Noise reduction software - Free

[Dennis]

Hi

I just downloaded a free copy of a noise reduction application called Noiseware Community Edition from http://www.imagenomic.com/ to see how useful it is.

Image 1 (this post) is without Noiseware and looks gritty.

Image 2 (second post) is after using Noiseware with the default settings and it looks much more pleasing.

The image is of the Tarantula Nebula taken at the Qld Astrofest in 2004 with vixen 4" refractor and an ST7E SBIG ccd camera.

Looks like an excellent free program to improve certain images.

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

This is Image 2 (second post) after using Noiseware with the default settings and it looks much more pleasing.

[iceman]

Holy cow! That 2nd shot looks 3d! Very smooth.

I usually use NeatImage (also free demo) for noise reduction, i'll have to try this one out! Thanks.

[atalas]

Good find Dennis Thanks!



Louie:eyepop:

[videoguy]

Hi Dennis

Dunno..looks good in both but some detail also appears to have been lost in the convolution processing.

I was put on to another nice program called Peiades Noise Reduction at http://pleiades-astrophoto.com/. It works on some images well and sometimes not. But with a little experiment one can achieve some nicely (not too affected) noise reduction.

[iceman]

yeh it's always a trade-off.. in reducing noise you might inadvertently reduce detail as well.. there has to be a balance.. sometimes i've seen NeatImage used too aggressively on moon shots and the craters end up looking smooth and lifeless, way too fake and unnatural looking.

btw dennis that is a superb tarantula shot!

[EddieT]

Dennis, that looks good but I have to agree that too much smoothing has been done. I actually bought Neat Image so that I could process 16-bit Tiffs and usually reduce the default smoothing to between 25 and 50% at all spatial frequencies and turn off sharpening completely. The combination of 100% smoothing and sharpening can result in really smooth images with enhanced detail that although smooth and sharp, end up looking plastic.

I can vouch for Steve's post regarding PixInsight, it's one of the most powerful image prcoessing applications out there, and I'm not just saying that because I'm on the development team :)

[Dennis]

Hi

Thanks for all the comments which I guess are “correct” depending on what the viewer requires from the image. In this case, the noise reduction effect worked for me because it produced a smoother looking image which was; well, simply more pleasing to my eye compared to the somewhat gritty original.

Methinks I'll have to look at PixInsight, given the imaging skills and fame of Steve & Eddie.

Btw Mike - thanks for the complements, I too liked the 3D effect!

Cheers

Dennis

PS - Can anyone please advise me on how I can upload two images in one post should the need arise again? Less that 60k total of course :-)