A bit of progress: Using `Adaptive' settings with MMT noise reduction

[marekc]

This is a pretty small bit of progress, but I recently made a bit of headway with MMT-based noise reduction. I generally find myself intimidated by the settings and sliders in MMT, but I finally learned a little bit about the `Adaptive' sliders. I was able to use them to eliminate some dark blobs that remained after an otherwise-decent-looking (to me) noise reduction.

I've described it here:

http://photonshotnoise.blogspot.com/2012/07/making-adaptive-progress-with.html

- Marek

[Geoff]

Thanks Marek
It looks like a useful piece of work.
Geoff

[Philippe B.]

Hi Marek
I really like the noise reduction you have done (very nice rendering, maybe a little too much  )
But really nice (the small structure noise rendition is nice)
Like me you like "noise reduction" and not "noise suppression" or worse : totally noise annihilation       
Thank you for sharing settings
I start to have some nearly similar results with MMT but that's right this tool is not easy ! It demands a lot of try 


I really appeciate all you small tutorials. they are simple and it really help to go ahead with PI.


best

[marekc]

Hi Philippe,

Thanks very much for your kind words! I agree with you, tools like MMT are not easy. When we find settings that work for our images, they are very precious! Discovering a set of MMT (or Deconvolution, or whatever...) settings that works is like finding a precious gemstone.

When I found the MMT settings shown in my blog post, it was mostly luck, and I was amazed that it was possible to reduce the small-scale noise that much. I had just about given up on the idea of getting much out of my image.

I think my greatest desire, when it comes to PI, is to have a `visual sense' for what each slider or setting does. For example, I would *love* to have a `visual sense' for what the controls in StarMask do. I mostly feel like I'm lost in a wilderness when I'm using StarMask. Now I have a tiny visual sense for what Adaptive does, and for me that felt like a victory. With a tool like MMT, I'll take my victories wherever I can find them!

- Marek