Noise reduction - "NEAT IMAGE"

[elsa hoffmann]

Never heard about this one before today - as I seldom use NR - and I have NIK and PS

But perhaps someone has some experience with this? Comments?

https://ni.neatvideo.com/overview/what-is-it

[Akira]

To me, that had been the most famous NR software along with Noise Ninja years ago.    I'm afraid I haven't used it...

[David H. Hartman]

Never heard about this one before today - as I seldom use NR - and I have NIK and PS

But perhaps someone has some experience with this? Comments?

https://ni.neatvideo.com/overview/what-is-it

I've read the first three paragraphs and I'm convinced that if NI can do all that it's the work of the 😈 but I'll keep reading.

Dave

[David H. Hartman]

OK, I'm finished reading. There is a "free" demo offered, is this a 30 day trial or does it watermark the image or something? Have you tried it? What's the price?

[Jack Dahlgren]

Noise used to be a big problem when ISO 800 was a stretch for most cameras.
I see some noise now above 10K, but color and limited range at that point are more trouble.

[elsa hoffmann]

As said - I don't use noise reduction software so I am not in the market to buy this.  (and I have Nik and PS anyway)

However - I like to know what is "out there" and perhaps we all learn something new by checking what is available.

It seems to have been around for a good couple of years and has had good reviews on
 Luminous Landscapes (and other sites) and I quote:
 
January 13, 2009 by Michael Reichmann:
Neatimageis in my experience the most effective and comprehensive program available for reducing and even eliminating noise in either scanned or digital original images

Another -
It all starts with profiling the image, either by loading a camera profile or sampling the image and performing an auto-match. Neat Image also reads the EXIF data to get the model. Setting the sampling patch can be fiddly but once done you can move on to the noise filter settings. There’s also the option to sharpen the image. The results are often nothing short of amazing.

[jpgrahn]

I have had it for a number of years.
When I first got my D1H it was good to have around. With the D2H as well.
But after I bought my D700 I have not put it to much use.
I can do most of the noise reduction in LR.

Probably not such a necessary tool for a modern digital camera.

[elsa hoffmann]

Johan - would you say LR noise reduction is as good or better than Neat Image?

[CS]

As said - I don't use noise reduction software so I am not in the market to buy this.  (and I have Nik and PS anyway)

However - I like to know what is "out there" and perhaps we all learn something new by checking what is available.

It seems to have been around for a good couple of years and has had good reviews on
 Luminous Landscapes (and other sites) and I quote:
 
January 13, 2009 by Michael Reichmann:
Neatimageis in my experience the most effective and comprehensive program available for reducing and even eliminating noise in either scanned or digital original images

Another -
It all starts with profiling the image, either by loading a camera profile or sampling the image and performing an auto-match. Neat Image also reads the EXIF data to get the model. Setting the sampling patch can be fiddly but once done you can move on to the noise filter settings. There’s also the option to sharpen the image. The results are often nothing short of amazing.

Elsa, your quoted reference is 8 years old, you might want to look at Luminar <https://macphun.com/luminar>. It has very good noise reduction as well as other editing tools. There are several tutorials <https://macphun.com/luminar/video-tutorials> on their website, and a free trial period too. It can be used as a plug in for PS & LR, and Photos on a Mac.

NIK is old tech, things have improved since then. 

[jpgrahn]

Sorry for a late reply!

I have not compared it side by side. When I used NR the most was before I had LightRoom.
With better cameras the need for noise reduction was reduced.
In the beginning the need for noise reduction was so obvious. It just had to be done. Now it's only rarely necessary.
Can't really remember the last time I reached for NR.

[elsa hoffmann]

NIK is old tech, things have improved since then. 

Seems so .... I know of a LOT of people who is going to miss that one. Me not so much - although I do use it occasionally

[armando_m]

Yes Nik is old tech ... but, what's the replacement if it exists ?

I do not do noise reduction with Nik , I use silverefex, and rarely colorefex

[elsa hoffmann]

I only revert to Nik if nothing else satisfies my needs - in terms of B&W usually. I might have used some of the others here and there - but Silver effex is really nice - although I am very aware of the structure slider introducing noise at times. But that's it for me with Nik.

I seem to recall TOPAZ tries to compete with Nik - dont even know if they are still in existence - but they used to anyway. And there are some others here and there selling plug ins or presets or lay overs etc. Seems though most prefer NIK for the B&W though

[Akira]

Dave (David Paterson here) uses Topaz DeNoise noise reduction and seems to like it.

[charlie]

Johan - would you say LR noise reduction is as good or better than Neat Image?

Lightroom used to be terrible at noise reduction, it sort of just turned the picture into something reminiscent of the photoshop painting filters. Some time around version 4 or 5 they figured it out and caught up with the competition. Perhaps this is another reason why Neat Image is not as popular as it once was?