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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Photo editing and NR software (1 Viewer)

Steve Babbs

Steve Babbs

Well-known member
Hi all

I know this has been discussed in a number of threads, but, to save me ploughing through loads, and as others must be in the same position, I'd appreciated some advice. At present I use DPP to convert my photos to a Tiff, and then edit them with Paintshop Pro XI. I occasionally use the free version of neat image to reduce the noise.

I feel I do really need to be more systematic, especially when it comes to reducing noise. I suspect I should splash some cash. I wondering if Lightroom 5 would be my best bet for conversion, noise reduction and editing. It's on special offer at the moment with 30% off.

Any thoughts?
 
Try googling nik dfine I use it although in photoshop & not paintshop pro & find it great.Noise ninja is another good piece of software.

Cheers.

Steve.
 
It's a bit hard to tell from your message what exactly you are looking for, Steve.

If you are specifically looking for noise reduction then there's better software available (specialized for just this purpose). If you're looking for a general duty program then Lightroom might be what you want. (Certainly converting from raw and then editing is not the best way to go.)

I'm a very happy user of Lightroom myself, but haven't updated to the latest version (it won't run my current OS for starters). What I like most:

- Cataloguing is excellent, allows quick finding of anything you might want (but requires some effort to set up). You can also define all sorts of collections without the photos being duplicated.

- I find editing intuitive and can do what I want with a photo in a few minutes most of the time.

- It stores the instructions you want to apply to the raw file - it doesn't modify the original, and so doesn't require you to store the `untouched negatives' elsewhere. You can then export to a format and quality depending on purpose (printing, web publishing, email attachment). I like the idea that as software improves, I can go back to the original raw image without keeping separately archived copies. It also means that you can reset previous choices quite easily.

Adobe does offer discounts to those working in education, and their verification process is not too arduous. It's worth checking whether this would give you a better discount.

Andrea
 
free 30 day trial on lightroom 5 so download it and see. i use a freebie called neat image, very good as well.
 
Steve Babbs said:
Hi all

I know this has been discussed in a number of threads, but, to save me ploughing through loads, and as others must be in the same position, I'd appreciated some advice. At present I use DPP to convert my photos to a Tiff, and then edit them with Paintshop Pro XI. I occasionally use the free version of neat image to reduce the noise.

I feel I do really need to be more systematic, especially when it comes to reducing noise. I suspect I should splash some cash. I wondering if Lightroom 5 would be my best bet for conversion, noise reduction and editing. It's on special offer at the moment with 30% off.

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

I use Lightroom for my processing. If I need additional noise reduction then I have the Topaz DeNoise plug-in. I used to use DeNoise a lot with the canon 500D shot at 800 iso, but since upgrading to the 5D3, it isn't getting as much use.
 
kitefarrago said:
It's a bit hard to tell from your message what exactly you are looking for, Steve.

If you are specifically looking for noise reduction then there's better software available (specialized for just this purpose). If you're looking for a general duty program then Lightroom might be what you want. (Certainly converting from raw and then editing is not the best way to go.)

I'm a very happy user of Lightroom myself, but haven't updated to the latest version (it won't run my current OS for starters). What I like most:

- Cataloguing is excellent, allows quick finding of anything you might want (but requires some effort to set up). You can also define all sorts of collections without the photos being duplicated.

- I find editing intuitive and can do what I want with a photo in a few minutes most of the time.

- It stores the instructions you want to apply to the raw file - it doesn't modify the original, and so doesn't require you to store the `untouched negatives' elsewhere. You can then export to a format and quality depending on purpose (printing, web publishing, email attachment). I like the idea that as software improves, I can go back to the original raw image without keeping separately archived copies. It also means that you can reset previous choices quite easily.

Adobe does offer discounts to those working in education, and their verification process is not too arduous. It's worth checking whether this would give you a better discount.

Andrea[/QUOT

I'm trying to get a better work flow, to move between programs less and to get better at noise reduction - which I do feel is a weak point at the moment.

I am, in theory, entitled to the educational discount. But with about £20 difference at the moment, I'm not sure I can be bothered with the hassle. E.g. it asks for photo id from your place of employment; that just doesn't exist at my school.

I've down loaded the free trail it's not especially easy to work out without giving it a lot of time, but I will try to find that time.
Click to expand...
 
Steve,

I am a fan of LR and I use it almost solely without any other s/w or workflow. Make sure you have a good spec PC though as it can be quite demanding on memory. My LR4 allows some masking and selective manipulation that works for me much of the time and I don't need any TIFF files as I export as jpg for small-scale printing and uploading.

There are other advantages from LR in terms of cataloging your images which I also find really helpful.
 
Steve Babbs said:
I've down loaded the free trail it's not especially easy to work out without giving it a lot of time, but I will try to find that time.
Click to expand...

If you search for `Lightroom Workflow' you should get some very good looking results. I'd definitely suggest browsing through some of those.

Typically I do:

- Import new pictures (you can define presets you want to apply to all those pictures, but that's maybe a bit too advanced)

- Enter suitable keywords (I sometimes delay this until later) (in the Library module)

- Adjust images (in the Development module): There should be some pretty simple advice to adjust white balance, exposure, black/white points, shadows and highlights, Presence, that you can find online. (I usually don't touch anything between this and Detail unless the image demands something unusual.) In detail, balance sharpening vs noise reduction (or decide you want to use something more advanced for the latter).

- Export images (I don't do this unless I have a specific reason to want a jpg of a particular resolution and quality).

I know it looks pretty daunting, but I think getting a basic workflow like the above going doesn't require a huge amount of research.

If you have specific questions (some functions are less than intuitive) I'm sure you can get help here.

Andrea
 
I use the free Photoshop plug-in from Colormancer for noise reduction, and since I work in Photoshop it's an easy work flow.
 
ACDSee pro is my choice for a lightroom alternative. It is cheaper, does >90% of what lightroom does, and as a organizer has a different and to my mind logical way of approaching things. Drawback: slower updates for raw conversion if you buy the very latest camera model, and fewer users so fewer to ask advice from. I don't leave acdsee for any part of my workflow for images that are reasonably exposed.

You would be able to register both DPP and paintshop as external editors if you want, allowing you to select an image and make the other program open with that image.

Niels
 
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