Neat Image - Review and Top 5 Noise Reduction Software Introduction
Last Updated on March 22, 2023 by Peter Wood
Neat Image has excellent noise reducing and sharpening capabilities, which enables you to minimize film grain, JPEG compression artifacts, and other imperfection. It has both the Photoshop plugin and standalone versions. But Neat Image also de-satirizes the original images even if you tried out all the settings. What should be the best alternatives for Neat Image without washing out the input image? The article explains the best programs to remove image noise and turn out neat pictures with advanced noise reduction algorithms.
Part 1. Neat Image Review and Introduction
Neat Image can help you remove digital noise from photographic images and perform other image quality improvements. As post-processing noise reduction software, it enables you to pro-quality photos by preserving the image details. The latest Neat Image 9 was released on Dec. 8th 2021. Here you can learn more about the features and news below.
Neat Image Review
Pros:
- Reduce noise in your photo and minimize film grain, JPEG compression artifacts, and other imperfections.
- Get clear, bright photos in any shooting conditions include indoors, no-flash, night, Astro, tele-focus, sport, action, etc.
- Reduce image noise to take shots at faster shutter speeds and higher ISO becomes more usable with Neat Image post-processing.
- Superior noise reduction combined with blazing speed makes Neat Image the most efficient noise reduction solution available.
Cons:
- Lack of the AI denoise features and should be complicated for the beginners to get the optimal effect.
- The last update was one year ago. There are few updates and new features available to Neat Image now.
How to Use Neat Image to Remove Noises
Does Neat Image still works to reduce the image noises? Yes, of course. You can still use the program to apply the noise reduction effect. It will detect the image noises and choose the desired profile to enhance the photos. Here just take the Generic profile as example to remove noises below.
Step 1: Once you have installed Neat Image, you can launch the program on your computer and click the Open Input Image option from the File menu. After that, the imported photo will appear on the Open Input Image menu.
Step 2: Click the Prepare Noise Profile menu to choose the noise reduction profile. If you do not have a custom profile, you can click the Generic Profile button and adjust the slider under the Profile Check and Tuning menu and preview the effect.
Note: Just click the Load Profile button and import the device profile from your computer. Once you have added the profile, you can click the Auto Match button to apply the profile automatically.
Step 3: Go to the Adjust and Preview menu, you can adjust the Noise Level sider to reduce the image noises. Similar to other noise reduction software, you can tweak the luminance and sharpness to find the balance for the noise image.
Step 4: When you find the optimal effect, you can click the Save Output Image to save the output on your computer. To save the photos with high quality, you have to purchase the full license beforehand.
Part 2. Top 5 Neat Image Alternatives to Reduce Noise from Photos
1. WidsMob AI Retoucher
WidsMob AI Retoucher is more than AI noise reduction software, but provides a series of AI features to enhance the photos. As for the similar features as Neat Image, it provides 3 different AI Retouch features, lowlight recovery, noise reduction, and haze removal. Moreover, it adjusts luminance, chrominance, and sharpness manually to get the optimal effect. There are more advanced AI features to apply special filter, make cartoon face, and apply film pack effects, and more.
1. Provide the advanced AI retouching features to remove different image noises.
2. Tweak luminance, chrominance, and sharpness just as Neat Image alternative.
3. Adjust the saturation, exposure, contrast, vibrancy, tint, opacity, and others.
4. Combine both AI algorithms and manual-denoise algorithms to touch up photos.
Step 1: Once you have installed WidsMob AI Retoucher, you can launch the program on your computer. Go to the File menu and choose the Open option to import the desired images into the program.
Step 2: Go to the AI Retouch menu and select the desired AI algorithm mode for your image, such as Noise Reduction to apply noise reduction as Neat Image and you can have a comparison with the Before/After mode.
Step 3: When you need to adjust the luminance, chrominance, sharpness, or even saturation, you can go to the Adjust menu to adjust the sliders for these effects manually to find the optimal effect accordingly.
2. Topaz DeNoise AI
Topaz Denoise is one of the most popular Neat Image alternatives. The program can remove noise for all occasions, such as indoor, low light, high ISO, and no-flash environments. Both the standalone and Plugin version works in removing High ISO noise. You can also feel the confidence to shoot everything while preserving the detail of the images.
When you compare Neat Image with Topaz Denoise, Topaz Denoise can recover detail with extreme cases. Denoise uses custom information from each image to remove noise and remain the best quality of the original image.
3. Noise Ninja
If you had the Neat Image Plugin version previously, you could use Noise Ninja as a replacement for reducing image noise. An effective Photoshop Plugin enables you to remove noise and distortions from digital photographs and scanned film images. As the alternative for Neat Image, it should be a great help in reducing noise.
Noise Ninja is just a Plug-in for Photoshop. If you need to use the standalone version, you can use Photo Ninja instead. Both Neat Image and Noise Ninja are excellent in noise-reducing, but Noise Ninja has no update for a period.
4. Super Denoising
The noise reduction software uses State-of-art denoising technology in the photography industry. Super Denoising professionally reduces low light and high ISO noise in digital camera shots, tablets, and smartphones. The batch function of Super Denoising can handle a large number of photos in a few seconds.
Compared to Neat Image, Super Denoising can detect all kinds of noise from landscapes, retouch skin, smooth face, and remove JPEG artifacts are also not a problem. It is another super denoising program to replace Neat images.
5. Noiseless
Noiseless of Macphun wins some editorial review for Apple Store. It should be another choice as a Neat Image alternative. The program has an algorithm that identifies noise and automatically removes it. It has the proprietary noise reduction tech for RAW files. When you need to reduce noise for the RAW files, Noiseless is a replacement for Neat Image.
What should be the most significant difference between Neat Image and Noiseless? It should be the adjustments provided by Noiseless to adjust every parameter to get a satisfying result with ease.
