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I was looking for a good noise reduction tool. When I looked on the internet it was not clear to me what would be the best program, so I did some testing.

My main goal is to reduce most of the noise without the use of all the fancy settings. Personally I do not hate some noise in my pictures. Probably because I own a Canon 5D which doesn’t generate much noise at all. But the main reason why I’m looking for noise reduction software has to do with HDR. When I generate a HDR image I always get more noise in my images then I wished for. So I am in need of some good noise reduction tool

Don’t expect too much of this mini test. Basically what I did was the following, I opened the original photo with the appropriate program or plug-in (within Adobe Photoshop CS4). If the program or plug-in had an automatic setting I used that. If not I only used the most basic adjustments/settings to get a decent result. Maybe I am just lazy, but hey I don’t want to spend my precious time with reducing noise.

So the image on the top left is a crop of the original HDR file. (the un-cropped image can be found in the following article "HDR Curacao – misty water"). The other images are the results of one of the following tools:

• Noise Ninja 2.2.1 (Stand Alone)
• Noise Ware 2.6 (Stand Alone)
• Noise Ware 4.2 (Photoshop plug-in)
• Photoshop CS4 (Stand Alone)
• Lightroom 3 (Stand Alone)
• NikSoft Dfine 2 (Photoshop plug-in)
• Neat Image Pro 6.0 (Stand Alone)
• Topaz Denoise 4(Photoshop plug-in)

The most important thing for me is that I don’t loose any important details in the photo, so that is one of the things I based my conclusion on. The other important one is of course the reduction of noise. So I used the images below to pick the best tool (for my use)

Conclusion
The build in functionality in Photoshop and Lightroom affect the details too much, so does Dfine from NikSoft and Topaz Denoise. Noise Ninja and Noiseware (the standalone versions) do a good job. For me the Plug-in version of Noiseware disturbs the details a wee bit too much. (which is strange in my opinion because you would think it would give the same result as the standalone). Neat Image was a disappointment to me. I read some good reviews on the net but in my test-case it doesn’t reduce much noise but does affect the details.

So I need to choose between Noise Ninja and Noiseware. Based on the images below I would say Noiseware 2.6 (standalone). Maybe I need to do some more testing with different photos.

Neat Image Pro 6.0.jpg

NikSoft Dfine 2.0 CS4.jpg

Noiseware 2.6 Standalone.jpg

Noiseware 4.2 CS4.jpg

Photoshop CS4.jpg

Topaz Denoise CS4_crop.jpg

lightroom 3.jpg

noise ninja.jpg

I always liked the idea of showing post processing results on my website via a mouseover script. And I finally found the right WordPress plugin to provide me with this option. “Image mouseover” by Tychay.

So the general idea is that you can show an Gallery 2 image on a WordPress post with a mouseover effect. See the example on the right. (just move your mouse over the photo to see the what I am talking about).

With this option it will be easier and more fun to show the difference between pre and post processing.

So to stick to the example on the right: Following the 7-point system by Scott Kelby I first corrected the white balance (WB) and added some Blacks in Lightroom. Opened the image in Photoshop and did some adjustments to the levels and curves (added more contrast). Upped the saturation (+9) and sharpened a little bit.

I’m not completely satisfied with the result but it was good enough for a small print, and when I have the time I will retry the whole process.
Then I created a layer mask which I used to darken and blur (Gaussian) the background.

I’m not completely satisfied with the result, so when I have some spare time I will retry the whole process.

HDR Cyprus 2009

While we were in Cyprus I was looking for a subject to test my new mini travel tripod from Redged. This little tripod is only 20 centimeters when folded and is strong enough to hold my 5D with battery grip. I bought it with a mini ball head which is also strong enough for my 5D.

But the question was still unanswered, what to do?

On Cyprus there are many locations that have a rocky landscape or even caves. Also many monasteries and churches can be found. All good subjects for HDR.

So I tried some different locations, some worked better than others, but I had some good results. My main issue is to get the right settings in Photomatix and Adobe Photoshop. Sometimes I get it completely wrong, and once in a while (when I am lucky) I get it right. So I still need to practice more.

Nicki-1jr-0mnd-jun09-314.jpg

Last week I did some editing on old photo’s of Nicki, and I decided to combine them in a collection on the site. (Just click on the photo to see the collection.) I did not much editing, just transformed them to black and white with Adobe Lightroom. For some I used the Silver Efex Pro from Nik Software

test MPE-03-2009-064

Today we had a beautiful sunny day, so time to go outside and try my new MPE 65mm.

And it was hard work. First I thought that all the reviews on the internet were a bit exaggerated, when the spoke of a difficult lens, but it was all true. And I loved it.

I can’t say that I have a great result from the beginning, but hey it’s a start. And it looks very promising. I can’t wait to start this journey.

I tried some insects but I’m not experienced enough with this lens at the moment to get the results I’m aiming for. So I tried this little screw which is only 10mm long, and I was surprised by the result. This is only a 1x magnification. I also tried the larger magnifications but they were out of focus.

Test MPE DOF Stack Pyramid

Next was this violet. The photo shown here is a stack of 7 photos. (DOF Stack, I will explain more about that in a later article.) I stacked the image with a program CombineZP.

In short; what such a program does is combine several images with a different focus point so that the final image has a wider DOF. With this lens set on 5x magnification you only have a DOF of 0.048mm at f/2.8 and 0.269mm at f/16. So that is not a lot. So you take several shots in which the focus point shifts by 0.25mm (if lens is set at 5x f/16) and CombineZP merges these images into one.

The last pictures show a Woodlouse. The picture on the left is a handmade stack (I used Adobe Photoshop) out of the two photos on the right.

test MPE-03-2009-142

test MPE-03-2009-142 Stacked

test MPE-03-2009-143

When I shot these I did not had the intension to make stack, so I had to pull some tricks out of my sleeve to get to this result. If you look closely you will see al the imperfections, but hey I am happy with the result.
More to come…

When I was editing some shots from the smoke experiment in Photoshop I got the idea to mirror the smoke and add a gradient coloured layer to the whole. below you see some examples. When you click on the image you will link to the gallery in which more photos are located.

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smoke-dec-2008–002

As planned I tried to shoot smoke pictures. I created a gallery were you will find the first results. I definitely will try more often, to see if I can get a better quality. For now I am satisfied with the result but I wish I would be able to get the smoke a bit clearer. So I’m still looking for some incense that produces lighter smoke.

For those who do not know how to make this kind of pictures:
Use an incense stick to create smoke (smells nice as well while you work), and put some hard light from one side. Use a snoot or barn doors to keep the light from hitting the background. Use black paper as a background and start shooting.

Due to the fact you can’t control the smoke you just shoot (you’ve got to love digital) a lot of shots and hope you are lucky. Make sure you use a small lens opening (large f number i.e. f/22) And set you shutter to the sync speed of your flash (differs from 1/60s to 1/200s).

When you are done, import your photo in Photoshop (or similar program) and inverse the image ([CTRL+I]. If you are happy with the result you are done. If not you can play with the curves [CTRL+M] which can help you to make the smoke more clear. The images on this page were also rotated 180 degrees. (smoke travels up in most cases) Enjoy when you will try for yourself.

smoke-dec-2008–001

smoke-dec-2008–003

[shot with Canon 5D, 24-70mm f/22, studio light]

As some of you know, my wife is pregnant. (Due in June 2008).

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mei_2008-2008-01–007

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Here you will find some portraits of her with a big belly. If you click on the image you are taken to the gallery that shows more photos from the serie.

Most of them are edited in Photoshop and adjusted to black and white. I thought the it was a better match to set them to b&w. But that is a matter of taste. I tried to experiement with high-key and low-key, but this did not worked out as I had in my mind. So I need more time to get the setting right. Later this week I will try to edit a bit more in Photoshop to tune the images a bit better.

poppy

Today I stopped by the road when I saw some poppies. Last summer I already had this idea in my head but never had the opportunity to take the right picture. This one gets close to the initial idea.

The picture has been adjusted in Lightroom, end set to monochrome colours. Then I combined the monochrome image with te original image in Photoshop with the original on top of the monochrome. With the eraser I erased everything from the top layer except the red poppy. You see the result on the right.

This is what I love about digital imaging. 15 years ago I used to get the same result by printing a black & white photo and then colouring with transparant ink. Hell of a job to achieve. And now the result is way better. I will try to scan some of the old photos that were ink coloured, and place them on the site.

[shot with Canon 5D, 24-70mm f2.8, daylight, polarization filter]

You have a bunch of photo’s and they are stored on your hard-drive or maybe you are still using the old-fashioned way of storing your negatives and photos in a large cabinet where they are collecting dust or even worse, eaten by time.

And even worse, every time you want to show off to your friends your dust allergy sticks his head up and you will be sneezing all over your valuable work.

Read the rest of the article – ‘Building a webgallery’