I know you’re tired of hearing me moan and groan about my noise generating camera. You’ll be glad I discovered Nik’s Dfine, because you won’t have to listen to quite so much complaining.
Dfine has gone on sale too, just in time for this review! Add that to the discount code at the bottom of this post and you will save over 30%.
I wrote a couple of weeks ago about different types of digital noise and how to avoid them in your photography. Sometimes, unfortunately, your photos will have visible noise no matter what you do.
Nik Software’s Dfine removes noise easily, and removes it only from areas where you want it to remove noise from. That is huge!
Why is selective noise removal so important?
In the comparison shot above, look the differences among the shots. The first shot is untouched, the 2nd has noise reduction applied everywhere, and the 3rd has noise reduction concentrated around Big Girl’s face. The noise level is much better in shots #2 and #3 (look at the neck and shirt), and #3′s wood and rocks are clearer than #2′s, although it might be hard to see at this size. (Zooming in your browser might help.) This can make a big difference in the overall clarity of your pictures.
Removing noise inherently causes blurriness, as the Dfine screen shot below illustrates. You can see the noise to the left of the red line (the before half). To the right of the line, you can see how the building’s concrete is blurry. I cranked the noise removal up high on this half so that you could see what noise removal looks like if done too much or in the wrong part of your image.
How do you use Dfine?
You can download a free trial at Nik Software if you’d like to follow along with this tutorial.
I think most of you use Photoshop Elements, right? (Oh, let’s use that nifty new poll feature on the right to vote! That way, we can tailor our tutorials to what you need!) Here is a screen shot of Dfine in PSE. You bring up this Nik panel from the Filters Menu.
I love that this program works from within Elements (or Photoshop, Lightoom or Aperture even). In this panel, you can click on Dfine to open the main window, or you can directly access presets like Skin & Sky.
The main window of Dfine looks something like this when you open it. It analyzes your photo to determine it’s best estimate for how much noise reduction your photo needs.
You can change this view from good old RGB color to views showing luminance/contrast noise:
and chrominance/color noise:
Knowing which type of noise is causing problems makes getting rid of it easier. After the measurement stage, click on the Reduce button to manage how much and where to reduce noise.
The preview first appears in RGB color, or you can use mask views, which I prefer. Like any mask in Photoshop, black conceals and white reveals. So the mask below tells me that not much noise is being removed from the firework reflection which is exactly what I want. I want the colored lights to stay nice and sharp, and want the noise to be reduced mostly in the concrete and the center of the window. The center of the window is light, which means that lots of noise reduction is being applied there. I can add a control point on the concrete below the window to add more reduction there – which this shot needs.
To see how great Dfine’s selective feature is, look at these next two shots:
The first is a mask view showing that noise is being removed evenly across the picture. The second shows how noise is being reduced after the addition of a few control points to increase or reduce Dfine’s processes in certain areas. Big Girl’s skin and shirt, where I needed the most noise reduction, are very light. The darker areas had less visible noise and I wanted to maximize crispness on them. To maximize crispness, I added a control point and turned down the noise reduction, and did just the opposite in areas that were noisier.
And do you know what? I didn’t have to do any selecting! I think I clicked my mouse 7 times to place control points. Dragging the mouse increases or decreases the area being controlled by each point. And each point has 2 sliders where you change the amount of contrast or color noise reduction being applied. Dfine was able to detect the edges of areas where I wanted to adjust my photo with just a few clicks. No talent or steady hands involved.
Ok, Nik when are you going to make a plug-in that can make Photoshop’s Magic Wand Tool work as well as this mask feature?
As many of you know, I used Noiseware in the past. But now, Dfine is the number one noise reducer in my arsenal. Here’s why:
- Selective noise reduction is available in Dfine
- Dfine’s masking views make targeting adjustments simple
- Dfine’s interface is written in plainer English
Here is a before and after for you to see. The fireworks are still sharp and the concrete is much smoother. Excellent!
Dfine Sale
Right now, Dfine’s price is reduced by $20 to $80. On top of that, if you use discount code DPM at check out, you’ll save an additional 15%!
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