Appletell reviews Topaz Labs DeNoise 4 Photoshop plug-in
by at June 17, 2010 2:54 pm
Sections: Graphics / Design, Mac Software, Reviews
|
Sign up for the FREE Tell Membership and receive benefits that include the digital edition of Tell Magazine sent straight to your inbox, product giveaways, coupons and much more!
Format: Download
Developer: Topaz Labs
System Requirements: Intel Mac, Mac OS X v10.4 or later, Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, or iPhoto/Aperture/Lightroom through FusionExpress (free download)
Review Computer: 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook, 4GB DDR2 RAM
Price: $79.99 standalone, $179.99 as part of the Topaz Photoshop Plug-In Bundle
Availability: Out now
Demo: Download
Night photographers and iPhone shutterbugs take notice: Topaz Labs DeNoise could easily become the single most important tool for cleaning up your images. Photographers who shoot nighttime images are familiar with the tradeoff between brighter images and noisier (grainier) pictures. Point-and-shoot photographers, and those using their iPhones in low light situations, may simply realize that the pictures they are taking are not quite as clear as they would like (in case you were wondering why that is, DPReview has a great article here). In film photography, film grain could be used to add mood, ambiance, or distinction to a shot. In digital terms, it is unwanted noise that can ruin an otherwise great image. The DeNoise plug-in provides several easy ways to remove this noise and restore your images.
Clean up image noise from high ISO settings
Sometimes, it is not possible to shoot with sufficient lighting, nor desirable to use a flash. Although camera sensors have come a long way in recent years, it is still possible to end up with more noise than is desirable in an image, especially if using a camera with limited settings.
Topaz Labs’ DeNoise is available either as a standalone Photoshop/PS Elements plug-in, or as part of a bundle; iPhoto, Aperture, and Lightroom users can take advantage of the plug-ins through the use of the free Topaz FusionExpress bridge. iPhone users will especially benefit from DeNoise’s abilities, as the automatic ISO on the iPhone makes it a very flexible-but-flawed low light camera. Take this iPhone photo example from a Lady Gaga concert:
The power of all Topaz Labs software lies in their simplicity
Each program comes with several simply-labelled presets and a quick preview pane to show the outcome of each preset. DeNoise 4 comes with presets for both JPEG and RAW formats, with handy labels from “light” to “strongest” to indicate the amount of noise reduction applied. A variety of preview modes is also available to help determine which preset will yield the best results, with full RGB, luminance, color, red, or blue channels available for independent display.
Manual control over all options
For images not instantly fixed by a preset (and these are few and far between, and likely the result of an obsessive photographer), DeNoise also allows manual control over all options. These are carefully grouped into two categories for Noise Reduction and Detail Recovery, and all the sliders are labelled with tool tips indicating what effect each slider has on the image:
This image of Cinderella’s castle in Disneyworld was shot just after dusk with Auto ISO. The “JPEG – strong” preset was almost enough, but the “JPEG – strongest” blurred too much of the castle. Luckily, the “Clean Color” and “Recover Detail” sliders were available, and the end result was postcard perfect.
Any photographer who has struggled to capture crisp images in low light situations will welcome the liberating power of DeNoise. Fear those high ISO numbers no longer, photographers, and do not miss shots because you did not bring a tripod or are not able to use a flash.
Be sure to check out reviews of the rest of the TopazLabs Photoshop Bundle here on Appletell in the coming weeks, and try out the free demo copies of all the Topaz software.
Buy Topaz DeNoise 4 or the Topaz Labs Plug-in Bundle
Also see:
Related Posts