by
MichelB » Mon Nov 12, 2007 3:10 pm
suzib wrote: I have a question. any of you who use this software, do you use it before you do any other editing or after??
I have Neat Image, but many consider Noise Ninja, Noiseware ... as very good alternatives. They are better than the built-in tools in Elements or Photoshop (which are not bad).
A few things to keep in mind with noise reduction:
- it is always a compromise between keeping details and not getting a 'plastic' look
- If there is noise at first, heavy processing will increase it dramatically, so the general consent is to run noise reduction first
- But it depends on the image. Noise is more visible in darker parts (no so with scans...) and you expect some parts to be clean (sky, car paint..), others should keep texture (skin...). That's why you may want to apply noise reduction selectively with masking.
- and it is generally best to do noise reduction on a copy in a new layer, to be able to reduce the opacity and add a mask.