Have pictures with a banding problem? Try Topaz DeNoise.

In a perfect world, digital images would come out perfect and you wouldn't need to perform any kind of post processing.  In a slightly less-than-perfect world, image defects would be correctable with the quick click of a mouse in Photoshop.

Unfortunately, the real world of digital imaging is neither perfect nor slightly less-than-perfect.

It's rare that I find a tool which is able to correct image defects quickly and easily using the out-of-the-box settings.  In fact, when I hear about products that claim to "magically" fix problems at the click of a button, I usually have a good laugh before I go about finding their fatal flaws.

I recently purchased a bundle package from Topaz Labs.  Topaz Labs is a software design company based in Dallas, TX.  They produce digital imaging plug-ins that do a range of things, from image enhancement to black & white conversion and image masking.  I've only had a chance to tinker with a few of the plug-ins that came with the bundle, and I have to say the one that has impressed me most so far is the noise removal product called Topaz DeNoise.

Since upgrading to the Nikon FX format, I've rarely needed to use any kind of noise removal software.  On the rare occasion that I find myself needing to do so, I tend to rely on PictureCode's Noise Ninja.  Noise Ninja is unique among noise removal applications because it has the ability to be optimized for any camera model in exactly the environment the images were made.  Most people are unaware that noise performance can vary in different environments.

While it's been a life saver for me, Noise Ninja has not been able to help with images that suffer from banding issues.  Banding is a type of digital noise that looks like streaks or scratches running across a picture.  Although banding isn't really a problem for me any more, I sometimes run into jobs where I need to clean up an old image which has this kind of noise.  Thanks to Topaz DeNoise, removing this defect is quite literally as easy as a click.

Below is a before an after comparison of an image that was originally shot on film and scanned using a Leafscan 45 film scanner.  While the Leafscan 45 is well known for its excellent scanning abilities, this particular unit would occasionally produce banding in the images.  The image on the left is the original scan.

As you can see, the original scanned picture has a mild banding issue.  Well, to be completely honest, it had a severe banding issue, but I removed some of it by using the Gaussian blur and despeckle filters in Photoshop.  While I was able to make it less noticeable, the banding is still quite visible.  There is also quite a bit of color noise in the image. 

The image on the right is the result of applying the Topaz DeNoise filter.  DeNoise comes configured with several presets.  I applied the "Raw - Light" preset followed by the horizontal DeBanding option using the default settings.

The results are nothing short of miraculous.  Not only has Topaz DeNoise reduced the amount of noise to an acceptable level, it has completely removed all of the banding.

For more information on the the Topaz DeNoise filter and other Topaz products, check out the Topaz Labs web site.

For more information on the Noise Ninja filter, please visit the PictureCode web site.