NIK Software – Dfine® 2.0 – Reducing Noxious Noise
Posted by RustyHill - 09/08/10 at 11:08 pm
Digital Noise Tamed
Digital noise is inherent in digital images, much like grain is inherent in film images. Sometimes, digital noise can enhance the mood of the image, and helps set the stage for the story behind the image. More often, however, noise distracts the viewer from the subject and the story. If the noise is just too obnoxious, then the noise becomes the story. Ouch. NIK Software’s Dfine 2.0 is a powerful, yet easy-to-use tool for taming digital noise.
New for Dfine 2.0:
- User Interface
- Improved noise reduction engine
- Image and camera profiles
- Improved batch processing
- Improved selective tool
User Interface
Dfine 2.0 opens in a clean, professional interface, and automatically measures the image noise to create a profile. The image noise may be manually measured by selecting noise measurement areas, and then measuring this noise to create the profile. Alternatively, previously saved profiles may also be applied. Custom camera profiles are easy to create for each ISO used. These custom profiles are based on the camera used to create each profile, and thus account for manufacturing differences between sensors.
Preview and Loupe views are available to review the noise reduction effect on the image. Selecting the “Reduce” tab provides controls for the noise reduction process. Both contrast and color noise reduction may be controlled. Control points may also be placed on the image to fine tune the noise reduction. A brush tool is also available to selectively apply the noise reduction.
Images
To illustrate the noise reduction abilities of Dfine 2.0, an image was selected from photos taken in the evening at Seattle’s Pike Place Market (taken with a Nikon D200 (10 MP sensor) set to ISO 800). The selected image was processed in Photoshop CS4, using Dfine 2.0. 100 percent crops of the original and processed images are presented below.
100 percent crop of the original photo
Automatic Noise Reduction
Nikon D200 ISO 800 Camera Profile
Control Point Adjustment
The above images illustrate the noise reduction abilities of Dfine 2.0. The Automatic nose reduction works well. Using a camera & ISO profile provides enhanced noise reduction. And employment of control points provides precise noise reduction control.
Training
System Requirements:
Windows
- 32-bit version of Windows XP with Service Pack 3 and Windows Vista
(64-bit operating systems with 32-bit host application) - Pentium III 1GHz or better
- 1 GB RAM
- Adobe® Photoshop® 7 through CS4, Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 through 7.0; other Adobe Photoshop plug-in compatible application**
- Adobe Photoshop Lightroom® 2.3 or later
Macintosh
- Mac OS 10.4 and later
- G4, G5, Intel® Core™ Solo, Intel Core Duo, Intel Core 2 Duo, Intel Xeon®
- 1 GB RAM
- Adobe® Photoshop® CS2 through CS4, Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 and 6.0; other Adobe Photoshop plug-ins compatible applications**
- Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.3 or later
- Apple® Aperture™ 2.1 or later
** Nik Software product filters are developed to integrate seamlessly into many popular image editing applications that support the Adobe plug-in architecture. There are numerous software applications that accept Adobe plug-in compatible filters. Please consult your image editing application’s documentation for compatibility and installation instructions for 3rd-party plug-ins.
Contact: Nik Software
Cost: $99.95