Neat Image - seeking profile advice

[Overread]

I've been using NI for a while now, though I've never really delved far into it. As a result in the past I used custom profiles made by others or more recently, I've been using auto generated profiles (most often using an area I pick in the photo) each time I get a new photo. Because most of my photos tend to get shown on the web this has been fairly ok for me since after resizing down for web display, a lot of noise is naturally lost anyway in the transition.

However I'm keen to advance my use of the tool and get better performance out of it.


I've had a read of the profile instructions and I think I've got the idea right, though I want to double check in case I've misunderstood something or missed something out. My plan currently is to

1) Open up the Calibration target in NI on my LCD.

2) Take photos of the screen at different ISO values. As I shoot in RAW it would seem that the only setting I need to worry about is the ISO, since most of the other listed factors that affect the noise are mostly JPEG related. Of course the photos should be slightly blurry in nature.

3) It's not mentioned in the list, but I wonder if for each ISO value if it would be worth taking photos which are not just correctly exposed, but also under exposed and then brightened in editing (to a general default value to represent the same being done to a regular photo). Staggering them to perhaps one and two stops underexposed.
I'm not sure if this is worth doing or if the actual noise patterns remain the same and the under exposure and brightening is just highlighting them more apparently to the viewer.

4) My camera can take photos in 1/3 stop values for ISO and I typically have it set up to use those 1/3rd values. Is it worth creating a fresh profile for each specific ISO value or can you double up and use the nearest ISO value (up or down?) and work with just full stop values of ISO?

5) When in the tool itself do I only need to use the "produce profile with calibration image" tool? Do I need to use any of the fine-tuning command options to further refine the result or is that simply introducing data that will degrade the overall profile

Note I'm aware that shutterspeeds are listed as a potentially contributing factor, however I'm guessing that provided I've decent lighting, I shouldn't need to concern myself with them unless I were having exposures running beyond 30seconds.


Are there any other tips or advice that would be worth taking into account when producing a selection of profiles that I've not noted above? I would be most grateful for any advice/tips regarding this matter

 

[Sharpshooterr]

Well I guess I’ll respond since no one else will! LoL
Looks like no one here uses NI. I’ve never even heard of it.
I’m not a big PP’r and not that squeamish about noise. It’s a fact of photography. I’m not saying don’t try and make it better, I just deal with it the best I can at the time I shoot the image by minimizing it when I take the shot. So far I’m happy with what it get, I guess! I just crank the knobs around in DPP and LR and what I get is all I got!
If it works for you, just do trial and error unless somebody with experience using it can come on here and answer some of your questions.
Sorry I couldn’t help and good luck with it!
SS

 

[Derrel]

It has been about half a decade since I regularly shot Canon. It seems to me that years ago there was some talk about how Canon had unusual performance in regards to ISO settings that were at 1/3 Stop or 2/3 stop values. Settings like ISO 250, ISO 320, ISO 500, ISO 640 etc.

It might pay to see if the in-between ISO values other than 100, 200, 400,800,and 1600 behave in a manner that is not what one might expect.

I have long used fractional ISO values rather than whole values, and I have some use for ISO 640, and ISO 1000, and ISO 1250. I would see if you can get the most out of Neat Image by playing around with it for the next month or so. I don't have a copy of it, and so my contribution is just the above simple random thought. Best of luck to you.

 

[Overread]

Aye playing with sliders is what I'm doing now - I'm just aiming to see if I can find any facts when playing with the sliders which I can use to temper the results beyond judging by eye.

I seem to recall that some cameras use factional ISOs by brightening/darkening the result by software rather than being a "pure" ISO shift like the full values are. However I find that such chatter often ends up related to the impressions people get from results rather than a full technical breakdown. Plus when ISO itself is a whole hotbed of software and hardware shifts and changes anyway a practical approach when using them is likely easier to just treat fractional values the same as full values - since even if the underlaying mechanics might shift around a bit, its not really changing the core result for the photographer.

 

[JBPhotog]

If you have Lightroom or PhotoShop you already have the tools to reduce noise. Digging into either one of them may seem daunting but you will learn how they work and techniques to do other things in post.

If you are interested I’d suggest you have a look at Steve Perry’s noise reduction tutorial ($15) at Noise Reduction Using Lightroom And Photoshop – Virtual Workshop – Backcountry Gallery Web Store