I'm using Neat Image (a noise reducing program) after reading about it here, and I love it! But...being the weirdo that I am, I'd love to be able to learn how to achieve the same results myself in Photoshop. Any ideas? Do you think it involves reducing noise from each channel? I don't know where to start, but I would really like to do this myself if possible. :) Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Hi BG, Photoshop-CS2 has a the new Filter>Reduce Noise which comes pretty close but I find does not compare with Neat Image or Noise Ninja (my noise plugin of choice). Its a shame that Adobe can't include a tool like this which is so fundamentally critical to a today's workflow. I would gladly trade a pile of "never used" filters that come with the Photoshop for a "world class" noise reduction tool.
Regards, Murray

neat image reduces noise by separating the channel information into ycrcb channels (default).. Then it analyzes the frequencies of the noise which you can adjust with the component viewer.

In order break out different frequencies you have to copy a layer, high pass with say 5pixels, then gaussian same layer with say 2 pixels.. This now shows all the details in the 2-5 pixel range.. You can then convert this to a mask and manipulate using this mask, etc, etc..

There is no way you will duplicate the capabilities completely.. Do you just want a "push button" way to reduce noise in general with Photoshop? There are many ways to do this..

It is not the same at Neat Image, but I do have a free action set got noise reduction that includes some sophisticated features.

http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com/TLRDigitalNoiseReduction.htm

Enjoy!

Cheers,

Mitch