noise reduction in ACR

hello,

we've been shooting a lot of photos for various events. i don't like the options ACR offers to reduce noise as it seems virtually non-effective.

questions:

1. is there a way to reduce noise in ACR that i don't know about which is more effective for low light, wedding style shots?

2. if not, is there any other option aside from setting up an action in CS2 to reduce noise in every .jpg?

thanks to all for your help in advance and have a great week. gotta get back to processing now.

Joe,

Joe Schiavo said:

hello,
we've been shooting a lot of photos for various events. i don't like the options ACR offers to reduce noise as it seems virtually non-effective.
questions:
1. is there a way to reduce noise in ACR that i don't know about which is more effective for low light, wedding style shots?

Click to expand...

The combination of color noise reduciton and luminance smoothing can definitely help, although even this combo cannot totally salvage ISO3200 15sec exposure

Joe Schiavo said:

2. if not, is there any other option aside from setting up an action in CS2 to reduce noise in every .jpg?

Click to expand...

AFAIK, both Noise Ninja and Neat Image have the batch modes, at least in their advanced (=most expensive) editions. NN also has a PS action

HTH

thanks...

is there a place where i can purchase the Noise Ninja action for CS2? sorry for the "dumb" question if it is

thank you so much for your help.

http://www.picturecode.com/

Highly recommended

Joe Schiavo said:

hello,

we've been shooting a lot of photos for various events. i don't like the options ACR offers to reduce noise as it seems virtually non-effective.

Click to expand...

You may already know this, but noise reduction and sharpening only have a visible effect in the ACR dialog while zoomed in 1:1. So you have to judge them zoomed all the way in, or from the opened or saved photo. (NR and sharpening take too long to apply to the entire image for a zoomed out view.)

I won't claim we have the best NR available, but "virtually non-effective" makes me think my own opinion the first time I tried the slider with a whole image in the dialog and said "Hey, that isn't doing anything..." And in fact, it isn't

-Z-

Thanks Z!

Seeing things at 1:1 is obviously so important, but this seems to escape a lot of people at first!

We are so fortunate to have such tools available commercially in an integrated fashion. It's a privilege to have another smrat guy in our midst! You participation is very much appreciated.

We are a unique community with a lot of experts and competent professionals and even those new to digital photography. Thank goodness we don't have fights about platforms or make of camera. It's all about making an image fit one's vision. That, because of the many new dimensions in which digtial files can be adjusted, allows us to expect perfection where that was not even imagined with film.

Thanks for being available to provide guidance. Welcome to this new community!

Asher

While I am in total agreement that the NR in ACR is very effective within its limits, when you want to use a full NR product, you might want to give Noiseware a try as well. Quite good. All 2 are good...NW, NN, NI...it is a matter of which appeals to you. I like Noiseware. You should try them all before you choose...

This is Noiseware:
http://www.imagenomic.com/

And of course, if you like NN, or having your quality Noise reduciton as an integrated rather then extras step, Bibble 4 has had noise ninja integrated into the raw pipeline for quite some time.


Eric
www.bibblelabs.com

I think the noise reduction in ACR works great! It removes all the color noise, leaving what looks a lot like fine grain, and leaving the image sharp.
Too bad I can't get colors I like with ACR..