
looking at every part of the image. I considered luminance NR, chroma
NR, sharpness, detail retention and color retention. I narrowed it down
to the best three tools for each image and then looked at them even
closer before deciding on the best one.
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This one was tough to judge, but it finally
came down to Neat Image, Noise Ninja, Grain Surgery and Noiseware. All four produced almost identical results, but Noise Ninja did a slightly better job than Neat image and Grain Surgery in retaining color saturation and left slightly less artifacts behind, and Noiseware was just a little bit softer. |
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As expected, this image proved to be the easiest
to clean up. Once again Neat Image, Noise Ninja and Noiseware produced outstanding results. However, Picture Cooler was able to do just a little better. |
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This image proved the most difficult for many of
the the tools, they either left a lot of luminance noise in the
sky or blurred the mountains too much. It was again between the four tools: Neat Image, Noise Ninja, Noiseware and Picture Cooler. I chose Noise Ninja for this one because it produced a slightly cleaner sky and retained more of the original image's brightness. |
The latest versions of Noise Ninja and Neat Image just keep getting better, and newcomer Noiseware is close to them. Grain Surgery is now falling behind. Picture Cooler produced very good results too. Noise reduction techniques are obviously continuing to be improved upon. The other good news is that these tools are becoming available for Mac users too.
My recommendations are:
- Noise Ninja
- Neat Image
- Picture Cooler (PC-only)
- Noiseware
- Grain Surgery