Better Available Light Digital Photography : How to Make the Most of Your Night and Low-light Shots

Digital noise 69

Applied science fi ction

Kodak’s (www.asf.com) Austin Development Center offers a

$99 Digital GEM Professional Photoshop-compatible plug-in

that supports 16-bit color images and provides Coarse/Noise and

Fine/Grain noise suppression. Each algorithm is customized for

different types of image noise and grain, and has separate con-

trols. The Coarse/Noise is aggressive and works better for

extreme noise problems. Fine/Grain is not as aggressive, and is

tuned to remove grain as well as noise while preserving detail.

Digital GEM Pro offers a Noise Preview Screen that lets you

view the noise or grain you want to reduce. Adjustments can be

made to defi ne how much noise/grain versus image detail you

want to change. You can then toggle back and forth between

Before, After, and Noise Preview screens, and make adjustments

to see the how the plug-in can improve the image.

Grain Surgery reduces digital noise and fi lm grain, reduces JPEG compression artifacts, and will even remove
halftone patterns from scans. The interface provides easy access to all settings, provides a wonderfully useful
split-screen comparison window, and lets you save your settings and reload them later for similar image fi les.
© 2006 Joe Farace.