Noise annoys! Your recommendations please.

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markinlondon

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While I'm very happy with my Epson v700, I've noticed that it produces quite noisy scans. It's OK with HP5 or Tri-x, but blank skies in Delta 100 negatives look fantastically lumpy. When examined with a loupe the negative looks perfectly smooth. I've tried the Epsonscan settings like grain reduction and turning off the USM. Does anyone have any suggestions for noise reduction utilities I can try, I'm using PSE 3.0 on MAC OSX Tiger.

Here's a sample.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1011/954078258_5143abeeb2_o.jpg
 
Noise Ninja is fantastic. Don't overdo it or it'll make your pix look like digital stuff!

It actually does with your scan what a digicam does to a file before viewing.
 
Mark, check if your scanner software supports "multi exposure". The image is scanned several times and then the s/w averages the scans to render the final image. This improves the signal to noise ratio. I use vuescan, this s/w supports multi exposure even for scanners that don't do this natively (like my Coolscan III)
 
I use a V700 and have never had a need to use any noise reduction software with it. I turn off all the scan software sharpening and cleaning options, and scan as 16 bit grayscale tiff at either 4800 or 2400 dpi, depending on what I plan to do with the final image. Never used Delta 100 mind you.

Ian
 
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I'll put up another recommendation for Noise Ninja--it can perform miracles, even on a super-low-noise camera like the Canon 20D.

And it doesn't hurt scanned files, either, just as long as you don't do too much over-correction.
 
rich815 said:
Neat Image is a great program too.
Click to expand...

I would second the recommendation of Neat Image. It's really intended for noise, but it works wonders for grain too. One other thing it does a great job of is reducing halftone moire' and artifacts from a scan from a magazine or newspaper.
 
Another vote for NI (Neat Image). I scan al my stuff (color and B&W) by Nikon LS-40, often with to diminish the grain that might be exaggerated due to posible aliasing. Apply NI and often it in indeed does wonders on apparent grain/noise. A little bit of contour USM (though mask) helps to get away with great sharp and smooth images (not digital-like though).
 
As an update to this I've looked at my settings and the problem appears to be that Epsonscan doesn't like its USM turned off and keeps resetting it to the medium level especially if using the "thumbnail" feature. If I can get the USM to stay off the problem frames are much improved. Thanks for all the suggestions, I'll keep them in mind if this doesn't fix it. I've always got the option of using Silverfast SE for more control.
 
When you're in thumbnail view, select All (it's a one-click selection) and then uncheck the USM box. That will turn it off for all the thumbnails. It reverts to on by default, which is annoying.

Ian
 
the problem with the bundled silverfast is, it has no batch scan option. You have to set the frame, scan, set the new one, scan, and so on.
If you scan only one frame, definitely worth using silverfast (also for the proper colour space handling - it does attach the epson v700 colour space to the file, unlike epson).

I also have noise problems but i have them with dark areas of colour slide film where magenta and green noise appears unless i darken the shadows really down.
I noticed it's best to scan in 16bpp mode and with no corrections applied while scanning - only after that, in PS.
I also get large grain from 400+ speed colour negative but that's due to the nature of the film i think; from a close look the grain looks like nonuniform grain, not likle digital noise.

I am using the same scanner, software and OS.
 
By the way, vuescan does support the multiple read scanning (not the multiple pass but the multiple read per one pass) up to 16 i think, but i still could not figure out how to properly use vuescan. It's weird. And it is VERY slow and annoys the hell out of me that whenever i make a little change e.g. change the crop markers size, it says "refreshing"and takes 20-40 seconds before i can do anything else. Also scan is much longer (the single read one, not the multiple read).
 
Mark, look for the GEM algorithm on your scanner software, the one on my Nikon Coolscan reduces film grain a lot (just use it moderately), btw, I love the grain esp. in b&w photos.
 
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