Tweaking AutoProfiling

dbritch · Post by **dbritch** » Sat Jan 29, 2005 5:47 am

I have been a very happy user of Neat Image for some time. I shoot raw images, and convert them with Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). Because I often adjust color, exposure, and contrast, using ACR, I do not use a camera profile. Instead, I routinely use autoprofiling. I typcally do this in an action using the plugin.

Autoprofiling usually does a pretty good job, but I find that it fairly consistently does not identify all the shadow noise correctly as noise. I can almost invariably improve the image cleanup by (semi-)manually fine-tuning. That is, I go over an image at full resulution, and select all the reasonable-size blocks with no desirable detail, and click the fine-tune button to identify each block to NeatImage as noise. This improves nearly all the images. Unfortunately, it is also labor-intensive and time-consuming.

I recognize that there is value to a conservative default in the identification of noise; however, I would like to be able to push the autoprofiling to be a little less conservative - especially in dark areas of my high-ISO images.

Is there a way to do this with the current product?

Thank you,

David

Post by **NITeam** » Sat Jan 29, 2005 4:04 pm

You could probably push it using filter adjustments, specifically, the noise levels settings. If you raise the noise levels in the filter settings then it effectively makes more image elements considered noise. Of course that is not as selective as with the equalizer and manual tuning of specific brighness range.

On the other hand, if you would send a good example of the image showing this effect as well as a noise profile adjusted by hand then we could try to think what exactly is going wrong and what could be done to make Auto Profile more accurate. In fact we already do something in this ares but any additional input especially based on practical experience is very much welcome.

Thank you,
Vlad

dbritch · Post by **dbritch** » Sat Jan 29, 2005 6:16 pm

Using the noise level settings makes sense. However, that tends to produce some loss of detail in the highlight areas, where there is less actual noise.

What is the best way for me to send you an image? I'll be glad to work with you however I can to improve your product, and to improve our user experience.

Thank you for all your work on this!

David

Post by **NITeam** » Sat Jan 29, 2005 8:53 pm

Please use the regular support e-mail (support@neatimage.com) - send a sample image there. I will receive it and check what can be done.

Thank you,
Vlad