Neat Image To make images look better. User guide Document version 3.0, November 20, 2003 Copyright © 1999-2003 by ABSoft. All rights reserved.
User Guide Neat Image Table of contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................3 1.1. 1.2. 1.3. 2. Key concepts .........................................................................................................5 2.1. 2.2. 3. Filtration Queue window........................................................................................................................29 Creating new image filtration jobs .......
User Guide Neat Image 1. Introduction 1.1. Overview Neat Image is a digital filter application designed to reduce visible noise in digital photographic images. Neat Image detects, analyzes, and reduces image noise. The filtration quality is higher than that of other methods because Neat Image takes into account specific characteristics of particular image acquisition devices, making the filtration more accurate. You can train the program to adapt to almost any input tool (digital camera, scanner, etc.).
User Guide Neat Image 1.3. Requirements Recommended system configuration to process 2-3-megapixel images is: • • • • Windows 9x, ME, NT, 2000, XP Pentium-III class machine or higher 128 MB RAM or higher True color display, resolution 1024x768 or more Minimum system requirements are: • • • • Windows 95 Pentium-I class machine 32 MB RAM Hi-color display, resolution 800x600 System requirements for practical applications of Neat Image depend on size of input images.
User Guide Neat Image 2. Key concepts 2.1. What it can do – functionality of Neat Image Neat Image is a digital image filter. Its main function is to reduce noise in digital images. Neat Image can work with many imaging devices – digital cameras, scanners, etc. The program can be adjusted to a particular device by means of a device noise profile, which contains data describing the noise characteristics of the device working in some mode.
User Guide Neat Image 3. Filtration process overview 3.1. Overview of filtration process You can filter an image using the Filtration Job Editor. The Filtration Job Editor opens when a new filtration job is created by you or automatically. When you start Neat Image for the very first time, the Filtration Job Editor opens automatically. Using the Filtration Job Editor you can: 1.
User Guide Neat Image …continued from the previous page 3. Adjust the noise filter and sharpening settings to achieve desired level of noise reduction and sharpening - select any image area and Neat Image will prepare a preview; - vary the filter settings (start with the noise reduction amount in the Y channel) and immediately see the preview result; - as soon as you are happy with the preview proceed to the next step; 4.
User Guide Neat Image it). This is the typical noise produced by the Nikon CoolPix 950 digital camera. The task of Neat Image is to eliminate this noise. To do that the program generally needs some information about the noise. We have prepared this information in advance and saved it in a sample device noise profile. This profile is supplied with the test-kit in the file SampleProfile.dnp. Using the noise profile, Neat Image can efficiently eliminate noise in the image. Step 2.
User Guide Neat Image 4. Filtration process details Neat Image can be used to filter a single image or multiple images at the same time. This section contains a detailed description of the filtration process involving a single image. Queued processing of multiple images is explained in the section 7, page 29. The filtration process is described as a set of steps that have to be taken to process an image. Please follow the description step-by-step or read a specific part to find out particular details. 4.
User Guide • Neat Image To build a new profile using the input image or a specially prepared test image. The first two options are available once you have a ready-made set of profiles. You may find free sets of profiles for your imaging device(s) in: • • • Profiles section of Neat Image web page; Device noise profiles section of Neat Image community forum; Other digital imaging forums and web pages from users of Neat Image.
User Guide 4.3.1. Neat Image Use preview to adjust filter settings To use preview ⇒ Select any image area: press the left button, drag the mouse and then release the button. 1 When an area is selected, Neat Image will automatically apply filtration to the selected image area. You can also manually invoke preview recalculation with (the Preview button), the Filter | Preview menu item, or the F5 hotkey.
User Guide Neat Image compression artifacts can stay in the output image. As a rule, if the device noise profile has been built properly, it is not necessary to increase the noise levels by more than 50%. If the input image contains strong surges of noise in the high frequency range, it is recommended to increase the high frequency noise level up to +20 to 40%.
User Guide Neat Image optimum filter settings easier and faster. More information about this tool is available in the Variant Selector subsection, page 28. 4.3.3. Adjust sharpening settings (optional1) The sharpening filter is designed to increase image sharpness without increasing the noise strength. The values of the sharpening settings are relative to the device noise profile and the noise filter settings.
User Guide Neat Image To open a previously saved filter preset (the Open filter preset… button, pink disk) in the Filter Preset box or select the Filter ⇒ Click | Load Filter Settings from Preset… menu item. In the Open filter preset dialog box, specify the name of the filter preset to be opened. or Select a preset using the popup menu: click on the button on the side of the preset name shown in 1 the top part of the Filter Preset box, and select a preset from the popup menu.
User Guide Neat Image Image As… menu item. The available output file formats are: BMP, TIFF, and JPEG (see the Requirements subsection, page 4, for more details). When you save the output image in JPEG format, you can select the compression quality. The last used compression quality value is always used as default unless you change it when saving the output image in JPEG format. or Use the Windows clipboard to export the filtration results to another application.
User Guide Neat Image 5. Building device noise profiles Each device noise profile describes the properties of noise produced by a device working in some mode. Several device noise profiles corresponding to different device modes constitute a set that can be used to process images produced in any of these device modes.
User Guide Neat Image ⇒ Use (the Show negative button) on the toolbar to temporarily turn the image into its negative. This can make finding the noise and noise-only areas easier in some cases. If you cannot find a uniform area in the input image, you can use an alternative test image. The test image is supposed to be produced by the same device working in the same or similar mode. The test image can be just another image from the same series that contains uniform featureless area suitable for analysis.
User Guide Neat Image About device name and device mode It is recommended to specify these details to keep record of devices, device modes, and corresponding device noise profiles that you use. This is important because the noise characteristics of any two devices can be extremely different. Even a single device in different modes can produce significantly different noise.
User Guide 5.1.2. Neat Image Fine-tuning the rough device noise profile For more accurate noise reduction, it is helpful to measure the dependence between the level of noise and the local brightness in different image areas. This dependence should be taken into account if noise appreciably depends on brightness (for example, if noise is strong in dark areas and weak in light areas). The Fine-Tuning Analyzer measures this dependence. The measurements results are displayed by the noise profile equalizer.
User Guide Neat Image Size of an area (pixels) Which frequency components would be analyzed Rating 200x200 - 300x300 High, medium, low and very low Best 100x100 - 200x200 High, medium and low Good High and medium Ok High Poor 60x60 – 100x100 30x30 – 60x60 The selected area would be analyzed according to its frequency composition (of high, medium, low and very low frequency image components).
User Guide Neat Image bad analysis results. 5) If necessary, reset the whole equalizer (optional) (the Reset fine-tuning results button) or select the Profile | Reset Fine-Tuning ⇒ Click Results menu item. 6) Repeat steps 1-5 with other uniform image areas of different brightness To make a device noise profile more accurate you have to fine-tune it using several uniform areas1 of the image (naturally, analyzing the same area many times makes little sense).
User Guide Neat Image How to check if a device noise profile has been fine-tuned properly The equalizer sliders should be mostly shaded in green and, occasionally, yellow. The color indicators should be filled with solid colored lines at all positions. 5.1.3. Saving the fine-tuned device noise profile To save a device noise profile for future use (the Save device noise profile as… button, blue disk) in the Device Noise Profile box or ⇒ Use select the Profile | Save As… menu item.
User Guide Neat Image 5.2. Using the calibration target This page is intended to be a test shot target for device noise profiling. Alternatively, you can use a standard color or grayscale target available from your local photo store. The patches should be uniform, grayscale or color, without any visible details or texture. Calibration target guidelines follow on the next page. 20-Nov-03 Copyright © 1999-2003 by ABSoft. All rights reserved.
User Guide 5.2.1. Neat Image Digital camera profiling Use the calibration target page to prepare a test image for building a device noise profile for your camera using the following steps: 1. Set the camera to a specific shooting mode (ISO level, exposure, etc.) that you want to build a profile for. 2. Important: set the focusing system on infinity (you need to get an out of focus image). 3. Make sure the calibration target fills the whole frame and make a shot. 4.
User Guide Neat Image 1 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
User Guide Neat Image When the profiles are named like this, finding and selecting an appropriate profile is not difficult. You simply check the device mode of the input image (using the Input Image box on the right panel in the Input Image tab of the Filtration Job Editor) and then select a profile for this device mode from the list of profiles in a folder. There is another way to do the same, based on structuring the profile set using the disk folders.
User Guide Neat Image • Device mode parameters that change over the profile set • Device mode parameters that are constant for all profiles in the set • Post-processing used (after imaging device and before Neat Image) An example of such a description is below: Olympus C5050Z noise profiles by John Smith, November 20, 2003 A set of profiles for Olympus C5050Z TIFF and JPEG files. The profiles were built using shots of the calibration target (from http://www.neatimage.com/testtarget.
User Guide Neat Image 6. Using Component viewer and Variant selector 6.1. Component Viewer The Component Viewer is intended for detailed examination of both frequency and channel components of images. Examining the components and the filtration masks may be useful to find the optimum filter settings easier and faster. ⇒ Working with the filter, turn on the Component (the Viewer window by clicking on Component Viewer on/off button) on the toolbar or by selecting the View | Component Viewer menu item.
User Guide Neat Image ⇒ Click and (the Move variant up / down buttons) or drag and drop variants in the list to sort them according to the quality (for example, move the best variants to the top of the list to group them for easier comparison). ⇒ Click (the Delete variant button) or the Del key to remove the selected variant(s) from the list.
User Guide Neat Image A new filtration job will be created. Initially, you will be offered to select an input image and then the Filtration Job Editor window will be opened with this input image. You will then be able to select a device noise profile and adjust filter settings in the same way as explained above in the Filtration process details section, page 9. When the image is ready to be processed, do not apply filtration in the Filtration Job Editor if you want to process the image in the queue.
User Guide Neat Image ⇒ Check desired ‘auto’-actions that should be applied to all the jobs added to the queue: • • • • Auto start processing Auto fine-tune profiles Auto save output images Auto delete completed jobs - to automatically start processing these jobs in the queue - to automatically apply auto fine-tuning to every job’s profile - to automatically save the output images of completed jobs - to automatically remove completed jobs from the queue ⇒ Select output file format: TIFF, JPEG or BMP (i
User Guide Neat Image 7.5. Queuing and holding image filtration jobs An image filtration job in the queue is processed when it is ready (i.e., input image and device noise profile are present) unless you specifically put it on hold. A job put on hold will not be processed until you explicitly queue it. To queue image filtration job(s) ⇒ Select one or more filtration jobs in the list that you want to process and click Queue selected job button) or select the Job | Queue menu item.
User Guide Neat Image 8. Using plug-in 8.1. Installing the plug-in into an image editor1 To install Neat Image plug-in to… … Adobe Photoshop / Photoshop Elements / ImageReady ⇒ Method 1 (traditional one): Copy the NeatImage.8bf file from the Neat Image installation folder (typically, C:\Program Files\Neat Image 3.0 Pro Plus\) into the Plugins or Plug-ins subfolder inside the Photoshop / Photoshop Elements / ImageReady folder.
User Guide 8.2.2. Neat Image Step II. Prepare a device noise profile Preparing a device noise profile is done in the same way as with the standalone version of Neat Image. Please see the section 4.2, Step II. Prepare a device noise profile, page 9. 8.2.3. Step III. Adjust filter settings This is done in the same way as with the standalone version of Neat Image. Please see the section 4.3, Step III. Adjust filter settings, page 10. 8.2.4. Step IV.
User Guide Neat Image 9. Application options1 Use the View | Options… menu item to open the Options dialog box. Neat Image has several options that you can change to adjust the behavior of the application. Refer to the descriptions below for details about each of these options. 9.1. General options Show splash screen at startup This option controls whether the splash screen (the yellow flower picture) is displayed at the application startup.
User Guide Neat Image 9.2. Job defaults Default color space This is the working color space selected by default when a new image filtration job is created (if there is no default profile selected; see Default device noise profile below). You can always change working color space later on, if necessary; this option just provides a default choice. The working color space is a color space used by Neat Image to analyze and process images.
User Guide Neat Image In order to measure the dependence between the noise and brightness of an image (that is usually done during fine-tuning a device noise profile, see Fine-tuning the rough device noise profile, page 19) it is necessary to analyze many uniform areas in an image. Each individual analysis determines the dependence in some narrow range of brightness values.
User Guide Neat Image 9.5. Filtration options Audible indication Neat Image has a simple audible signal system. The when filtration jobs are processed checkbox is used to enable/disable periodic sounds during filtration process. This may help you monitor the application while it is processing jobs. Use when all filtration jobs are done checkbox is to enable/disable a single sound to indicate the end of filtration process.
User Guide Neat Image Temporary folder/directory Select the folder that Neat Image will use to store its temporary files. In other applications, this is sometimes called ‘scratch disk’. Profile folder/directory Select the folder where Neat Image will look for device noise profiles. This should be the topmost folder of all the (sub)folders with device noise profiles.
User Guide Neat Image 10. Examples 10.1. Images to build a device noise profile See the image below for examples of good and bad image areas to select for building device noise profiles. Here, image areas suitable for building noise profiles are highlighted in green; those that should not be used are highlighted in red. Note that an image area suitable for building a device noise profile should be at least 60x60 pixel large (preferably more than 100x100 pixels).
User Guide Neat Image These image areas can be used to build device noise profiles, as they contain no visible details in all frequency ranges: – GOOD, because this area contains no important details – GOOD, no important details (this area is from another image) The following image areas should not be used to build device noise profiles, because they contain visible details: – BAD, because this area contains a detail: corner – junction of wall and ceiling – UNACCEPTABLE, because this area contains ma
User Guide Neat Image 10.2. Images to fine-tune a device noise profile In this subsection, you can find examples of image areas to be used for fine-tuning analysis in the noise profile equalizer: 10.2.1. Large size areas In image areas larger than 100x100 pixels, high, medium and low frequencies are taken into account. The examples are essentially the same as in the case of building a device noise profile. See examples in subsection 10.1, page 40. 10.2.2.
User Guide Neat Image 10.3. Filtration results Here are some examples of Neat Image performance. Input Output This is a small portion of a digital photo taken with a Nikon CoolPix 950 digital camera. The original image contains easily visible noise. In this case, the source of noise is the camera's image sensor (CCD) put in high ISO mode. Input Output This image was taken with a Kodak DC 210 digital camera.
User Guide Neat Image 11. Questions and Answers 11.1. General questions Q What is the difference between Demo, Home, Pro and Pro+ editions of Neat Image? A The Demo edition of Neat Image has some of the advanced functionality disabled. In particular, it does not save images in TIFF and BMP formats and does not copy to the clipboard (the Demo edition only saves images in JPEG). Pro+ includes a plug-in version of the filter. Please see the Detailed feature map for more information.
User Guide Neat Image incorrectly chosen or poorly built profile can both produce plastic-looking results and leave residual artifacts (see the previous question). Q What is frequency? A The term frequency is used in Neat Image to denote image elements (both important details and noise) of specific size. High frequency corresponds to image elements of smallest size. Medium (mid) frequency corresponds to elements of medium size. Low frequency corresponds to image elements of (relatively) large size.
User Guide Neat Image 12. Tips and Tricks 12.1. Preventing banding In some cases, the banding effect may appear when applying the noise filter to images with faint brightness gradients. This effect is quite rare for normal images, especially when viewed on a true color 1 display (it can be more visible on hi-color displays ). To avoid banding, try to reduce the noise reduction amount for the high frequency component to 50%. 12.2.
User Guide Neat Image 13. Information 13.1. Known issues We are trying to keep bugs away from Neat Image as much as possible. Please report any bugs or problems (even those already described below) you encounter while working with Neat Image. For convenience, use the online bug report form on the Neat Image web page. Your feedback will greatly help us to improve the software and provide you with an even better imaging tool. Thank you very much in advance! List of known issues • Nothing so far 13.2.
User Guide Neat Image 13.4. Contacts We really appreciate your opinion of Neat Image. Please let us know what you think about the program. Feel free to ask questions regarding Neat Image. To share your opinion or to receive support regarding Neat Image, use any of the following means: 13.4.1. E-mails info@neatimage.com — for general inquiries support@neatimage.com — for any inquiries regarding use of Neat Image sales@neatimage.com for any inquiries regarding purchase of Neat Image software — 13.
User Guide Neat Image you infringe upon ABSoft’s copyrights or breach this agreement. Disclaimer of warranty The authors make no warranty or representation, either express or implied, with respect to this software, its quality, accuracy, merchantability, or fitness for a particular purpose. This software is provided "as is", and you, its user, assume the entire risk as to its quality and accuracy.
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