Ara remix

[Peter Ward]

Taking Marc's excellent lead, I mused on whether a re-process of my own Ara data was in order.

Topaz have a new tool/Plug-in called Denoise AI....which received its debut on my PC with the image linked below.

My feelings on the plug-in are mixed, as it automatically sharpens (complete with artifacts) and reduces noise,
with little user ability to argue with the AI eg:

"I'm sorry Dave , I'm afraid I can't do that"

Anyway, as I have a penchant for prancing horses , I still went ahead with the remix.

The link is here

[multiweb (Marc)]

That's the shot I used as reference. I got TOPAZ lab but never tried denoise. Will download the free trial and give it a go. I find noiseware professional from imagenomic very good with a lot of control. I also have noise ninja, neat image and the noise reduction in startools on linear files. In PS noiseware gives me the best results. In the linear FIT/TIFF files startools does the better noise reduction.

PS: tried the trial version on 16bit stretched TIFF files. I think it does a real good job at that image scale. Sure there's a subtle moire in the background but nothing like the original noise. The rosette shot in particular has bad SNR (only 2h) and it amazingly still managed to clean that out. What do you reckon?

[multiweb (Marc)]

hmmm... you're right it's not clear cut. In this area of the lagoon with a much better SNR it does obliterate some of the smaller stars including the modifying the outline of the dark bok and removing some of them entirely.

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by multiweb

hmmm... you're right it's not clear cut. In this area of the lagoon with a much better SNR it does obliterate some of the smaller stars including the modifying the outline of the dark bok and removing some of them entirely.

The standard Topaz DeNoise plug in has a fair bit of control, but even then I only ever mask then layer it into shadow regions.

The AI version only has 3 controls..with detail recovery and sharpening turned off and a very low setting
for noise reduction, it's not bad, but no breakthrough either.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

The standard Topaz DeNoise plug in has a fair bit of control, but even then I only ever mask then layer it into shadow regions.

The AI version only has 3 controls..with detail recovery and sharpening turned off and a very low setting
for noise reduction, it's not bad, but no breakthrough either.

I did a little more testing. It performs very well when there's a lot of noise but get rids of real features if the noise is minimal. It also clearly struggles with boundaries and edges between bright and dark. But overall it's good if you haven't got much integration time, a lot of noise and still want to present something. No free lunch though.

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

That's truly magnificent Peter. Very sharp, of course. The level of contrast in particular is exquisitely chosen.

We looked after someone else's stallion for about a year. Sir Percival Prance-a-lot. He was very gentle, but had an eye for the ladies, and was undeterred by barbed wire fences, which took chunks off him but not his amorousness.

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by Placidus

That's truly magnificent Peter. Very sharp, of course. The level of contrast in particular is exquisitely chosen.

We looked after someone else's stallion for about a year. Sir Percival Prance-a-lot. He was very gentle, but had an eye for the ladies, and was undeterred by barbed wire fences, which took chunks off him but not his amorousness.

Poor Percy...hope he is still doing OK. The prancing horse to which I refer is a little different...it sits on the front bonnet of a car, that APIA (Australian Pensioner's Insurance Association) point blank refused to insure...even though I am now a pensioner! Unreasonable bean-counters!.. for the most part it lives in my garage....the other 320 horsies are somewhere under the back bonnet.