Beyond the Basics - RAW 101: Better Images with Photoshop and Photoshop Elements - page 78

When to Look into Other Tools

To be honest, the noise reduction tools in Adobe Camera Raw don't offer the level of control that
will take care of every noise problem you encounter. Some other tools available that can work
minor miracles on your noise plagued images are available. These other tools have a couple of
drawbacks that you should consider, though. First, they are an extra expense. Second, these pro-
grams don't work on the RAW images, so you'll need to do all your conversions first and then run
the image, either a TIFF (recommended) or JPEG through their noise-reduction process. Finally,
using them adds an extra step in the workflow. With these caveats in mind, I recommend any of
the following for those really tough noise problems. Each of the applications listed here works on
both Macintosh OS X and Windows XP systems.
Noise Ninja ( www.picturecode.com ) This includes both stand-alone and Photoshop and Pho-
toshop Elements plug-in versions. The program includes numerous profiles for specific cameras and
includes information on how to create your own profiles. Noise Ninja does the best job of lumi-
nance noise reduction of any program I've tried. I recommend getting the Pro version, which sup-
ports 16-bit images and batch-processing options. The Pro version costs about $80, and it includes
the plug-in and the stand-alone version.
nik Dfine ( www.nikmultimedia.com ) This is a Photoshop and Photoshop Elements plug-in.
Dfine has the most intuitive interface of the noise-reduction programs listed here, and it does a
particularly good job with color noise reduction. If you use any of the other nik products, such as
Sharpener Pro or Color Efex, Dfine will be easy to understand and use. It runs at around $100.
Neat Image ( www.neatimage.com ) This is the other strong contender for noise reduction.
Neat Image and Noise Ninja compete for best results on many images. Neat Image also has a
stand-alone and plug-in version of the program. The stand-alone version supports batch process-
ing and 16-bit files. The Windows Pro bundle, which includes both versions, costs under $80; and
the Mac version is under $40.
My Recommendation If you frequently find yourself making adjustments to RAW images in
Camera Raw but aren't happy with the results, take a look at one of these programs. All three work
on Macintosh or Windows systems, and all work with Photoshop Elements and Photoshop. I recom-
mend Noise Ninja. It does the best overall job and is significantly faster than the other options. All
of them have free trial versions available, try them out and see which suits your needs best.

78

Converting to Black and White

Black-and-white photography has been enjoying an increase in popularity these days, in
part due to the ease of converting digital images from color to grayscale. Image-editing
programs like Photoshop Elements and Photoshop have always supported converting
digital images to grayscale, although not always with the greatest results.