[Tutorial] Noise Reduction aka Denoising Guide by Yonie-Daime

[venicia777]

Top Filters: Neat Image, Topaz Bundle (Denoise & Clean), Noise Ninja, GrayCstoration

Warning: Use filters like Denoisers ONLY when needed; avoid them if you can at all cost

hi. if you've been to this guide before, please read again as i made some changes to the "rules" and steps in denoising. also i was planning to name the second version "Noise Reduction aka Denoising Guide: Shippuden" but that's going too far. i marked blue my changes since the previous.

hi there.
well first and foremost what is a noise reduction application or denoiser? it may be a little technical to explain (it is), but to make it short, denoisers reduce the noise from digital images by a certain algorithm (which, it depends, differs on every noise reduction application). the result is all the noise are sticked into each other. and yeah, this effect is blurry but this guide will help you through it. if you want to know more about denoisers, wikipedia has a good article on it

is denoising EVIL?
yes, and so is rock, the internet, and yagami light. bottomline, it depends on what you believe, on whether you like the overall result or not

how will denoising help scanlating?
raw scans are digital images. duh. just kidding. most raw scans have a lot of dust, and rarely this is the scanner's fault, this problem is mainly because of the printing quality of the manga's publisher. shonen jump for example, loves trees, so they use recycled paper, newspaper-grade paper. i was told by the creator of shonen jump that "well, newspapers have comics, neh yon-kun?" im lame

so poor printing = bad results. lots of dusts, crappy lines. especially the dusts. dusts are like the noise in images (for those who dont know noise, listen to swedish hardcore band refused), so when you apply a denoising effect to the raw scans, the dusts get molded into each other.

so is molding, hence blurring the image, helpful to the scanlation process?
IMVVVHO, yeah yes yehey it does, on a lot of reasons.
1. the grueling task of brushing off dusts in raw scans is like reduced to gazillion infinite%. so is the white stuff( ) on blacks.
2. broken, craggy lines become smooth. just like how it should be
3. DOING HQ GRAYS HAVE NEVER BEEN SO TEARJERKING EASY.
4. overall speed in scanlating is increased, and quality, if used right, will also increase

will this denoising guide apply to all raws?
AS LONG AS IT'S NOT TOO SMALL, YEAH IT WILL.
so basically that means the height of the raw must be at least 1000px. if it's like 500px small, digicam raws, i dont think denoising would help. so the meaning of the meaning is, GET THE RIGHT RAW. and denoising will do the rest

can you give a quick comparison?

Spoiler for comparison of noise reduction and original raw:

what favoritism?

let's analyze the above pic.
1. what's the raw size?
kylara's high resolution (), about 2500-3000px high
2. what are the steps?
for the unnoised: level > resize
for the noised: level > denoise > level > resize
3. how come the denoised is less dusty and more smooth?
that's what noise reduction is all about
4. why is the unnoised pic so ugly? isnt it the original?
read the next section, important stuff

isnt denoising ruining the original art?
by the time you level/curve any raw, you already ruined the original lineart.
for magazine scans like shonen jump's, if you want the original lineart, dont touch anything to the raw. because jump paper is poor quality, the only original lineart theoretically is in the mangaka's studio.

i want to try denoising. but there are so many denoisers, what software should i use?
i personally use NeatImage, since i'm content with it's features. the software i alyways hear here is Topaz Vivacity, but i dislike it because it's java-slow (theoretically java is supposed to be faster than c++ but wtf talk to me later)
i've done some search stuff:
1. Noise Ninja (most highly rated noise reduction software, reviews say)
2. GRAYCstoration (havent used, check it out)
3. NeatImage (i like this product)
4. Topaz Vivacity (scanlator favorite)

SUPPORT THE DEVELOPERS BY BUYING THE RESPECTIVE PRODUCTS. DONT DOWNLOAD ILLEGALLY BY GOING TO DEMONOID OR TYPING IN GOOGLE <SOFTWARE> + i think ill stop here i hear footsteps

all these products have different settings/options, can you just give a general instruction?
BEFORE DENOISING, RAW MUST BE LEVELLED/CURVED
then, make it look like this:

Spoiler for denoised:

(original size)

and then level it again. then resize to make it look like the comparison pic

that was a stupid explanation. can you detail more?

bad denoising versus good denoising

Spoiler for bad denosing + bad result:

Spoiler for good denosing + good result:

i hope you get the big picture now. it was big.

Spoiler for another fcking example:

so i now know how to do a good denoise. what do i do next?

heck, let's generalize what are the steps in denoising:

1. if raw is smaller than 2500px, enlarge the image (read below on how to and why)
2. level MILD (mild means JUST BEFORE the peaks. normally you'd level just after the peaks, but to achieve a good denoise effect, the lines must be as accurate. this means that as close as possible to both the raw and the correctly levelled raw.)
3. apply the denoising filter
4. level again (now here you can choose to level mild or not. read below on some problems with after-denoise levels)
5. resize back to standard size

do i need to adjust the denoising filter for every raw i edit?
IN MY EXPERIENCE, THERE IS ONLY ONE MAGIC SETTING.
i worship that setting with all my heart. only one denoising setting worked for me. i use NeatImage, but i believe that other denoisers could work out with just one setting.

why is this? because IMO, all grayscaled then levelled raws are digitally alike. it's another story if your raw is colored, altho if you apply the magic setting to a colored page there's a lot of ways to adjust it to achieve one's preference. BUT NOT TO GRAYSCALED/LEVELLED. in color, there's a lot of color pixels. in grayscale, there is only black, gray and white, and in between. if you adjust the magic setting, normally the pixel adjustment of the filter will adjust too, and more likely yield unfit results.

how do i get the magic setting?
for NeatImage, my magic setting is this profile and preset.
profile: select a blank area and autoprofile it
preset:
noise level: luminance=-10%/chrominance: leave it alone
noise reduction amount: luminance=80%/chrominance: leave it alone

i havent tried the other denoisers (to tell you the truth, topaz is such a pain it's uber slow). but that's why i posted what a good denoise is and a bad denoise is, so from that rule you can deduce for yourself the magic setting. dont fret, when i get the time ill try the other denoisers cause honestly i get bored with using NeatImage.

one thing i REALLY like about topaz is it's sharpen feature, which i cant imitate with NeatImage. take a look at the comparison below.

Spoiler for topazVsNeatImage:

but this magic setting for topaz requires:
1. not grayscale, but RGB mode
2. page MUST be standard size. this setting requires it at least 1100-1200px high

setting for topaz:
sharpness = 0.96
radius = 0.83
edge crispness = 8
noise threshold = 2.32
line accent = 1
iterations = 3
aliasing settings = 0

topaz sharpen is not a denoising feature, altho it does some similar results on the lines, but not on the grays.

so far the raws you've shown are 2000px high. what if my raw is standard size (e.g. 800x1200, 750x1100)?
golden rule of denoising:
ALWAYS APPLY THE DENOISE FILTER TO LARGE OR ENLARGED IMAGES.

we have here a raw standard size. look what happens when we apply denoising to it (of course remember to level before denoising):

Spoiler for denoised standard size:

ugh. that's way ugly. why did that happen? because the smaller the lines, the more visually obvious the denoising will be. that is why denoising must always be applied to raws with large pixels. so take a look at this steps to properly denoise it:

1. change the image size and resolution
(thanks to twoshirou for showing me the resolution stuff )
go to adjust > image size. check "resample image". make sure the interpolation method is "bicubic" (bicubic is high quality but slow, bilinear medium, and nearest neighbor is fast but jagged). always check "constrain proportions" as well, you'll see why.

now, see if the resolution is 150px. if it's not, adjust it to 150. also, see how the image size is adjusted proportionally to the resolution. why? because adjusting the resolution means putting up more pixels, thus enlarging the image. but the important part is not the 150px resolution, but the image height. always check if the image height is 2500px. if not, then adjust it to 2500px. that's why we checked "constrain proportions", so that the width adjust to the height, vice versa.

also, why 150px res and 2500px? well to me that's a good preference. a larger value will make the lines more thick. and an even larger will make it pretty thick. but some groups prefer thicker lines, etc. 150px and 2500px high is just right for me.

2. do what you have to do
hence, level, denoise using the magic setting, and level again.
also, a lot of cleaning tutorials i've read havent mentioned this (or am i blind), but i think this is one of the most important aspects of cleaning.
EDITING GOLDEN RULE: ALWAYS EDIT IN LARGE/ENLARGED IMAGE MODE.
so that means, levels, blacks, whites, blah blah must be done when the image is at least 2500px high. that's why resizing always goes last. when you do it this way, the image will be a lot detailed when you finally resize it.

notes:
take note that we level twice. in most cases, the grays will be erased because we level the white. you see, the first time we level the white, the grays are already made weak. when we denoise, it becomes visible a tad bit. in the second level of the white, the grays are almost gone, most cases all gone.
if you're editing without redoing grays, in the second level, do not level strongly the whites. you already levelled once anyway so the page is not that dusty. also i suggest you erase the text bubbles first before you do level > denoise > level. that way only one kind of white will be visible.

Spoiler for gray/dust problems in levelling twice:

in the world of denoising, all things will be denoised, and sometimes that can yield undesirable results. most of these stuff im talking about are background tones. see the example. so what i always do is whip out the handy dandy history brush tool and brush back the original look of the BG.

Spoiler for history brush helps denoising:

3. obviously, when you're finished, resize it back to standard size.

Spoiler for enlarge standard size raw denoised:

i see that standard size raws (that got enlarged) and big version raws will yield visually alike results. so?
in my opinion, it's better to use the big version raws, because enlarged by the scan is more detailed than enlarged digitally. honestly, compare the two, and you'll find that big version raws are much more detailed. but then again, it's your call

Spoiler for 3000px (big version raw) denoised:

Spoiler for 1200px (standard size raw) denoised:

as you can see the 3000px image is more sharp and detailed, while the 1200px image is a little smooth (blurry) but still the two raws are visually alike. so it's your call! your call...

can this work with other manga series other than one piece?
i believe so. i've tried. here are some es21, bleach, and naruto comparisons:

Spoiler for naruto:

Spoiler for bleach:

Spoiler for es21:

feel free to adjust the noise settings for each to achieve best result.
thank you very much to kylara for the high res raws!

whew. i think that's all. post all comments (if any ) here. ill gladly help you out

site links:
Topaz Denoise & Clean
NeatImage
Noise Ninja
GRAYCstoration
Topaz Vivacity

Wow - this must have taken a long time to write up. Thank you yonie-daime? isnt that yoniekai?

I should try my hands on this very soon. i now got photoshop on my computer. Next will be Neatimage

[Kaizen]

thank you very much!

[B-One]

I don't actualy understand how you level pix^^. (btw I got neatimage and put your "magic" settings in it. I also don't understand how you apply them to the pictures.

[venicia777]

Originally Posted by B-One

I don't actualy understand how you level pix^^. (btw I got neatimage and put your "magic" settings in it. I also don't understand how you apply them to the pictures.

hooo - u want to help us clean too. That will be awesome. The tutorials will be coming in gradually. Typesetting is first and is halfway done. But for your question i'll write up something short hopefully by the end of the day or tomorrow. Wait for it.

[B-One]

Ok thanx a lot venicia i'll wait for it^^

[venicia777]

Originally Posted by B-One

Ok thanx a lot venicia i'll wait for it^^

This is basics. You have to fill out all the options before u can denoise.
ie

First
when you open neatimage, on the top of the screen are options/menu like File, Edit, Profile - u can use these options or the options right below (call them A) them to work ur denoising magic. The first of these A options says Open Input Image (this can also be accessed using the File menu). Click on that and navigate to your image which you select and choose open.

Second
U choose(click on) your device profile of ur A options. The tutorial above should have a general profile in there somewhere to download or to use.

But later with experience you will do well to learn how to at least create different profiles for some of the series you do. This is just a brief: Do this by using the auto profile option (this pops up below Device Noise profile whenever u click on device noise profile). U can also find it in in the Profile menu). There is a small button beside the auto-profile option. Click it and play with the options over there. For now start with auto profile with calibration target.

after u choose this option unow grab an area on your image as your calibration target. by using your mouse to draw a rectangle over an area of your image. I usually select an area that is part black. better if youyou can use. After selecting the area u click on the autoprofile button and you are set.

Third
Set your noise filter settings. The tutorial above should give you a point to start with if it doesnt let me know.

Fourth
Now it is time to see what the settings you chose do to your image. Go to output image and click apply. Then save the image. Put it back into photoshop- level the image appropriately.

if you dont like the things you see try again. You are not going to learn anything if you dont practice. i will go over this later. Remember, cleaning requires effort. Dont expert softwares to be like robots who do all your work for you.

[venicia777]

iF You dont understand anything PLEASE post your worries here.

Most Important:
If you start to denoise a page and you want me or anyone to go over it step by step Create A Thread

[makhan]

I tried out NeatImage, Noise Ninja and Topaz Vivacity. I was working on this page:


I couldn't get rid of all of the dirt on lying Ichigo (to be exact, on his right arm), but it was barely visible, so it's really a huge help. I get the best results with Topaz Vivacity, but it was slow. And don't be afraid if the image after applying the filter looks blurred. After resizing it looks much better. I didn't spent much time on learning how to use these filters efficiently, but I'm planning to do so, when I will have some free time. It was the most important thing that was missing in my scanlating process.
Thanks for the tutorial.

[carrotop]

i was wondering if there are other applications that will work besides photoshop, or abode.
like paint 3.36, and if you know of other kinds please give me the link
because i want to work of a manga currently down at the moment
kurohime.