If you find your photographs like mine, far from perfect, then I bet you have the need to edit.  One of the main problems from digital cameras today is the amount of noise you will have in your photograph. Even while using a tripod, you may still experience movement. This is one of the first corrections I make in Photoshop, as 99% of my photos are hand-held. I’m sure I’m not alone.

Today we would like to share with you a video describing the benefits from Topaz’s DeNoise, a plugin for Adobe Photoshop designed for fine tuning the noise reduction in your photographs.  While Photoshop and the other photo editing software can adjust the noise in your images, DeNoise makes it quite simple and with results that will leave the amateur photographer in shock as they see their photos correct.  Simply amazing!

DeNoise: How it Works

DeNoise detects correct amount of  noise reduction needed in your image and additional slider adjustments are not necessary unless you want a particular look to your photo..  If you choose to adjust manually, move all slider adjustments to the left.  By moving the ‘Suppress Noise’ lever to the right, your noise will disappear.  You can depress the ‘View Original Image’ tab at any time to view comparisons with the original.

Pros

• Easy to use
• Automatically detects amount of noise reduction
• Preserves the image edges and in some cases will restore edge and line detail
• Six presets for noise reduction and adjustments

Cons

• When using some of the presets, you may lose contrast in your image.
• The price tag.  No, this is not a freebie.

You can download the trial version of DeNoise at Topaz’s website.

Now for some comparisons with a photo I took while at Catalina Island.  As you can imagine, animals outside the zoos are not accustomed to being photographed and not always cooperative.

The Original Image

Other than adjusting the exposure and white balance which I’ll do at a later time, my goal here is to remove as much noise as possible without compromising the definition of the feathers.

Once you install the Topaz plugins, you will be able to find them under filters as shown below.  For this comparison, we will only use the DeNoise plugin.

With each preset you select, you are able to preview the image before making a decision.

The noise was adjusted in this photo using the preset ‘JPEG Strong Noise’  with Topaz DeNoise

The noise was adjusted in this photo using the default noise reduction in Adobe Photoshop.    Though it has a nice smooth appearance, Adobe has lost the definition in the feathers.

Original vs Topaz DeNoise – Edited

At a magnification of 200%, you will see the Topaz DeNoise image on the right has removed the noise.   The background is more smooth and  no real loss in feather definition.

Original vs Adobe Edited

Adobe defaults for noise reduction smoothed too much of the image and lost clarity.  Adobe edited image on the right.

You can manually adjust the noise settings with both Adobe and the plugin, Topaz DeNoise, but when using default settings or presets, you will need to decide how you want your images to appear when you are finished.