[Leica] Re: LUG Digest, Vol 28, Issue 9

[pklein at 2alpha.net (Peter Klein)]

From: Dan C <bladman99@yahoo.ca>
Subject: RE: [Leica] Re: Digital noise
To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org>
Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20040907191640.007f0100@pop.mail.yahoo.ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Those of you who have tried both, can you tell us why you prefer Noise
Ninja to Neat Image?

I have very mixed feelings about the noise reduction programs.  I have
Neat Image, and I've found that there is a very delicate balance between
noise removal and softening the image (or worse, making it look like
plastic).  So much tweaking to do, so little time.  With film grain at
least, I have found that by the time I find that balance, the overall gain
is often so subtle that I might as well not have bothered.

Neat Image has worked best on ISO 400 P&S digicam images with color
noise.
It's also done wonders for marginal images on silver film, particularly
Neopan 1600 in really bad light.  For a well-exposed Tri-X image, I find
that the grain is part of the perception of sharpness, and it's usually
better to leave it alone.

I think that some people have decided that anything that looks like a
perfect digital image is "good," and anything that shows any noise is
automatically "bad."  Which means that 35mm film always looks bad, and
must be fixed to look like digital.

I disagree.  As a matter of fact, it's been shown that a small amount of
noise actually adds to a perception of sharpness and detail. Just as a
small amount of white noise makes weak sounds more intelligible.

--Peter Klein
Seattle, WA


Dan C. wrote:
> I'll second the rcommendation for Noise Ninja.  But there is only so
> much any noise reducing program can do, for those really noisy p/s ISO
> 800 images.

At 04:57 PM 07-09-04 -0400, B. D. Colen wrote:
>Or just buy one of the available noise removal PS plug-ins or actions,
>or a free-standing noise removal progam. I'm partial to Noise Ninja
>myself, although there are a few other programs that do a pretty good
>job.