Comparing Silkypix with Adobe Camera Raw (page 3)
Test 3: Comparing Noise Reduction
The Kodak SLR camera are known to have a good deal of noise in the shadows, especially when doing low light work such as mine. I therefore wanted to compare how the two programs handle shadow noise.
The image below compares images from Silkypix (left) vs ACR (right), with all noise reduction turned off.
Silkypix with no NR (left) vs ACR with no NR (right)
I then turned on the noise reduction for both programs, which you can see below: Silkypix (left) vs ACR (right). Note that I didn't try to match the NR of the two programs. I merely used settings which gave me the best results. In this test, Silkypix handled the noise better. Although it did introduce a halo-effect on the edge of the leaf (this is probably something I can reduce with a little work). The ACR image did a good job of noise reduction, but you can still still a bit of a texture in the blacks.
Silkypix NR (left) vs ACR NR (right)
I then introduced Noise Ninja, a noise reduction plug-in for Photoshop that I've had some great results from. The image below compares the Silkypix noise reduction (left) with ACR's noise reduction combined with Noise Ninja. The remaining noise texture in the ACR image was greatly improved, resulting in a smooth shadow (with no texture or halos).
Silkypix NR (left) vs ACR NR plus Noise Ninja (right)