Well after playing around with Topaz Adjust, and trying a lot of 'extreme' processings on throwaway shots, I also have begun to experiment with how to use Adjust much more mellowly, for helping boost contrast and color in some average shots to make them pop more without crossing the line into artificial. And I also decided now would be a good time to try out the Topaz De-Noise software. ; I still have a fairly established workflow with PSP8 and Helicon noise filter that works well for a majority of my shots, but I think I may be finding a little more recovery room and more detail in my cleaned-up high ISO shots (1600 & 3200). Here's an example of a harsh ISO3200 shot in POTC - 1600 is really the solid limit for my camera, with 3200 pushing it over the line into quite a bit of noise. ; I cleaned it with my normal processing technique in Helicon then tried to process a bit on my own in PSP8, and the best I could get was this: [attachimg=1] I opened up the original and tried reprocessing using just a few quick steps - 1. I denoised it, adjusting the sliders within the program to tune the reduction just how I like it. ; 2. I ran it through Adjust, using the 'clarify' default, and adjusting the sliders again to tune as I liked it. ; Then resize and upload. ; Here's the newer version (click for the 800 pixel wide version): What do you think? ; It's subtle, but I'm seeing a pretty strong increase in detail in the crate, barrell, hair, and leaves. ; Chroma noise is gone, and luminance is reasonably controlled without going into plastic-look (other than the fact that the subjects ARE plastic!). DeNoise takes quite a while to process - but it seems to preserve detail pretty well, especially in extreme noise situations. ; I've only ever used NeatImage, Helicon, and now this...so I can't compare to other noise programs. ; But for the package deal, it seems like a worthy addition as another alternative! [attachment deleted by admin]
Thanks Craig. ; It does make a respectable difference. ; My usual processing for these types of photos wasn't too different from any other photo - but with extreme cases like these, where they are badly underexposed, way off on white balance, and have a ton of noise from high ISO, they really just weren't coming out looking clean enough, retaining enough detail, or having sufficient saturation and contrast. ; Using these two plugins really does help get a lot more out of the shots. ; Even with a 2GB RAM machine (not super-fast, but not the slowest either), a 10MP photo runs around 5-6 minutes in DeNoise to complete. ; So it's slow - but I would only be using it for extreme photos like these, so the speed doesn't bother me considering the much better results.
