[Leica] CS2 and noise reduction.

[drodgers at casefarms.com (David Rodgers)]

Does anyone ever get tired of needing yet another program or plugin to
accomplish something? Certain things I can understand, but noise
management is pretty central to photography. You'd think PS CS would
have some good tools. 

Sorry, I'm whining. I recently downloaded a highly recommended software
app (not photo related but mainstream). I decided it wasn't the route I
wanted to go, so I tried to uninstall the demo version. First I'm
prompted by several screens to buy the pro version of the software for
$50. Another screen implored me to by the non-pro version for $40. It
was "for my own good". Subsequently I was prompted with a one time offer
of a $10 discount. Finally a coupon for yet another $20 off popped up.
Uninstall should have been "hardsell.exe". Who knows what evil now lurks
inside my PC. Ironically, that's what the software I downloaded was
supposed to tell me.    
 
DaveR 

-----Original Message-----
From: Didier Ludwig [mailto:rangefinder@screengang.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2006 3:16 PM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: Re: [Leica] CS2 and noise reduction. 

Chris

The noise reduce filter of CS2 is quite limited. Third party tools like
like Neat Image or Noise Ninja are much more powerful.

Neat Image
http://www.neatimage.com/
review at luminous landscape
http://tinyurl.com/ac0e 

Noise Ninja:
http://www.picturecode.com/
review at luminous landscape
http://tinyurl.com/ys5tv 

Cheers,
Didier





>Regarding CS2 enhancements, Adobe sayeth: 
>"Expand the usable ISO range of your digital camera and maximize image
quality by reducing the noise from camera sensors as well as film grain.
The advanced controls of Reduce Noise can discretely address the noise
in individual color channels while preserving edge detail, as well as
correcting JPEG compression artifacts."
>To wit:
>Go to Filter drop down menu. 
>Go to Noise.
>Go to Reduce Noise.
>Go nuts wiff yo' bad-ass DMR at higher ISOs. 
>Respectfully, as always, 
>Chris Lawson