GIMP Noise Reduction Comparison

[BCampbell]

Hey everyone, I've been using UFRaw since the tutorial here on DPS was posted, and did a lot of trial and error trying to figure out some good noise reduction techniques when importing RAW files into GIMP. I've got a comparison and overview up on my blog.

Should be helpful for anyone having some of the issues I did. In the future I'm going to do a more in-depth post on the specifics of using Wavelet Denoise, too.

This is an ongoing project for me. If you have any input or comments, I'd love to hear them in the blog post! Thanks!

[jli]

Cool - I've been looking for denoising techniques. I'll check it out!

[RLucas]

Originally Posted by BCampbell

Hey everyone, I've been using UFRaw since the tutorial here on DPS was posted, and did a lot of trial and error trying to figure out some good noise reduction techniques when importing RAW files into GIMP. I've got a comparison and overview up on my blog.

Should be helpful for anyone having some of the issues I did. In the future I'm going to do a more in-depth post on the specifics of using Wavelet Denoise, too.

This is an ongoing project for me. If you have any input or comments, I'd love to hear them in the blog post! Thanks!

I will have to check this out! I have been mainly using the denoise feature in UFRaw set to about 33. It usually works fairly well for me.
Have you downloaded GMIC yet? It has some interesting denoise features. If your poor like me, and running an old WIN laptop, it will slow your system to a crawl!

Edit: I should have read your blog post first! I may have to try the wavelet denoise. Thanks for the info!

[BCampbell]

Originally Posted by RLucas

Have you downloaded GMIC yet? It has some interesting denoise features. If your poor like me, and running an old WIN laptop, it will slow your system to a crawl!

Hah, yes, as your saw (based on your edit), I tried G'MIC and while it's extremely powerful, I found it too slow and complicated to really be a part of my typical workflow. Hope this information helps.

[teaking]

If you just want to de-noise with out all the other features just download GreyCstoration its the old GUI and just does the de-noise part. GMIC is a full collection of filters and handy to have but its more confusing lol.

I have found GreyCstoration great for de-noising, and Wavelet Decompose great for skin touch ups as the way it works creating different layers for different details you can take the brush and paint one layer smoothing the skin leaving all other detail intact.

[BCampbell]

Thanks, from what I saw of the GREYCstoration library in G'MIC, it's just too complex and very slow. Is the standalone easlier to use or faster? I assume it isn't.

I simply can't add a single step that takes two minutes to my post production workflow; some shoots have me processing 150 images, that's five hours of waiting for images to render!

[RLucas]

I don't know if you want to keep strictly with the GIMP theme, but I have downloaded the trial version of NeatImage. If you have workflow that you just want to denoise and sharpen, it's a great standalone program. The only thing with the trial version is that it strips your EXIF, so if you want to keep it intact, you still have to go back in to GIMP, and merge an origianal layer with the denoised version to get it back. Still too much work for large workflows, but if you only have a couple of pics, it doesn't tax your system.

[BCampbell]

Thanks, I might look at it, but as you guess I'm looking for a solution that integrates neatly into my workflow. Since G'MIc and Wavelet Denoise are plugins, they're fairly elegant. I'm really trying to avoid opening yet another program for each photo.

[teaking]

The standalone version still has a few sliders with no real explanation apart from the obvious ones like noise scale.

Its not as bulky as GMIC and is for one purpose but depending on the amount of noise reduction it can like you say take time but thats down to the way it de-noises the image it does give great results but I wouldnt say its for standard or general noise removal for every image as it would take days with your workflow. Maybe when GIMP is moved over to GEGL this will speed these kind of operations up in GIMP.