If you are in the market for a 6 to 8-megapixel digicam and have read any of the reviews published on the internet (or contained within the pages of magazines such as D-Photo), you will undoubtedly have come across the reviewer’s assessment of the camera’s ‘noise’.

Noise is electronic ‘static’ in a digital camera and appears as darker spots (similar to film grain) in a photograph. This static is amplified at higher ISO settings and is especially obvious in flat areas of colour (like the sky).

In many cases, noise can become ‘excessive’ and even make a picture un-useable.

To The Rescue

Fortunately, help is at hand for those of us who like to shoot at high ISO ratings (400 to 3200) in the form of some pretty nifty software. Now when you have to photograph at high ISOs because of fading light, and image noise becomes inevitable, simply reach for Noise Ninja (cool name, eh!).

Available as a download off the internet (go to www.picturecode.com), Noise Ninja is being used by professionals and serious amateurs the world over to control noise in their images.

After it’s downloaded (it’s only 5 to 6 megabytes), you receive a trial version that overlays a grid pattern on your photographs. However, you can use your credit card to purchase a ‘key’ (serial number) that will ‘unlock’ the program ready for use.

What A Difference!

The software is very reasonably priced for such a powerful and incredibly useful program – it starts at US$35 (approx NZ$48) for the Home version and up to US$80 (approx NZ$111) for the Pro version.

Once you use it and see the difference it makes to your prints, you’ll wonder how you managed without it.

Noise Ninja can be used as a stand-alone product, or as a plug-in from within Photoshop. Both ways work exceptionally well and are intuitive.

To ‘fix’ an image, sliders are moved and the changes are previewed in ‘real time’ (you see it happening as you do it). Enlarge the image in the window to at least 100 per cent, so you can gauge more precisely the amount of correction you are applying, and ‘hey presto’!

Then it’s a simple matter of clicking the Apply button and those noisy specks just melt away.

A nifty little ‘before and after’ button also lets you marvel at the improvements made to your digital image.

The Right Profile

Noise ‘profiles’ specific to your camera are the key to superior results with Noise Ninja and these can also be downloaded (for free) at the Picturecode website. Don’t worry if your camera isn’t listed (although a good many of the popular models are) as you can create your own profiles, which is as painless as a couple of mouse clicks.

Five-Minute Fix

The ‘Five-minute Guide To Noise Ninja’ contained under ‘Help’ will have you producing noise-free images in… well, five minutes! It really is that easy and the results are superb.

Whereas before I was too apprehensive to ‘push’ a digicam anywhere past ISO 100 because of noise quality issues, now I know I can ‘fix’ anything in Noise Ninja later on. No matter whether I’m shooting with an 8MP digicam, or a dSLR set to ISO 1600, Noise Ninja is at the top of the list in my post-production workflow.

My recommendation is: what are you waiting for? Go download it – now!

Noise Ninja

Pros: Easy to follow yet powerful software, use as a stand alone or plug-in for Photoshop, transforms images quickly, makes noisy digicams useable, choose either PC or Mac versions

Cons: Only available over the internet in New Zealand

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