A Fix for Foveon Noise

[Steaphany]

I found a great piece of software, Topaz Labs' DeNoise. Currently, I only have DeNoise installed with a 30 day trial key, so I have limited experience with it so far, but with the results that I've had I now want to run everything shot with my SD14 through DeNoise.

Here is an example:

This is a rough crop from a railroad photo before being processed with DeNoise:



Note the chroma noise in the locomotive's front windows and in the black areas along it's upper side.

Now, this is the output from DeNoise:



All the detail remains, the chroma noise is gone, and even the acceptable bright image areas look cleaner. Another clue that DeNoise is helping is when I process my images to be uploaded to my Imagekind Galleries, the DeNoise processed images, when converted to JPG are slightly smaller.

Topaz Labs has other software products that I'm also trying out but DeNoise is a definite keeper.

[Ed_S]

Steaphany,

Nice job! I've used Noiseware but it's got a fair array of settings/options and I'm not sure with my infrequent use that I've come close to mastering them. Please keep us posted.

Best,

Ed

[Steaphany]

Turns out that my denoised example that I posted the other day needed a bit more work. I was clearly able to eliminate the fine high frequency chroma noise from the locomotive's front windows and black areas, but I did not realize the subtle yet large yellow blotches that were evident on the fuel tank and even along the rail sides and gravel ballast.

I reprocessed the image and got all this low frequency chroma noise out, leaving all the detail intact.  

Here is the result:

[Ed_S]

Steaphany,

Good eye. I didn't notice the yellow areas either in the first attempt. Seems significantly better in your revised example. Good work.

Best,

[Steaphany]

Topaz Labs just posted this Denoise demonstration/tutorial video on youtube:

Topaz DeNoise 3 Tutorial

[jasonh]

I've been having good luck with Nik Dfine lately.  Alas, I only have the 15 day trial and the full version is $99.