When shooting in low light conditions with your digital camera you will most probably end up with grainy and not so sharp images. This is especially true for consumer cameras. There is an elegant solution to this problem. NeatImage is a PhotoShop plug-in that can help you remove this noise from your images.

I wanted to see how good NeatImage comparing to a noise reduction workflow of filters available on PS, so I tested both options on an average noisy image taken with my Canon A70. The first image is a detail of the original at ISO 400.

The next image is what I could achieve with PS's built in filters using my noise reduction techniques: part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4.

The last sample is made with NeatImage's camera specific profile. You can see how much more sharper the subject is. Also, the background is much smoother.

I'm sure it's possible to achive noise reduction with the default PS filters close to NeatImage, but I believe NeatImage is a great tool that helps you achieve impressive results and save lot of time. It's not free, but well worth the 40$ price if you consider that you can download free profiles for your camera where all the settings are predefined for your immediate use. There are separate profiles for each ISO setting on your camera resulting in a very precise noise reduction.