[MetteHHH]

I just found a great tip!

A while ago, I was looking at noise reduction tools, and some of the threads in this forum that compared Topaz Denoise with other tools left me green with envy.

I am not a photoshop user, and Topaz software isn't stand alone. I tried to email Topaz Labs to hear if it was possible to integrate their plugin with either FastStone or GIMP, but they never replied. But now I just stumbled upon this step-by-step guide to making Topaz work as a GIMP plugin!

Gimp Users

Will try it when I get off work, but I thought it was worth sharing, in case any of you are in a similar situation!

[rm2]

Good to know. Let us know how you make out.

[lavascript]

Yeah, PSPI is great. It even sometimes works in Wine under Linux.

[MetteHHH]

Well, installed the plug-ins in my GIMP library, got a test licence, and here is my first try. Maybe I went a bit overboard with the noise reduction, but I have to say I am impressed!

These waxwings showed up after the sun had disappeared behind some trees, and I shot them with my manual 300mm f/4. ISO 400, 1/100 sec fully open. Typical situation for me - unprepared, little time to think. The pictures were quite underexposed and I brightened the exposure +2 when I processed the raw file. So, yes, it was VERY noisy. The first picture is with noise reduction in the Pentax software, and the second is Topaz in GIMP.

I don't know. Of course these are not world class bird shots and no software will change that - AND I just installed it and still need to learn to do it right - but all the same it looks like a powerful tool.

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[jannking]

I do agree you went a little bit too much. But the effect is just so impressive. I really should spend some more time with GIMP to get familiar with this free great software.

Well, installed the plug-ins in my GIMP library, got a test licence, and here is my first try. Maybe I went a bit overboard with the noise reduction, but I have to say I am impressed!

These waxwings showed up after the sun had disappeared behind some trees, and I shot them with my manual 300mm f/4. ISO 400, 1/100 sec fully open. Typical situation for me - unprepared, little time to think. The pictures were quite underexposed and I brightened the exposure +2 when I processed the raw file. So, yes, it was VERY noisy. The first picture is with noise reduction in the Pentax software, and the second is Topaz in GIMP.

I don't know. Of course these are not world class bird shots and no software will change that - AND I just installed it and still need to learn to do it right - but all the same it looks like a powerful tool.

[Workingdog]

Your first try at processing with Topaz isn't bad but as you said is a bit heavy-handed. Check out the very good 2-part tutorial on YouTube and play with some test images. I set up a scene with average ambient lighting that had good shadows, mid-tones, and highlights and also plenty of detail to try to retain. I shot the scene with my K7 at ISO 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, and 2500 with in-camera NR set to Off then tinkered and learned. It was a very good learning excercise and also yielded camera presets which have proven to be good starting points for Topaz processing.

[lavascript]

I do agree you went a little bit too much. But the effect is just so impressive. I really should spend some more time with GIMP to get familiar with this free great software.

Well... The GIMP is free, but the Topaz plugin is $80.

[simico]

Maybe I went a bit overboard with the noise reduction

You could mask the bird and only do the NR on the remaining parts of the pic or apply smaller amount of NR on the bird. As Workingdog mentioned, check out the tutorial videos on youtube (I think the links are also on Topaz's website), those can help to understand it better and give you some ideas.

[MetteHHH]

Thank you for the tip about the YouTube tutorial. Watched it, followed the instructions, and I was able to improve the result a bit.

I will spare you more waxwings though. Noise or no noise, they ARE terribly soft. It was almost dark after all.

Instead, here is my youngest with a pony foal he fell in love with this summer. I couldn't let him have it, and I couldn't even get a half decent picture for him because it was long after sunset. I took this at ISO3200, f4, 1/40th sec. I think Topaz does well on this one - better than the waxwings too.

One version without NR and one where I tried to follow the procedure in the tutorial - followed by a crop at 100% of each.

Yes, it's a bit expensive. I don't know - if I am still this happy about it after the end of the trial period I might go for it, although I like free software in general...

[LeFanch]

I just found a great tip!

Thanks a lot for this post!

François