ASP2 Noise reduction not really effective

[rainer042]

Hello,

I already posted a photo where the new ASP2 Athentech based denoise plugin produces artefacts in an image here: http://forum.corel.com/EN/viewtopic.php ... 1&e=288421
This time I tried to find out what happens when I try to denoise a photo with really strong noise. I have chosen a test raw photo taken with a Nikon D7100 at ISO 6400 I found for download on dpreview. The photo has due to the high ISO setting heavy noise. I cant post this photo here, since I can only upload a total of 3 photos clippings. If someone wants to look at it, here is the link to dpreview:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikon-d7100/20
Simply say "Raw" and "ISO 6400" and you see the photo that I used as starting point.

Here is the result of ASP default Athentech denoise plugin applied with a level of 100 (maximum) and a level of 5 for the detail setting. To see all the details, please click on the photo:

Next I tried the free Wavelet Plugin with a level of 35 for luminance and 70 for chrominance. Detail was set to 30 for both. To see all the details, please click on the photo:

The last photo was processed with Noise Ninja. Because NN is no longer available in ASP2 I used ASP1 instead for the same photo. The settings are Luminance 12, Chrominance 16, and a Unsharpen mask of 20. To see all the details, please click on the photo:

As one can see both the Wavelet plugin as well as Noise Ninja (registered) do a very good job in removing the heavy noise. If you look at the result of the now default Athentech anti noise solution in ASP2 you can see that even at the maximum possible level of 100, there is still quite a lot of noise left.

For me it looks like the Athentech anti noise is somehow broken, because it is not able to remove noise even at its highest settings.

So I hope corel will fix this, or even better replace it by NN or by the Wavelet plugin (directly integrated into ASP2). Both plugins really do what they are made for. I would also appreciate a word from corel about this problem, why a new anti noise solution has been chosen for ASP2, and why it hasn't been tested more thoroughly and hasnt't been improved so that it can really compete with other existing solutions? What are the plans for the next update (that promises for linux eg the still missing HDR functionality) in respect to anti noise?

Have a nice day
Rainer

[afx]

As one can see both the Wavelet plugin as well as Noise Ninja (registered) do a very good job in removing the heavy noise. If you look at the result of the now default Athentech anti noise solution in ASP2 you can see that even at the maximum possible level of 100, there is still quite a lot of noise left.

Not on my machine...
Testing on my Ubuntu Box, using just the defaults...

For me it looks like the Athentech anti noise is somehow broken, because it is not able to remove noise even at its highest settings.

Are you using OpenCL?

... by the Wavelet plugin (directly integrated into ASP2).

There is zero difference between a plugin and an integrated tool for something like noise reduction as AS plugins sit directly in the pipeline in contras to all other converters where plugins are just convenience functions to work on TIFFs

why a new anti noise solution has been chosen for ASP2

That has been discussed often enough, you might want to use the search function.

cheers
afx

[rainer042]

Not on my machine...
Testing on my Ubuntu Box, using just the defaults...
...
Are you using OpenCL?

You are right. Just tired to double check the results and now my Athentech image is just as the photo you posted, with all the noise removed. At the time I compared anti noise methods I also played around with OpenCL. So it probably was turned on. But even if I now turn OpenCL on again, the photo with Athentech Anti Noise applied is still without visible noise.

I don't know what went wrong I even still have the old jpg that I created at the end of May and then posted above which shows noise. Anyway, if I try again then Athentechs anti noise solution does remove the noise in this test photo.

So sorry to Athentech for blaming their solution not to remove the noise.

I also checked once again the photo in which I saw artefacts that appeared when Athentechs anti noise was activated, that did not appear with other anti noise tools (see Artefacts). This effect is still reproducible.

That has been discussed often enough, you might want to use the search function.
afx

At the time I posted this article (end of May) I personally did not know about the reasons that you described later on in another thread (Artefacts). Thanks for these explanations.

Rainer