Problems with using Neat Image and Large .RAW files

neatfreaky · Post by **neatfreaky** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 4:30 am

Hello all and thank you in advance for your help!

First off I LOVE Neat image it is truly an amazing product! My question/problem is as follows:

I used to use Neat Image primarily to clean up images I've posted on my web gallery...so the dpi=72..and files dimensions hovered around 500 pixels at largest in any given direction. Relatively small and easy easy easy to use in neat image to clean up...and I've always been consistently blown away by the results.

However, my problem now lies with wanting to print these same images. While it was easy breezy to clean up images the exact way i wanted with the relatively small sized files, I find it hard to do so with my large uncompressed .raw files (from canon 20d) of 240-300dpi with 3550x2350pixel images. I think this lies primarily in the fact that NOW when i manually draw my noise analyzer selection it only covers a tiny portion of the overall image due to the large file size and the neat image results are therefore just AWFUL.....whereas before I could cover almost a good 45% of the image with the noise analyzing selection (which i want to be able to do with my larger files) due to the smaller file size and the results were phenomenal!

So my question is...is there anything i can do about this dilemma? Needless to say I am terribly bummed by all this as I completely love the results of neatimage on smaller file sizes but greatly disappointed with it's apparent lack of ability with the larger file sizes. Is it possible to override the limiting selection (when you manually draw one) and make it even larger?

Post by **NITeam** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 8:01 am

No, it is not about the overall image size and not about the selection size related to the image size. What is important is to build an accurate noise profile according to the recommendations of the user guide. A selection should include only noise elements without any details. You may also need to adjust the filter settings if the noise is especially nasty.

An example, a small crop of your large images (before and after) together with profile and filter preset used would help to identify the source of the trouble. I believe it should be easy to solve by building an accurate profile and adjusting the filter settings.

Vlad

taob · Post by **taob** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 4:50 am

I'm surprised you even need to use NeatImage on your web-sized images. Shrinking at 20D image down that much (3500 pixels down to 500 pixels along one dimension) will drop out most of the noise anyway.

However, I can tell you that NeatImage works superbly on my full-size 1D Mark II images (same size as your 20D images), even at ISO 3200. Create a custom profile for your 20D, and use that to clean up all your images. Increasing the size of the selection box won't help, because a 100x100 region is plenty if you provide a good sample.

neatfreaky · Post by **neatfreaky** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 5:57 am

yep, i totally agree with both of you about the 100x100 selection region...i had meant to mean that it would be nice to be able to custom create a much larger selection only because of the incredibly cool 'other' effects that can be done with this amazing program.

Neat image, of course, does what it was meant to do great--cleaning up the noise...but when you are able to use much larger selections you can also create some really stunning effects that perhaps the program wasn't originally meant to do but still is amazing...i posted this statement in the 'new features' forum as well but i'm hoping that the newer version of neat image will allow any size selection...actually i know a LOT of people in the business that would love this to happen...folks that work on skin tones alone would love it!