Introduction

A new app developed by MacPhun, Noiseless is for Mac users and is available as a standard version or as a Pro version, for a greater cost. The standard version costs £13.99, or you can pay £28.99 for the full version. A free trial is available to download, too, but it doesn’t allow you to save, share or export your photos.

According to MacPhun, Noiseless Pro is able to “clean up digital noise fast with advanced technology to retain sharp details with one click operation”.

It is aimed at photographers with all kinds of skill level, right from beginners through to pros, and can be used as a standalone app on its own, or as a plugin for other Mac compatible software, including Photoshop CC, Photoshop Elements, Adobe Lightroom and Apple Aperture.

Using proprietary raw noise reduction technology, it is compatible with different kinds of image files, including raw files and JPEG images.

Installation

You can download the Noiseless Pro software from the MacPhun site. It’s recommended that you try the free trial first to see if it’s something you want to spend money on for the full version. It’s worth remembering though that you won’t be able to save any images you create, though.

Once you’ve downloaded the the software you simply need to drag the program icon into your Applications folder to install it. The first time you open it you’ll be asked if you want to continue with the trial, but if you’ve purchased you can enter your activation code at this point.

After you’ve got past this section, on the first open, you’ll be prompted to add the software as a plugin to any other software you’ve already got installed, such as Photoshop CC or LIghtroom. This is a very simple process too, and is easy as clicking the install button. Before you can use the plugin, you will have to restart the other app you’re using though.

Ease of Use

As with other MacPhun pieces of software, Noiseless has been designed to be as uncomplicated as possible.

After you’ve opened a photo you will see there are a range of options to choose from on the right hand side of the screen. There are presets available to choose from when applying noise reduction, which range from Lightest:

up to Extreme:

and have options such as Moderate in between. There are also presets called Balanced, Soft and those which are designed specifically for those images with lots of Color Noise:

or lots of Luma Noise.

You can experiment with any or all of these presets to decide which works best for the photo you’re working on, and the level of noise that might be present in them.

In order to assess how each compares, you can view the photo in a number of different ways. You can have just the finished image showing, or you can have a split screen effect which allows you to drag a slider across the window to see how the noise reduction looks.

Lastly, you can have a before and after view, showing both images side by side.

You can choose to view the image(s) so they fit wholly in the window, or zoom in to 100% or 200%, the latter is useful for examining detailed areas of the shot.

By default, the Moderate preset noise reduction will be applied, and each time you click on a different preset, the software will apply different settings. Within each preset box is a slider for controlling the intensity of the effect, which is useful if you think it’s being a little heavy handed but otherwise like the look.

If you want to take even further control of how the noise reduction is applied, you can move to the Adjust tab where you can fine tune certain settings, such as Color, Luminance and Smoothing. This is particularly useful if you want to keep detail in the shots while also reducing the noise. From this tab you can also create your own presets which you can use later - once you’ve adjusted as many settings as you think is necessary, simply click Create at the bottom of the screen and give your preset a name. This is handy if you’ve shot a lot of photos with the same settings and want a quick way to apply the same noise reduction.

Clicking reset at the bottom of the Adjust tab takes any settings you have changed back to their default position for the particular preset you’re working with.

When you have completed the editing that you want to do, you have a few options for saving, exporting or sharing your image. You can save it as a number of different file types, including JPEG. You can also choose to open the image in another piece of software, such as Photoshop, to perform more or different edits on it.

If you want to use Noiseless Pro as a plugin, that’s also a very simple process. If you are using Photoshop CC, just go to Filter > MacPhun Software > Noiseless Pro. The Noiseless Pro interface will launch, allowing you to make any changes you wish. Once you’re done, you click Accept at the top of the window and you will be taken back to the photo in Photoshop to carry on your editing work there.

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