September 2nd, 2010
In the previous post, you learned about noise in a digital image. The best way to prevent noise is try reduce it when the photo is taken. Even if you have a digital image that has noise, you can improve images by using a software tool to reduce noise. Let’s see how to use ACDSee to reduce noise in images.
To begin, select your photo and choose the Edit tab in the far right corner. You will be in ACDSee’s edit mode with editing functions available to you on the left. The tool that we are interested in is the Noise tool and it is found at the very bottom.

After selecting Noise, you will see a tool that has a few options for removing noise. The multiple options are different software techniques to try remove noise. Discussing the difference between each option really isn’t necessary. My suggestion in choosing which noise removal method to use is to select each option and look at the preview. View all the different options in the Preview bar and then determine which option looks the best for your image.

A quick explanation of Hybrid Luminance and Color Noise Removal. The Luminance noise is random variations of brightness so in a photo where something is suppose to be a solid color you would see varying shades of the light, medium and dark of that area. The Color noise is random variations of color. You’ll see pixels of red, green, blue where it should all be black. So depending on the type of noise you see in your individual photo, you can adjust the amount of Luminance or Color noise to remove.
I do have a word of caution with removing noise. By altering the photo and reducing noise, you may reduce the image sharpenness. So you only want to remove as much noise as you need to without impacting the image sharpness.
In addition, ACDSee has a function to add noise. You may want to add noise to simulate the grainy texture of high speed film. Also, adding noise may help correct problems of digital images. For example, you can add noise to blurry image to increase the contrast. Just be subtle with the noise addition.
So go ahead and find some digital images that contain noise. Try out ACDSee’s noise removal to produce a better looking digital photo with less noise.
August 27th, 2010
You probably have seen it in digital pictures but just didn’t know what it is called. Digital noise is comparable to grainy film in traditional film cameras. Users tend to see noise in photos when the lighting is low and they are using a typical point and shoot camera. Let’s learn more about what noise is and tips on reducing noise.
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July 19th, 2010



For a limited time, the purchase of ACDSee Photo Manager 12 earns you Photo Editor 2008 and FotoSlate 4 at no extra cost. Manage, create and print photos faster and more easily during our 3-for-1 Summer Bundle offer.
Visit www.acdsee.com for more details.
Are you a registered owner of ACDSee Photo Manager 6 or later? Log in to your account to retrieve your coupon for additional upgrade savings.
July 16th, 2010
Recently, Serge and I went on a delightful two-week trip to Japan. Usually, I carry one SLR and a point-and-shoot, however, this time I wanted to use just the point-and-shoot to explore the limitations of using such a small camera. What I discovered and want to share with you are great some tips and tricks to help get the most out of your point-and-shoot.
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June 30th, 2010
On a recent trip, I was treated to rainy, dreary weather that did nothing to really help create beautiful landscape photos. There was no way to adjust the lighting when mother nature is not cooperating. So I want to show you how to liven up a photo that looks a little grey and dreary. In the previous blog post, we talked about histograms and we will use that knowledge to help us improve the image.

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June 11th, 2010
In digital photography, our camera and computer has the ability to analyze your photos quickly and provide you feedback via a graphic tool called a histogram. Understanding a histogram, can help you achieve better exposure of your pictures. Whole books have been written about getting the best exposure for your images. The best exposure is determined by the following factors: subject, lighting, and camera settings: F-stop (shutter speed), ISO settings (sensitivity of the light), and aperture (width of the iris to allow image in.) If you aren’t an avid photographer and don’t want to take the time to learn all the best settings, using the histogram is an easy tool to help you learn how to get better exposed images.
A histogram will tell you the brightness of your image or exposure. Let’s continue explaining in detail…
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June 10th, 2010
With the arrival of summer and the launching of the new contest, we are pleased to
announce the winners of the ACDSee Home Photo and Layout Contest, Spring‘s returning:
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May 30th, 2010
On any camera advertisement display you will see the camera’s zoom capability. Manufacturers will list the optical zoom and sometimes they list the digital zoom. What is the difference?
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May 25th, 2010
The latest RAW update 4.1.288 is now available for ACDSee 12 and includes support for new camera models:
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May 6th, 2010
The photographs your digital camera takes need to be stored in some type of file format that computers and software recognize. The most common format is JPEG and most Point & Shoot cameras save their files this way. Often you will see the 3 letters JPG instead and its the same thing. The 3 letters at the end of the image filename are .jpg and that means the image is stored in a JPEG format file type. The second type is RAW. RAW files are usually from Digital SLR files although there may be a few Point & Shoot cameras that can save in RAW as well. RAW files are uncompressed, unprocessed data files captured from you camera’s image sensor. With a RAW file, you can do image processing on your computer to develop your photo by adjusting all kinds of settings such white balance, sharpening, contrast, etc. Raw is similar to a film negative and processing the RAW file on your computer is like a digital darkroom.
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