What Denoise do you use?

[cjstarr]

I was looking at some of the night shots and wondered if any of you were using a Denoise when processing them and what program you used to do it.
Pros & Cons on the program you are using!
Also are you able to take good night time shots without having to use a program to remove the noise?

 

[Gianna'sPapa]

When I use a denoise program it is Topaz Denoise 5. IMHO it is the best I've found. It has presets or you can go in manually. I do both depending on the image. I will denoise if it is required. Most of my night tripod shots do not require denoising due to the fact they are shot at the lowest possible ISO. With my newer camera, I have much higher usable ISO therefore the need to denoise is less than with my previous bodies. Only the handheld shots may require some denoising.

 

[havoc315]

Lightroom. Jpegs shouldn't really need noise reduction, as already applied by the camera (in exchange for loss of detail).

But I typically shoot Raw, on Sony a55, I may need some slight reduction at ISO 800, moderate reduction at 1600, and above 1600.. It gets substantial.

 

[nbaresejr]

Lightroom 4 is pretty good.

Others I have are Dfine from Nik and Topaz Denoise.

Dfine does a nice job of just removing noise from selected areas. I purchased the complete Nik Collection a few weeks ago and I am actually liking then all. Color Efex 4 is just awesome!

 

[PythonFan888]

Imagenomic Noiseware or Nik DFine (part of the Nik Plug-in Suite).

...but like Gianna'sPapa said, the key to avoiding noise during night shooting is to use a tripod and your camera's base ISO.

 

[havoc315]

I know op is shooting with the A57. Even without a tripod, if shooting handheld and raw, noise shouldn't be a problem if you can keep your iso 800 and lower. With your aperture wide open at 2.8, you may be able to keep your iso down.
For still subjects, you can also use the multi-frame noise reduction setting, works well. It's jpeg only, but works very well in dark settings.