Noiseware for Portraiture?

[wannabehorsephotographer]

I'm thinking of investing in noise reduction software. Noiseware appears to be compatible with my editing program (PSE6). Has anyone tried it on portraits? http://www.imagenomic.com/products.aspx

Are there other noise reductions options you recommend?

Thanks!

[kencaleno]

yes-use what photoshop provides:

One:
Duplicate level (Ctrl+J)
Filter>smart blur
Eraser-go over image areas you do not want de-noised
Flatten and save


Two:

- Noise (Chroma-colour noise)


- Image> Mode> LAB Colour> Channels
Channel “a” Gaussian blur 5 pixels
Channel “b” Gaussian blur 5 pixels
Channel “lightness” Filter> noise> despeckle
Image> Mode> RGB colour

-Noise (Luma -Grainy noise)

-lasso area and apply smart blur at default setting (For small areas)
-Or Ctrl+J
-Smart blur-Then eraser tool to expose background features

Regards, Ken

[Mr Guy]

This is going to come out snarky, but I really don't mean it to be. Why is your portraiture underexposed to the point you need noise reduction? Are you shooting without decent lighting, regularly?

[RoyL]

I used a pirated copy of the plugin, it worked fine.

I also have Noise Ninja which I do use occasionally and I think this is better and also cheaper.

As I get very little noise I clean it up in Camera Raw but as kencaleno has said, use photoshop. I often use a Gaussian Blur for cleaning up, you can use layers and apply masks and learn more about the software.

[wannabehorsephotographer]

Thanks for all the replies! Very helpful.

The explanation for the noise:
I started doing newborn portraits, and window light looks so pretty and cheap Even with my flash aimed at the ceiling, I ended up with a little noise on the newborn's face. I fixed it pretty easily with selectively gaussian blurring the image, but I thought if there was an quicker way to fix the cute smiles, etc. that just didn't exposed perfect, I'd look into it. My shots aren't significantly noisy, maybe I'm just being too picky...or maybe I stink at this photography thing