68 Better Available Light Digital Photography
Combining the high-noise- inducing
elements of slow shutter speed
(1/6 sec) and high ISO setting
(1600) and shot under low avail-
able light on the fl oor of a photo-
graphic trade show, this image
has digital noise written all over
it. Final exposure was 1/6 sec at
f/13, and what minimal sharpness
appears was obtained because the
Samsung GX-10 used has image
stabilization (See Chapter 5)
built into the camera body. Neat
Image noise-reduction software
was used to minimize the digital
noise and produce a more than
acceptable result. © 2007 Joe
Farace.
The Home version costs $29.90; the Pro version, which provides
full support for both 24- and 48-bit images and works with
Photoshop Actions, costs $59.90.Visual infi nity
Grain Surgery (www.visinf.com) can reduce digital noise and
fi lm grain. This is an industrial-strength plug-in and is priced
like one ($179). Grain Surgery cleans up digital noise and fi lm
grain, reduces JPEG compression artifacts, and removes half-
tone patterns from scans. The interface provides easy access to
all settings, provides a useful split-window preview, and lets you
save settings to reuse them later. You can also add grain, and the
plug-in ships with presets for common fi lm stocks. A Sample
Grain module lets you create and manage custom grain libraries
pulled from your own images. The Auto Match Grain module
has one-click duplication of grain from fi lm, like Ilford’s 3200,
a personal favorite.