Noise Reduction Software - Part Two

Mar 9, 2009

In Part One of this article, I dealt with some of the major aspects of good noise reduction software.  In this part, I will focus on some of the specific packages on the market.

Because I have limited experience with some of the mentioned software, it would not be fair to grade packages down on their noise removal capabilities.  In truth, the tools I use are effective because I’ve spent years using them.  I would be certain that other packages less familiar to me could become indispensable to my arsenal if they were given anywhere close to the amount of time and energy as those that I consider my favorites.  So, I will highlight the particular features that each software contains, and I will let you know how I believe they will work for you given a certain amount of experience.

Again, just because a piece of software might lack key features does not mean that it cannot remove noise.  It just means that it might not move noise as easily or intuitively.

Likewise, if there is indeed something that comes close to a magical NR solution, I’ll be sure to share it.

The Choices

What follows is a table charting most of the main softwares used for noise reduction by astroimagers, listed according to the key criteria mentioned in Part One:

• Noise Ninja and Neat Image have waged a long battle for supremecy in this market, and among astroimagers, the casualties are usually shared quite equally.  Both packages are similarly priced, each coming in both “Home” and “Pro” versions.  The Pro versions expand upon the feature sets, chiefly by incorporating 16-bit processing.  This alone is reason enough to spend more money on the professional packages.  Both software comes as a stand-alone program with an additional Photoshop plug-in as a bonus.  Nice indeed.  Of course, these programs are designed for one purpose - to find noise and eliminate it.  With both automatic and manual options, they do their job very well.  Though at $75 to $80 for a single tool, this lowers both softwares in the “bang-for-the-buck” department.
• Like Noise Ninja and Neat Image, Imagenomics’ Noiseware is a more recent entry into the NR market, and it appears to have very similar functionality at identical price-points.  In fact, Noiseware exists in two key versions, a “Standard” version that is priced like the “Home” versions of the above software, and a “Pro” version.  I have yet to hear of any astroimagers using this package, but it will most certainly share the same pros and cons as Noise Ninja and Neat Image.  The only perceivable difference I can see is that this package does not come in a stand-alone program, but instead comes as a Photoshop plug-in, whereas the “Pro” version provides additional “Photoshop Action” support, but it is unclear if this provides additional functionality to the plug-in beyond a means for batch processing.

The NR landscape changes a bit with the CS3 & CS4 versions of Photoshop.