Software update – Neat Image Pro+

 by Patty Hankins and Bill Lawrence

Recently, we reviewed Neat Image ( www.neatimage.com ), a useful program for removing noise from digital images.  Around the time of the review, Neat Image Pro+ was introduced, which added a Photoshop plug-in version in addition to the stand-alone version of the program.  We have since updated our license, and tried Neat Image Pro+ v2.6, and found it to be every bit as good.

For those of you who haven’t read our original review of Neat Image, please check it out on our website ( www.hankinslawrenceimages.com ) in the newsletter archives section.  Briefly, Neat Image is designed to reduce noise in digital images, whether the image is from a digital camera or whether it is a scanned image.  It comes in several levels, including a limited function but free demo version, a “Home” version, a “Pro” version which allows for creating 16-bit TIFF files, and now a “Pro+” version, which includes the pro version and includes a Photoshop plug-in.  If you

want the plug-in, you have to get the Pro+ version.  I was uncertain of this strategy at first (of course you have to buy the most expensive version to get the plug-in) from a buyer’s standpoint.  However, after using it, I decided that while I loved the plug-in, I would want to have the stand-alone version also, so it is probably just as well that it is packaged this way.

 Once you download and install Neat Image Pro Plus to your computer, a plug-in file sits in the Neat Image directory – you simply copy this file to your Photoshop plug-ins directory, and the next time you start Photoshop, it will be an option in your Filter menu.  At any point in your workflow in Photoshop, you can run the filter, and filter out the noise.  When you start the filter, a separate window comes up which is an exact duplicate of the stand-alone program interface, you make your choices among the filtration options, and the program then returns you to Photoshop with a cleaned image.

 Why bother with a plug-in?  Well, for those of you using Photoshop for your image editing, the plug-in allows you to incorporate the noise filtration into your standard workflow.  Frequently, I like to review individual images before deciding on whether or not to use noise reduction – this plug-in lets me crop and do other minor adjustments, and then use the noise reduction filter if I decide it is necessary.  It works in 16-bit mode in Photoshop, and, conveniently, it will work on an image with layers (which unfortunately is limited to 8-bit images, but that is Photoshop’s problem, not Neat Image).  The History mode works with the plug-in too, so once you’ve filtered the image, you can click on the before filtering step in the History menu, to quickly compare the image with and without filtration.  These are strong advantages to the plug-in.  Without the plug-in, if you decide mid-editing that you want noise reduction, you have to save the file from Photoshop, open the image in Neat Image, filter it, save it, and reopen the image in Photoshop.  Using the Plug-in is much less distracting.

 The downside of the plug-in is that it is slow.  However, it is no slower than running the filtration through the stand-alone program.  I ran the same 16-bit 6-megapixel TIFF file (from my Canon D60) through both the stand alone program and through the Photoshop plug-in.  In both cases, it took 1 minute 49 seconds to complete on a Pentium 4, 2.4GHz computer.  In both cases, it did an equally wonderful job of filtering (You can see an example in the web-based version of this article at www.hankinslawrenceimages.com).  I consider this a downside for the plug-in, though, because any step that adds 1.5 to 2 minutes of waiting to my imaging workflow while I’m sitting at my computer waiting to edit makes me quite impatient.  This is not a major criticism of the program, as I imagine the algorithm is computationally intensive (therefore time consuming), but if I know I am going to use the Neat Image filtration, I will use the great batch filtering function on the standalone version.  This batch function lets the program filter a number of files while you are off doing something else.  If I decide that I need to use filtration while I am editing, I will use the Photoshop plug-in.  Of course, if you automate your workflow in Photoshop, you can incorporate the plug-in into a Photoshop action.

 Neat Image is an essential program for dealing with noise in digital images, whether from a camera or a scanned image.  We highly recommend it.  For our own use, we found that the Photoshop plug-in was a handy addition, and for the cost of the upgrade from Pro to Pro+, we believe it is worth it.  If I was buying Neat Image from scratch, I think that if I was going to buy the Pro version anyway, I would get the Pro+ version; if I was only going to get the Home version (for example, if my camera limited me to 8-bit images), I doubt that the plug-in would be worth the extra expense.  Current prices (as of August, 2003) are $29.90 for the Home version, $59.90 for the Pro version, and $74.90 for the Pro+ version.  Their upgrade policy from one level to the next is quite reasonable – the cost of an upgrade is simply the difference in cost between the two versions.  If you do not have any version of Neat Image – go to their website ( www.neatimage.com ), download the free demo, and read through their quick-start tutorial.  Overall, this is a great program, and a quick try of the demo on a noisy image will convince you that, no matter which version you get, one of the versions will be a worthwhile purchase.

 Below is an example of a photo before and after filtration.  The photo is of a beaver that I found on the C&O canal, taken early in the morning on a heavily overcast day, so I had to use a 1000 ASA setting on my digital camera to get a decent shutter speed.  This program lets me get usable images using the 1000 ASA setting!

The first image is the unfiltered image - taken with a D60 at 1000 ASA.

Below is the filtered version, using the Photoshop plugin version of Neatimage.

                                                                Copyright © 2003, William Lawrence

It is somewhat difficult to see in the images above since they are resized for the web - still, it is noticable in the water behind the beaver and some of the beaver's fur.  Below is an actual pixel level enlargement of a piece of the photo unfiltered:

and filtered:

Take a look at the water, and the fur around the eye - Neatimage did a nice job of reducing the color speckling caused by the high ISO setting I used to take the photo.  However, despite the noise reduction, the image remains nice and sharp.

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