My experience with DXO vs. DPP vs. no noise reduction
I downloaded the trial version of DXO pro and thought I'd test the differences between it and DPP. I took a RAW image I shot with my 40D which has more noise in certain shots and processed the images 2 ways. First I used DPP to process the image with no luminance or chrominance noise reduction where I left sharpness as shot which is like a plus 4 and a -2 on color saturation. Next I took the same image and processed it but used number 5 luminance and 2 chrominance RAW noise reduction.
In the end I have 3 images one with no noise reduction, one with the DPP reduction that I felt comfortable with and then the no noise reduction image that I then precessed in DXO.
I did not do any specialized things in DXO as I am new to it but I did take some of the preset out of the basic workspace and just selected the corrections for distortion, unsharp mask, noise and chromatic aberration. Images where then loaded into PS CS5 and cropped down about 30 percent at 100 dpi 1500px x 1000px and uploaded to flickr.
What is everyone else's thoughts? Is there something that i did not do correctly or needs to be redone? If in fact DXO does handle noise better then I will most likely buy it down the road but I'm not sure that there is a noticeable difference in my test. I'll keep looking at it for a couple of days and maybe I will have a different opinion.
Images taken off and replaced with new ones below.
Re: My experience with DXO vs. DPP vs. no noise reduction
If I were going to compare noise reduction, I would do this:
* Choose a part of the image that was so noisy that it really needs noise reduction.
* And has very high detail (noise reduction is sometimes a balance between detail and noise).
* View at 100% crop.
A 1500 pixel image roughly corresponds to the detail visible a 4x6 print. If that
Re: My experience with DXO vs. DPP vs. no noise reduction
OK scratch the above images. I don't do a lot of printing where most of my work is done for online. I'm interested in noise reduction that will help my work mainly in this area. I don't use noise reduction very much with the 5D2 but when I do I want to get the best results with the least amount of work. I took your advice Daniel and chose another image shot with the 40D which usually has more noise. This was one of many inventory product shots that i did a few days ago where I had to make them look a lot better then they came out of the camera. I used my 40D this time because I never use it and wanted to give my 5D a break. I never noticed how far off my 40D's display was before but these images where way off in brightness and white balance. Anyways, here are my results from CS5, DPP, DXO, and no noise reduction. I had them at 300dpi and approx 100 percent crop but I shot the images at small resolution so 1936 x 1288px is the original size. Same principal applies from my first post where I was adjusting for nice, quick results using either CS5, DXO and DPP.
[View:http://community.the-digital-picture...neric/utility/http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6135/...9e1f1414_z.jpg original image by freelanceshots, on Flickr:550:0]
[View:http://community.the-digital-picture...neric/utility/http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6142/...562a9842_o.jpg CS5 reduction by freelanceshots, on Flickr:550:0]
[View:http://community.the-digital-picture...neric/utility/http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6029/...07abfb25_o.jpg DXO reduction by freelanceshots, on Flickr:550:0]
[View:http://community.the-digital-picture...neric/utility/http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6014/...3a572a5c_o.jpg DPP reduction by freelanceshots, on Flickr:550:0]
[View:http://community.the-digital-picture...neric/utility/http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6023/...aab65e8d_o.jpg no noise reduction by freelanceshots, on Flickr:550:0]
Re: My experience with DXO vs. DPP vs. no noise reduction
DXO results look the best to me with sharper edges and more contrast.
Re: My experience with DXO vs. DPP vs. no noise reduction
Quote:
Originally Posted by freelanceshots
DXO results look the best to me with sharper edges and more contrast.
Agreed. Some time back, I compared DPP vs. DxO and found that DxO did a better job with NR and other corrections.
Re: My experience with DXO vs. DPP vs. no noise reduction
Quote:
Originally Posted by freelanceshots
DXO results look the best to me with sharper edges and more contrast.
Yes that was my conclusion too.
Re: My experience with DXO vs. DPP vs. no noise reduction
Try downloading a trial of the Topaz Denoise plugin and compare it with DXO pro.
It is less expensive and seems to work better than CS5 or DPP for me.
Re: My experience with DXO vs. DPP vs. no noise reduction
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joel Eade
Try downloading a trial of the Topaz Denoise plugin and compare it with DXO pro.
It is less expensive and seems to work better than CS5 or DPP for me.
I second this. Topaz is a great bit of gear and it is what I currently use.
Re: My experience with DXO vs. DPP vs. no noise reduction
Re: My experience with DXO vs. DPP vs. no noise reduction
Re: My experience with DXO vs. DPP vs. no noise reduction
Looks like the second from last is the best, it has the most dietail and much finer grained noise compared to DPP. The one with CS5 is very close andbut I wouldstill give a slight edge to DxO, but it's very good also.
Here is a situation I routinely come across in birding,soft lighting but high ISO.
[img]/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/24/6685.IMG_5F00_0555-100_2500_-crop.JPG[/img]
[img]/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/24/5025.IMG_5F00_0555_5F00_DxO-TIFF-100_2500_-crop.JPG[/img]
ISO 3200 pushed one stop, 100% crop. I think the difference is clear, but I won't tell just yet! Try to guess which is DPP and DxO.
In higher contrast scenes with deeper shadows were the noise can be even worse the difference can be even more, but I choose this expample because it's closer to what I or other people would shoot in real life. Butif youhave an important image it's nice to have better noise reduction. I have a light hand in noise reduction and this expample could probably NR a little more if you wanted.
Cheers,
John.
Re: My experience with DXO vs. DPP vs. no noise reduction
Has anyone used noise ninja? A lot of the newpaper orgs use it.
Fast glass what are the noise reduction settings in DPP that you are using? I find that if you tweak the the 2 noise setting in DPP plus play with the sharpness you can improve on the image that I took and make it look much closer to CS5 and Dxo image.
Using CS5 I can go in and do way more to control noise with different selections and tricks so for me that is where I do all my tweaking. For the person who does not know or want to hassle with the extra steps then the DXO one step noise reduction is probably the better solution.
I think it would make for a good demo/assignment for someone to come up with an image that needs help with noise and they submit it here so that people can download it and do their best with what ever tools they use and see which one is the best. The top picks tell what they did in detail to achieve their high marks. I think we all might, could or will learn something.
My question to myself is DXO worth spending the extra 170 dollars? Can I achieve similar results with what I have on hand already. Sure if I had money falling out of my pockets I
Re: My experience with DXO vs. DPP vs. no noise reduction
@Bryan in your shots I think DPP looks better, but softer. Unfortunately that
Re: My experience with DXO vs. DPP vs. no noise reduction
Anyone have a RAW image file of a good, well composed image that has noise issues that we can use? We seem to have a variety of people who have access to different software so I think it would be fun to see the differences. I will look into the topaz software for $80.00 but I will leave that up to someone else to use it. I will look for a noisy image of mine and see what I can come up with.
Re: My experience with DXO vs. DPP vs. no noise reduction
Quote:
Originally Posted by William
it looks like DXO is the second one in your set.
Ding ding ding, we have a winner![:)]
At Bryan.
I used 4 on the luminance and 20 (max) on the crominance. I tried tweeking it some more but it just became a trade off between how sharp to how much noise, any sharper the noise would be much higher and any more NR itwouldbe much softer.
Interesting thread and even more how it got started[:)]
John.
Re: My experience with DXO vs. DPP vs. no noise reduction
For me, it's about more than just noise. I tried Noise Ninja, and found it similar to DxO (and better than DPP and PS) for what it does. I haven't tried Topaz. However, DxO is a complete package and it's lens corrections are better than those available with ACR.
Here's an example of multiple corrections needed, noise, sharpness, and especially geometry:
[img]/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer-Components-UserFiles/00-00-00-35-15/Art-Appreciation-Uncorrected.JPG[/img] http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5242/...5800e33607.jpg
Re: My experience with DXO vs. DPP vs. no noise reduction
Thats exactly why I bought it, coming from DPP it was a no brainer. Plus I got the standard version on sale $100, and the Elite was $200. They have sale every year if your interested.
John.
Re: My experience with DXO vs. DPP vs. no noise reduction
Any of you guys have experience with the NIK noise reduction software? I
Re: My experience with DXO vs. DPP vs. no noise reduction
I'm liking the DXO pro the more I use it. I don't use all the features but I like the noise reduction and chromatic aberration features. Wish they offered a basic no thrills version for around 30 bucks.
Re: My experience with DXO vs. DPP vs. no noise reduction
