Reduce noise in image

[caligula]

I was wondering what would be the best technique to reduce the noise in this image? Noise seems concentrated in her flesh so how to reduce without loosing detail. http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t208/cesspoool/fatBritney.jpg

[MadsdkZ]

Hi caligula

· I would make a dublicate (ctrl+j) of the org. image

· Go til "filter" - "blur" - "surface blur" play around with the sliders.

· Then make a mask. Go to "layer" - "layer mask" - "Revael All". on the mask paint with black the things that looses detail with the surface blur filter.

(I dont know if this is the best solution - but you can try it out and see if your getting a good result.)

- Mads

www.madsbo.dk

[NEMESIS]

Well you can use Reduce Noise filter combined with Layer Mask or Median filter. You can use Fade command too to fade applied filter if result is too excessive. Well that was fast techniques but there is more elaborate techniques which handles that problem. But if you seek for quick solution those filters above can give you pretty good results if used properly.

Cheers :)

[caligula]

Thanks Madsdk and Nemesis. I would like to learn the more advanced, elaborate techniques. Could you point me in that direction?

[NEMESIS]

Well here is couple of techniques for reducing noise.

1. When you have image opened in Photoshop just duplicate that background layer and set it's mode to Color. That is the quickest way to reduce noise but not always effective because depending on amount of noise that image contains. So it is good for "low" amount of noise images.

2. Duplicate background layer and apply that much of Gaussian Blur that removes noise from your picture and on that layer apply layer mask with black content and with brush tool and with white foreground color paint selectively to remove noise from problematic areas. Play with brush opacity or layers opacity.

3. Go to channels palette and review noise in each of the three channels and you will see that is very little noise in red channel, some noise in green channel and a lot of noise in Blue channel which actually is "junk" channel in image. So depending on your image resolution you will apply this settings proportionally but i am just giving you these values as example so select blue channel and on it apply Median filter in values 2-3 then select green channel and apply median filter in values 1-2 and select red channel and apply Unsharp Mask filter or Smart Sharpen. So for red channel play with settings of the filter until you are satisfied with results. This depends on image resolution.

4. Open image in Photoshop and convert it to LAB color mode. And in channels palette/panel you will see Lightness, a, b channels. Information about sharpness and details are stored in Lightness channel so what you can do is to apply let's say Smart Blur both to a and b channels with same values. Smart Blur is great since it takes edges into calculation and blur them less instead of some solid areas of image. Also you can use regular Gaussian Blur if you are more familiar with it. Also Median or Reduce Noise filter can be applied to on those a and b channels.
So here is idea when you want to sharpen your image do it in Lightness channel :)

And yes, you can combine together few different techniques because very is different and produces different results so combining them you will end up with really great results. Anyways there is one universal rule when any kind of image editing is about is that how much time you invest then your results will be reciprocal. Of course this counts on that you know what are you doing :D

Anyways there is again more ways to reduce noise so try this ones also combine with filters and maybe you get your own way while practicing :)

Cheers buddy :)

[caligula]

Thanks Nemesis. I am very excited to try your technique out. I will let you know the results. Cheers.

[NEMESIS]

You are welcome my friend :) Knowledge should be free!!! It supports "healthy" competition :D

[Lesa]

LOL But on a picture of Britney?! Come on... you can do better than that!

Now, if it were a photo of Adrian Lima instead... :D

[caligula]

My choice of images is based not on a judgement about the merits or worthiness of the subject, but the technical challenge involved. In Britney's case I wanted to practice reducing noise and morphing her body so that she was slimmer. I don't really care who the subject is.