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

Digital noise 67

Keepin’ it neat

Neat Image (www.neatimage.com) is available as a stand-alone

application or as a plug-in. It uses noise-reduction algorithms

that are developed specifi cally for digital photography applica-

tions by a “highly-qualifi ed professional image processing

research group.” These algorithms are claimed to surpass the

quality of classic noise-reduction methods, and even that of the

wavelet-based methods. Neat Image builds and uses device

noise profi les to adapt noise reduction to imaging device. A

device noise profi le is a reusable analysis of noise properties of

an image-acquisition device (digital camera or fi lm scanner)

working in a certain mode. Neat Image lets you build noise

profi les either automatically or manually: Auto Profi ler provides

the easiest and quickest way to automatically build a noise

profi le in just one click, or you can also manually select an image

area for analysis and let Neat Image do the rest. Profi le Matcher

will automatically select the best matching noise profi le from a

ready-made set using the EXIF data of the input image. You can

manually select the desired noise profi le as well, or rely on the

default fi lter settings, or manually adjust the fi lters. You can

easily save and later reuse both noise profi les and fi lter settings.

Although wavelet-based methods
of noise reduction were developed
only 10 to 15 years ago, Neat
Image uses an even newer and
more effi cient approach to noise
reduction. This approach enables
drawing a clearer distinction
between noise and details in noisy
images.