Hear That Noise? – More 1 Handed Photoshop

 

In this week’s video tutorial I take a look at noise and the different ways to reduce it. In the past, I thought that Photoshop, Camera Raw or Lightroom could clean up noise fairly well, and they can. Severe noise was another story and I thought I was just stuck with it. But then I learned what 3rd party plugins could do.

Talk about a difference! I was able to save images that I thought were lost to the noise. I mean we were talking the image versions of a heavy metal concert. Then I had a shoot where I got nothing but noise all day long. Shot after shot of noise infested images.

Check out the video and what I do about noise by clicking the link.
I broke down in desperation and bought Noiseware from Imagenomic (they also make Portraiture). I got it because I got a discount on it from being a member of NAPP. OMG what a difference! This stuff was astounding. It literally saved my entire day of shooting. From none of the image being usable to all of them being usable!

Then last week I got the most recent copy of Digital Photo Pro and they had a short piece on reducing noise. I thought “Great! I can use noise and maybe some of their tips for my next blog post. Their tips didn’t really work for me. The first step in the tutorial is very similar to what they were suggesting. Watch the video and see how it turned out.

So now you know why I use plugins. Simply put, they work. And if they save me time and effort and they work better, buy them. You will never look back. It’s not important that you buy the same versions I use. Get what works for you and your work flow. These are just what works for me. most have trial versions that you can try out so give them a shot!

Until next time…

Happy Shooting!

2 replies
  2. Duncan Long
    Duncan Long says:

    Interesting blog – and this has certainly been my experience when working with photos. That said, Noise Ninja (I haven’t tried Noisewear) tends to also smooth/soften pictures which can result in a paint-like look which some may find useful — or disastrous depending on what is trying to be achieved.

    I sometimes add noise to my illustrations, especially metal surfaces and skin as it seems to make them appear more realistic for reasons I can’t quite figure out. Perhaps you could address this in a future column.

    –Duncan
    =====================
    Freelance illustrator for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, etc. See my cover illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html

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