[Daemos]

I'm looking to get some noise reduction software to work with raw. My basic search has found ones that are overly complicated, and as this is a hobby, I'm more looking for something intelligent, automatic, yet something that will remove noise from higher ISO K-7 raws, but preserve as much detail as possible.

It can be standalone or work with Photoshop CS5, and software that would come with some updates down the track would be great too.

[Adam]

Adobe camera raw (which is built in to photoshop) is the easiest, IMO, and it's also quite effective. You can also try topaz denoise, which is a bit better w/ JPEGs and gives you more options:

Topaz DeNoise - Remove Noise, Recover Detail
Topaz DeNoise 5 Review - About Topaz DeNoise - PentaxForums.com

[vanyagor]

I am using RawTherapee because

• it is free and opensource
• it is cross platform
• it is updated regularly
• it has all the features I can think of unlike most other RAW developer software including easy to use Noise reduction
• it is relatively intuitive and there is a good (and up-to-date) pdf manual

[Miguel]

As Adam said, the noise reduction built into ACR will serve you well. The key is learning to balance NR with sharpening. For most people's needs a NR plug in is not needed anymore.

M

[Anvh]

Adobe camera RAW indeed.

As plugin, i like NIK most of the time, it's automatic and you can assign regoins which it needs to sample.
So if you've noise in the dark parts but the light parts are fine as is, you can just only sample the dark parts.

Topaz also works well, but it's more complicated.

There is no win all solution, it depends on the photo and the kind of noise which work better.
So if you want top notce noise reduction you need at least 2 different solutions.

[wildman]

Imagenomic Noiseware.

It's both simple (just accept the defaults) and complex/powerful if that's what you need.
With this program you don't need to choose.

I have presently installed and used all the major noise programs and as a single solution this is easily the best in my opinion.

ISO 6400 on K5 and I just accepted the default of "weak noise" and nothing more...

[Rondec]

I like Nik Effects Software. The software suite includes nik dfine which is pretty good for noise reduction. Nik Collection

[loco]

I still use Noise Ninja. Works really well.

[Daemos]

Hmm, I'm looking for something a little more automatic, I've downloaded the trials for noise ninja and nik, they both seem to have automatic algorithms, which is what I'm looking for, as that's all I need for 95% of my images.

[robgo2]

I still use Noise Ninja. Works really well.

There is a brand new Noise Ninja 4 incorporated in Photo Ninja v1.1 Pre-release that is incredible. It is extremely simple and fast, and the results are far superior to NN 3 and ACR/LR. I would even venture to say that it may be the new gold standard in noise reduction, although I have not yet done head to head comparisons with Topaz DeNoise 5 (which is painfully slow and cumbersome). Because Photo Ninja works as a standalone program and as a Photoshop plugin or filter, NN can be applied either to raw or converted files. Just another reason for people to give PN a serious look.

Rob

[Daemos]

There is a brand new Noise Ninja 4 incorporated in Photo Ninja v1.1 Pre-release that is incredible. It is extremely simple and fast, and the results are far superior to NN 3 and ACR/LR. I would even venture to say that it may be the new gold standard in noise reduction, although I have not yet done head to head comparisons with Topaz DeNoise 5 (which is painfully slow and cumbersome). Because Photo Ninja works as a standalone program and as a Photoshop plugin or filter, NN can be applied either to raw or converted files. Just another reason for people to give PN a serious look.

Rob

That's good to know, I tried an older version of denoise before, but I don't want to spend time playing with every photo to try to get results, I'm liking the trial I have, it also comes with a raw convertor, but I'm glad it integrates into photoshop as well.

[loco]

There is a brand new Noise Ninja 4 incorporated in Photo Ninja v1.1 Pre-release that is incredible. It is extremely simple and fast, and the results are far superior to NN 3 and ACR/LR. I would even venture to say that it may be the new gold standard in noise reduction, although I have not yet done head to head comparisons with Topaz DeNoise 5 (which is painfully slow and cumbersome). Because Photo Ninja works as a standalone program and as a Photoshop plugin or filter, NN can be applied either to raw or converted files. Just another reason for people to give PN a serious look.

Rob

Thanks, I'll look into it. I've always preferred NN and if this version is even better -- wow!

[rawr]

Topaz DeNoise 5 (which is painfully slow and cumbersome).

Agreed. I bought it a while ago but will only use Topaz as a last resort.

[Anvh]

To be fair, Denoise sometimes does a much better in certain situations then the rest but yeah i hardly use it either because of what is said above.

[robgo2]

That's good to know, I tried an older version of denoise before, but I don't want to spend time playing with every photo to try to get results, I'm liking the trial I have, it also comes with a raw convertor, but I'm glad it integrates into photoshop as well.

Oh, it's even better than you think. The raw convertor in Photo Ninja (the host program of Noise Ninja 4) is the best there is. Just run head to head comparisons with whatever raw convertor you are currently using, and you will see the difference. But I urge you to spend time learning PN's Presets and adjustment modules. It will be time well spent. Once you have accomplished that, Photo Ninja will deliver unequalled results with amazing ease and speed.

Just a reminder to those who want to try Noise Ninja 4: It is currently available only as part of Photo Ninja v1.1 Release Candidate. The final release version is not yet out, but this release candidate works great.

For the record, I have no relationship with Picture Code (the maker of Photo Ninja). I just love their products and want them to succeed. Picture Code is comprised of only two programmers who have somehow managed to stuff the giants of the industry--Adobe, Apple, Phase One, DxO--at their own game. I love it when things like that happen.

Rob