Noise Ninja and do i need it?

[metakephotos]

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I just recently bought Adobe Lightroom 2, but I am also wondering if it is
necessary to get a program like Noise Ninja to help with high noise.<o></o>


<o></o>


So two questions&hellip;<o></o>


Can Lightroom itself handle high noise?<o></o>


&amp;<o></o>


Does Noise Ninja work well?<o></o>


<o></o>


thanks<o></o>

[Garrett-Grimsley]

I've never used Noise Ninja before, but I personally don't like Adobe's noise reduction, it blurs the image too much.

[Dumien]

I've been using it since I read it was a good software on this forum. I am loving it. It works perfectly and the batch processing is simply great, though a bit slow.


I had to process some 100 images from my sister's last ice skating competition -all shot at 1600 ISO on a Rebel XSi- and in almost-fully-automatic batch process it took about half an hour, which for is relatively long, but that's just me.


As far as noise-removing is concerned, I couldn't ask for anything better. =)


hope this helps

[Sinh Nhut Nguyen]

It's good, I regularly use it

[MOF_Sydney]

Personally I use Noiseware (www.imagenomic.com) and have done so for ages. It is the competitor to Noise Ninja and at the time I looked at both products but chose Noiseware. I really couldn't comment on the latest version of Noise Ninja but I am quite happy with Noiseware.


I do a lot of my paid work in low light conditions (plays, musicals, church events) and therefore at high ISO. I must be able to reduce the noise to get a good quality photo. I also need the noise reduction to be subtle enough not to take too much detail out of the photo (though you always lose some). I need a product that allows me to control the amount and type of adjustment made.


I've always found the "default" type noise reduction built into general editing software lacking in subtelty - they make take out the noise but they take half the picture with it.

[George Slusher]

You can get trial versions of Noise Ninja, Noiseware and Neat Image and try them out. There are others, as well, depending upon what OS you use. You'll have to decide which is best for you, depending upon the results and "usability." There are some discussions and reviews, including on dpreview and photozone. I tried out and bought Noise Ninja, first, but have now tried out Noiseware and Neat Image and may buy one of them, as well. Noise Ninja "rescued" several photos where I had a high ISO that wasn't necessary (e.g., moving quickly from an indoor horse show to taking a posed shot outside in the bright sun).

[Alan]

I use Nik's software, Dfine 2. Love it.

[samoksner]

What camera are you shooting, are you shooting at high ISOs often? If you find yourself often with too much noise, i would consider a faster lens or a flash or a better camera, most of the software i've tried, including noise ninja, isn't bad, but it doesn't look very natural, i ue ot for emergencies.

[Madison]

I think Lightroom can handle most noise pretty well, if you know what you are doing. You need unsharp mask (from inside lightroom) to fix some blur or tweak it. That said, dedicated software can sometimes be better. I used to work with Noise Ninja at work (on other people's images, for press purposes), and downloaded Noiseware Pro as a demo at home (for my own photographs).


Both programs are excelent at removing Noise and have a lot of options. I personally prefer Noiseware, because the interface is more user friendly. But that is personal taste. Do what the previous poster says: download and install the demos, and then try the interfaces. Make sure you read the readmes and know what all the options are (so do some good research using the possibhilities and more advanced options of these programs: you will need them at some point).





Then: take the same image, process it three times. Once in Lightroom with proper (!) detail and noise reduction settings incl. masking. Then in the demos you tested, for example Noiseware and Noise Ninja. Compare them on screen but also have them printed at a decent lab. Check the differences.





Then you know which program you like best in terms of workflow and interface and options and final result and you can make the decision that is right for YOU. Because there is no 'good' or 'bad' choice between the three. It depends on your needs and preferences.





Good luck, and have fun with it.