Neat Image with Nikon scanners

[Julian Vrieslander]

Since there is now a Mac version of the Neat Image plugin, I have been
looking at their product info page

<http://www.neatimage.com/mac/index.html>

They don't provide a noise profile for the Nikon film scanners. I would
be interested in reading comments from any users who have tried Neat
Image with an LS-4000 or other Nikon scanners. Are the results better
than what can be achieved with the noise/grain reduction tools in
VueScan and Photoshop CS?

 

[Wilfred]

Since there is now a Mac version of the Neat Image plugin, I have been
looking at their product info page

<http://www.neatimage.com/mac/index.html>

They don't provide a noise profile for the Nikon film scanners.

You may also be interested in Nois Ninja, http://www.picturecode.com/.
They do provide some profiles. Anyway, AFAIK you can make profles by
yourself but I don't know how difficult it is.
Also, you might want to check out this link:
http://www.michaelalmond.com/Articles/noise.htm, although it's perhaps a
bit outdated.
I haven't tried any of these tools but I'm considering them too. If I
have some time I think I will download the demos and evaluate them. Of
course you could do that, too.

 

[Bart van der Wolf]

message
SNIP

They don't provide a noise profile for the Nikon film scanners.

It is quite easy to make a profile for *your* particular scanner and
film used. Even if you don't have a profile, you can usually take a
few featureless areas (of similar images if your image is too busy
with detail) and the results are stunning.

I would be interested in reading comments from any users who
have tried Neat Image with an LS-4000 or other Nikon scanners.
Are the results better than what can be achieved with the noise/grain
reduction tools in VueScan and Photoshop CS?

A program like Neat Image is a must have, regardless of the origin of
digital images. Digicams benefit from the removal of noise, scanners
benefit from the removal/reduction of grain+noise.
Just don't overdo the noise reduction, and with some practice you can
get extremely good results.

Bart

 

[Kennedy McEwen]

Since there is now a Mac version of the Neat Image plugin, I have been
looking at their product info page

<http://www.neatimage.com/mac/index.html>

They don't provide a noise profile for the Nikon film scanners. I would
be interested in reading comments from any users who have tried Neat
Image with an LS-4000 or other Nikon scanners. Are the results better
than what can be achieved with the noise/grain reduction tools in
VueScan and Photoshop CS?

I had a look at Neat Image and other software grain reduction tools a
while back. My conclusion was that although it worked, when Neatimage
was used sparingly enough to avoid the image becoming plastic in
appearance the results were similar to those from the GEM function
incorporated within NikonScan, but GEM was much faster to implement.

 

[AS]

I have no Mac, so can't help here. But I had a LS-2000 ( I have to say
"had", because it died just a few days ago). I did try NI on some photos
scanned with it. The difference is _huge_. Certainly, you can't tell the
difference until you enlarge the photo on the screen ;-)

You cana make your one scanner/camera noise profile. There's a target on the
NI website. Alternativly not so bad results are possible if using some part
of image with not so many details, like clear sky. It works.

 

[Jeff Randall]

I've used NI with my LS-4000 since Jan 02. In my experience with my
images, the VueScan and PS 7 noise reduction features are not in the
same league as NI.

The Nikon LED light source is not noisy at all (and single-scan
multisampling would eliminate this random noise, if present anyway). I
don't rely on generic or stock film profiles or scanner profiles. I
usually create a new profile for each image as the "grain" depends on
the film manufacturer, film speed, exposure, processing, image age,
etc., etc. NI has worked for me in effectively eliminating grain
alising as well as film grain which are both problems of the LS-4000
at 4000dpi and LED source.

I highly recommend you give NI a try.

Jeff Randall

 

[Bruce Graham]

I had a look at Neat Image and other software grain reduction tools a
while back. My conclusion was that although it worked, when Neatimage
was used sparingly enough to avoid the image becoming plastic in
appearance the results were similar to those from the GEM function
incorporated within NikonScan, but GEM was much faster to implement.

I'd suggest another look Kennedy. If you looked at Neat Image version 2,
then both succeeding versions have had major speed-ups. I find it quite
convenient when called from PhotoShop as a filter. I have also read good
things about Noise Ninja but have already spent my money on NI.

 

[Kennedy McEwen]

I'd suggest another look Kennedy. If you looked at Neat Image version 2,
then both succeeding versions have had major speed-ups.

The last version I looked at was 3.0, V4 only claims to be twice as
fast, which would probably make it around a quarter of the speed of GEM
when achieving the same level of result.