Profiled DeNoise

[Dazz1]

This is a feature I just found in Darktable that looks pretty good to me.

It recognises that a picture was taken with my 80D at 3200 ISO (for example) and applies the appriate level of filtering to remove the noise. At the default setting of 1, this is just the right amount - but you can adjust the slider to allow more or less from the starting point. It allows you to apply the filtering uniformly or according to drawn and parametric masks.

I also noticed that the sharpening function also works with similar masks. Very nice.

[ricktas]

I use the D-fine filter in the Nik Filter suite for my noise reduction. Have not found the need to try any other software for quite some time.

[Wayno]

I second the use of Dfine from Nik Software. Great product.
I have also created an action through Photoshop that finds edges within the photo and creates a mask with them. The action then inverts that mask so Dfine only applies noise reduction to everything other than edges. Sometimes handy for sky and water noise.

[Dazz1]

I use the D-fine filter in the Nik Filter suite for my noise reduction. Have not found the need to try any other software for quite some time.

I have been using the Nik stuff as well. When in Windows, I used it from Gimp, and you can get it to work in Linux as well, with a bit of mucking around. Mostly used D-fine and the sharpening.

However, I like to work in Linux a lot, and always watch developments for RAW processing in that world. Darktable has come a very long way, and I see even a Windows version is available. Since I posted about the denoise filters, I have found many other great things. Like, for example, an automatic perspective fixer. It recognises horizontal and vertical lines and twists the image into shape. It also seems much more powerful than, for example, DPP, in fixing highlights and shadows and clipping.

I think it may have enough features that I can do away with the need for any further processing in a lot of instances.