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Photography - Post-Production/Photo-Editing (Photoshop): Noise Reduction in Photoshop

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    • CommentAuthorandrewgould
    • CommentTimeFeb 27th 2008 edited
     
    Hi everyone.

    I thought I'd get this section of the forum started off with the above topic as I'd mentioned in my latest upload that I'd used this on the skin tones of this 1600 ISO shot. There was some interest, so I posted the details.

    At the moment, you can see the photo on my home page here: Andrew Gould's Home Page

    I have a worry about linking to the photoblogs, though -- and maybe Jason or Aaron can advise me (us) on this. Obviously, when I upload a new photo, the one that I'm referring to here will no longer be at this link on my home page. It's the same with the portfolio pages. I can see that it's address will also change there when a newer photo is added. Is there a way around this?

    My second worry is that I can't get my home page to appear as a link. Help please, Jason, Aaron or anybody!

    Sorry about interupting the post with this, but I feel it's vital to get these kind of things worked out to be able to use the forum effectively.

    Ok, now back to the noise reduction...

    Have a look at the photo if you want to see the result of this, but here's the part of the text from it that describes the process:

    "Open the image in Photoshop. Click on the Filter menu, and select Reduce Noise. On History menu, either right click on Reduce Noise and select New Snapshot or (click on the camera icon in the middle of the bottom of the History menu frame, which does the same thing. Click in the box to the left of the words "Reduce Noise" and click on the name of the file at the top of the History menu window. Select the History Brush from the tools on the left and set the opacity to 100% if you want the full effect of the noise reduction (or use a lower percentage for less noise removal in places). Now you can use the History Brush to selectively paint in the noise reduction where you like. Do this with the image set at a high enough magnification so you can clean up in between lines without brushing over them where you want detail to remain. Try reducing the brush size (by right clicking it) to get into smaller areas between lines, etc. Save the changes and you're done."

    (By the way, I also use the New Snapshot method, as above, in conjunction with sharpening and other filters and tools)

    I'm wondering if any of you have alternative methods for reducing noise. I actually don't have a great problem with noise usually with my Canon 350D, but with a previous camera I tried out both Neat Image and Noise Ninja. This was about three years ago, and I suppose that the software may have improved by now, but I have to say that at the time, I was not at all satisfied with the results. To get enough reduction in noise, detail was unacceptably reduced. I am, though, very happy with what I can do in Photoshop without having to buy any extra software or plugins.
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    I use CS3 and I open up my jpegs and raw images in Camera Raw now, it has a noise reduction setting that works on both types of files. Works best at 100%. Also lightroom is pretty ok for removing noise, and If all else fails you can use the software that came with your camera. In my case I have Digital Photographer Pro from Canon.
    • CommentAuthorjuant3
    • CommentTimeFeb 28th 2008
     
    @ andrewgould
    Quote: "I have a worry about linking to the photoblogs, though -- and maybe Jason or Aaron can advise me (us) on this. Obviously, when I upload a new photo, the one that I'm referring to here will no longer be at this link on my home page. It's the same with the portfolio pages. I can see that it's address will also change there when a newer photo is added. Is there a way around this?"

    -- > I am not sure if you already got an answer to this question! But usually when you want to link an image from your page, then it is easier to use this format: http://username.aminus3.com/image/YYYY-MM-DD.html Example: http://juant3.aminus3.com/image/2008-02-28.html will always take you to the image I posted today Feb. 28. Also, if you want to post something from your Portfolio page, I advice you to first look for that photo under your Archive page and take the link from there. Hope this helps...

    Now, this part I couldn't understand what you meant: "My second worry is that I can't get my home page to appear as a link."
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      CommentAuthorannesgallery
    • CommentTimeFeb 29th 2008 edited
     
    Hi Andrew:

    With regard to linking on here back to your photoblog - I have taken the liberty of editing your post and putting the link in to your home page. You do it on here in BB code - the same code as on your blog if you look at it when you have clicked on the url button. Go to the Edit link and you will see how it is written. I cant type it for you on here to show you or it would just turn out as a link. But it is [left squarebracket url=http://username.aminus3.com/image/date] close square bracket -give your link a name [left squarebracket/url] all without any spaces.
    Hope this posts without it trying to make a useless url. Make sure the BBCode radio button is checked - not Text. You don't even have to type the url in - just copy and paste it from the photo you want to link to right afer url=

    Hope this helps!!
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    PS. Andrew! A lovely photo I linked to when I edited your post!
    • CommentAuthorandrewgould
    • CommentTimeMar 6th 2008 edited
     
    Very nice to see this good response to my post. Sorry for taking so long to reply, but here I am.

    perspectivs wrote:
    "I use CS3 and I open up my jpegs and raw images in Camera Raw now, it has a noise reduction setting that works on both types of files. Works best at 100%. Also lightroom is pretty ok for removing noise, and If all else fails you can use the software that came with your camera. In my case I have Digital Photographer Pro from Canon."

    Don't you find that you lose sharpness in detail in lines/edges removing noise this way? Perhaps you're refering to situations where noise is slightly noticeable. In the photo linked to this post, it was extremely objectionable. Because of this, I had to set noise removal at a very high leel and use it selectively.

    juant3 wrote:
    "...Also, if you want to post something from your Portfolio page, I advice you to first look for that photo under your Archive page and take the link from there. Hope this helps...

    Now, this part I couldn't understand what you meant: 'My second worry is that I can't get my home page to appear as a link.' "

    Thanks for the advice about linking to the image via the Archive page. This is the solution as even your latest upload has a distinctive name there. What I meant about not being able to get my home page appear as a link was this very problem of the latest photo uploaded having my subdomain address, which in my case is http://andrewgould.aminus3.com/ When I upload a new photo, of course, that one will appear on a link to the home page, rather than the previous one.

    Sorry if I wasn't clear enough about this, but you've solved the problem, anyway, so thanks!


    annesgallery wrote:
    ".... Make sure the BBCode radio button is checked - not Text."

    It seems to me then that it's necessary to use the BBCode AND check the button. I'll try that next time, as it wasn't clear to me. I do wish, though, that things could be simpler, and that we could at least have a button to click to insert the code to link to a web address as we do on our photoblog pages.

    Thanks for adding the link and glad you like the photo, Anne!
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      CommentAuthorannesgallery
    • CommentTimeMar 7th 2008 edited
     
    You are welcome Andrew! I know it was a bit of a murky explanation - I don't know why I didn't think of unchecking my BBCode button at the time and putting the Text button on instead. That way I can type the links without them making a url for your page. Must have been half asleep!

    Your home page or current photo will always be [url=http://andrewgould.aminus3.com]Curent Photo Name[/url]
    An older photo will have the address that is in the address bar for that page eg. [url=http://andrewgould.aminus3.com/image/2008-02-25.html]Nice Bridesmaid Photo[/url]

    Not much more difficult than pressing the url button on the photoblog: You have to type in the name you want to call your link there - then highlight it - then press the URL Button and you still have to paste in a web address for whatever link you are leaving. The only thing that the button does is put the 'url tags' in for you. So its not really so bad once you try it.

    PS. I am in the wrong thread for posting this kind of thing - but answered it here because it was all in with your post about processing. Will have to try and keep things in the right places so other members can find them.
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    You do loose a certain amount of sharpness using NR routines, you can use them selectively though and try and mitigate some of the noise. I have tried using Nik Dfine 2.0 which is a noise reduction program and you can use it very selectively. There is a 15 day trial and some tutorials on there homepage http://www.niksoftware.com/index/usa/entry.php I did see a link someplace about using channels and surface blur as well. I will try and see if I can find it again. Sometime noise is gonna be stubborn. if its on faces though you can get away with some softness. Sometimes when I use NR and I scrubbed to hard I try and save detail by using unsharp mask as a local contrast adjustment, it makes the image pop and doesn't sharpen. The settings are : Amount 20, Radius 60. Threshold 0. I use that mostly to defog the image and make it crisper. An example is here : http://perspectives.aminus3.com/image/2008-03-06.html
    ISO 1600 image I did the other day. I also have a couple of ISO 3200 images, they would be ok to print as 4x6 but nothing larger.
    • CommentAuthorandrewgould
    • CommentTimeJun 27th 2008 edited
     
    I have subscribe to forum, category and discussion on but am not getting notification of replies to this thread. (I'll mention that in a specific post on the matter.)

    Thanks, Anne, for your further explanation and thanks to perspectives for the explanantion on how to do that with the unsharp mask. The faces in the photo look free of noise to me.

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