Removing Noise From Footage

bgodoy

bgodoy

Active member
Currently, I've been using Denoiser from Red Giant software and haven't had much trouble with it, except for when there is an alpha channel. I'm prompted with an error and the application closes whenever I try and apply the effect.

I'm curious, what other options are there out there, in terms of third party plugins?

I'm aware I could always use Remove Grain to reduce any unwanted noise, although, I'm not particularly fond of the way it softens the image. I know NeatVideo is a good alternative, however, I wanted to know what else is available. In addition, I would like to hear if there are any other pieces of software (like After Effects) that offer great noise reduction without causing too much of a "plastic" look.

Thanks for the help in advanced.
-B
 
It needs to be said that the best way to remove noise is to shoot footage which doesn't have it. I don't mean that the OP doesn't know that -- it's just a blanket statement to the audience, too many of which think post is a magical fountain in which to wash out all inequities. :)
 
Haha I absolutely agree David. Like they always say, don't leave it up to post. Being that this is primarily a forum on Cinematography rather than post production, I can see why it needs to be stated.

Thanks for the replies, as always, I appreciate the feedback I have received on DVXuser thus far.

Nonetheless, I did a bit of research and came across a couple of solutions. The problem is, (other than Remove Grain, Denoiser from Red Giant and NeatVideo) there are not really any other third party plugins for noise reduction in After Effects. Right?

Fortunately, I found out that Autodesk's Smoke does have it's own Denoiser that some claim to give a better overall "finish" to your footage. I also know that The Foundry's Nuke (and NukeX) has a pretty good denoiser that is shipped with the program. I'm aware that The Foundry sells DeNoise (as well as other useful tools that are bundled with it) but they only work with Nuke, if I'm not mistaken.

Anyone know of any techniques that might reduce noise? Without getting too technical, I know these denoisers use complex algorithms that essentially "break up" an image into a RGB, chromatic, and luminance channel but that's as far as I know. Can anyone better explain the process of how a denoiser works? Maybe it could lead to a theoretical solution...
 
JonMar said:
neat video noise reduction works well
Click to expand...

Very well indeed. I had to use it because I HAD to shoot at over 5k ISO recently I was amazed at that cheap gem. Also I HAD to shoot in SD recently and it really, really cleaned that up and did not look plastic at all. Don't forget on Neat Video there is a pretty big learning curve and tutorials to go along with it too~
 
"...there are not really any other third party plugins for noise reduction in After Effects, right?..."

I spent some time working on a huge amount of older (VHS, S8, etc) footage and also went looking for noise reduction/grain removal tools. In addition to those mentioned, Tinderbox, Topaz, Boris, RE:Vision Effects, Magic Bullet, TMPGE, and probably the big plug-in packages like Sapphire all offer some form of NR. IIRC, there are also some pretty good shareware tools (virtualdub??) that can be used. Of the demo's available to me, Neat Video was the easiest to use and provided the most bang for the buck.

There are different types of noise and successful removal requires tuning the NR tool to the noise. I found that AE's built-in 'grain removal' tool is pretty powerful and can be adjusted to minimize the softening you might be seeing. The temporal filtering can help reduce the softening effect.

Googling "video noise reduction" will give you 20-million or so links, some of which will acquaint you to the wonders of 'temporal recursive noise filtering,' and 'wavelet domain-based video noise reduction using temporal discrete cosine transform and hierarchically adapted thresholding.' A few months spent picking your way through those weighty tomes and you too can be a noise-reduction expert, or at least play one on TV. ;-)


Jim
 
BTW - Something as simple as AE's median filter works well to minimize small amounts of noise. Slight blurring of the blue-channel (where noise is usually the worst) can also make a big difference.

I have even had good luck by opening footage in Photoshop as a smart object, converting to LAB color space, adding a slight amount of surface blur to the L channel, and converting back to RGB for export. (Long way around, but I was using a system that didn't have a recent version of AE.)


Jim
 
Thanks Jim, immensely helpful information. As I said, I'm interested in finding an optimal solution for my specific needs. You definitely provided me with new options, some of which I've never personally heard of. As with anything, if you understand the inner workings of something, it can be used to it's full potential and that's what I'm trying to accomplish with NR. Again thanks for the insight; I guess I'll do more googling.
-B
 
B

You're welcome. Glad I could help.

BTW, if anyone is trying to follow the Photoshop-LAB thinking: you would usually add surface blur to the A and/or B channel, NOT the L channel. (Guess my fingers got ahead of my brain on that one.)


Jim
 
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