Noise and How To Remove

[CMYanko]

I'm trying to get my head around how most people are dealing with noise reduction in post processing (pp). From what I have read it seems the best route to take is to shoot in RAW, avoid Fuji's FinePix Studio (it applies noise recuction upon export) and then use a noise removal tool.

It seems to me though that people in this forum might be getting good results by shooting in JPEG and then using a noise removal tool. Just curious.

[virtualbeing]

hey Curt

i would reccomend shooting in RAW and working it in post processing. If you have a program that can work in RAW adn with Fuji's RAW files. Jpeg wil introduce artifacts and every time you open and SAVE a jpeg it loses quality as it is a lossy format- by design it spits out data every time it is saved.

any way- RAW and some noise reductuion ap- like Noise Ninja, Noise Ware pro (my preference) and there is another respected ap- can't recall the name right now. All three sem to work very well, and there are probably others.

The RAW provides the most information off your sensor, but will take a little more time and thought to edit and get what you want. then you can save as .tiff for exapmle to archive, and ajpeg for sharing. just my recomenation. and eveyone does al this a little different.

dave

[CMYanko]

Thanks, I already understood all of that (I worked for a digital imaging company a while back).

It just seemed to me that people were using FinePix studio and still able to apply noise reduction on the resultant TIFF even though it had already done so. Some maybe even using the JPEG (another critisism of Fuji's is that there JPEG, even fine, is a little too compressed) right out of the camera and running NR against it which seemed a little crazy to me, though I have to admit it has some appeal for it's simpler workflow.

Let me look at those other two noise apps, I've only been looking at Neat Image but that's because it is the only one I know of.

...Ok, they all look great so for me it may come down to who works best with GraphicConverterX.

One more quick question, RAW files are 13MB in size and when I use FinePix Studio I can save as a TIFF that ends up being 35MB so I'm guessing it is a 24bit TIFF (8bpp) so would I ever need the 'Pro' packages and their 16bpp feature?

[P_Schneider]

The way I work it, and this is due to lack of options btw.

Open the raw in finepix studio
Convert to a tiff
use Neat Image if necessary on the tiff.

I would use photoshop to do the raw but I'm not willing to shell out another couple hundred bucks to upgrade to CS2 just for this one function. I cannot get photoshop CS to recognize the raw files from the s6k. It just doesn't work and neither does converting to a dng then a tiff. So I'm basicaly stuck with the fuji software to convert my files.

Where are the knights of standards and practices when you need them!

[CMYanko]

I've had a chance to try out the trial versions of NeatImage, NoiseWare and Noise Ninja. NI and NW both seem to do an equally good job and Noise Ninja would seem to be a little behind them. Bear in mind that I didn't read a manual or anything so there is likely plenty I missed.

Still, I would have to say NoiseWare seems more intuitive than NeatImage.

I can't any of them to run GraphicConverterX but I was able to extract Fuji's .raf RAW files with it. So... after iPhoto pulls down all of the JPEG and deletes them from the camera I can us GCX to pull down the remaining RAW files and convert ti TIFF (and about a gajillion other formats).

[virtualbeing]

Still, I would have to say NoiseWare seems more intuitive than NeatImage.

that was really the main reason i chose it. it seems a little more straight forward. I imagine the results would all be similar. And i have seena lot of images from the other 2 products. Just seemd NW pro was less cumbersome IMO. It's a toss-up as with any similar products i guess...just splittin' hairs LOL

[dtarrance]

Not sure if this program works with the S6000, but this tutorial is designed with the S5100 in mind. I didn't create this tutorial, but I did follow along with the program and sample RAW file provided in part 2 of the tutorial and the results were quite impressive. The program seems to work nicely, but I don't have any experience using Neat Image or any of the other commercial noise-reduction software.

This is a freeware beta app, but runs just fine for my needs. If someone would like to try this out on a S6000 RAW file, please post your results (images would be nice too) if it works on that cameras RAW files.

Matt Spinelli RAW Editing Tutorial

[CMYanko]

Thanks for sharing that link. I've heard good things about the s7raw program. Anyone with a Windows box should have it in their arsenal as the price is right.

[virtualbeing]

great- no mac support???

hey along the lines of this I always wonder if the proprietory software- in this case Fuji's FinePix. if they seem to be able to open the files better than say CS2 in my case.

just a curiosity i always had- like maybe the program has exactly the 100 % accurate reader or something. No Paul your CS1 doesn't count LOL bummer for you too

dave

[troop]

I just downloaded and tried out the free version of Neat Image. That works pretty dang slick ! On my X-mas list I have either PhotoElements 3.0 or 5.0. Do they have noise reducing options ? Troop