Digital noise, you know, those disturbing little clumps and off color fringing that sometimes shows up in long exposures, blue skies, solid colors and shadows.

These unwelcome image artifacts are today’s digital equivalent of old fashion film grain. Just like film grain, digital noise does not show in every image, only the prize shot that you want to make into a 20” x 30” salon print; or, so it seems.

Over the past year, I have been using a fantastic noise reduction tool beginning with it’s beta trial. This software is the greatest thing since…..well, you know.

Noise Ninja was developed by Jim Christian (PictureCode) using mathematical wavelet technology which is similar in function to fractals and vectors. That is, it represents the image as a mathematical equation instead of as individual pixels.

The end result is a minimum of a full two stop improvement in digital noise reduction!! Most noise reduction software results in decreased resolution much like a softening filter. NOT THIS ONE! You may actually see a slight increase in detail and color fidelity in many images.

Noise Ninja 2.1 is available as a stand alone OR as a “plug in” and works with both the Windows platform and MAC OS X. It is extremely efficient, fast, and able to process and output images in 8 or 16 bit depths. It can also use multiple processors and or Intel Hyper-Threading. The GUI is very intuitive and will either work in an “Auto” mode or with advanced user controls.

You simply build a profile for your camera(s) and or scanner with the supplied test file and apply it to your images early in the workflow. If you don’t want to bother with making profiles, the program also has a very accurate “auto profile” system which can be run on each image. In addition, the PictureCode website has profiles for many of the popular cameras and scanners D100, D70, Rebel, 20D, etc.

You can also process images individually and or in a batch mode.

Check the three examples on the following page. The first is the full image from a 30 MB file that would print 9” x 13” @300 dpi. The second one is a small section of the image blown up to 18” x 26” @ 300dpi WITHOUT Noise Ninja processing. The final example is the same enlarged section using Noise Ninja.

You may have to “zoom” (view –zoom) to 150% to really see the dramatic impact since the conversion to .jpg and HTML masks some of the image noise with their own compression artifacts.

we are always looking for ways to improve our displayed digital images and you may find that Noise Ninja is a worthwhile addition to your toolbox. If you have any questions about this stuff, give me a call or drop an Email.

EXAMPLES

Original 12” x 13” with Noise Ninja

Small section 24 x 26” (print size) Without Noise Ninja

With Noise Ninja Processing

Take me Back