Paul,
There is always distinct and powerful advantages to using localized editing versus global editing. You can isolate and control the level of reduction to a much greater degree by using selections.
A simple starting point would be to create an action in PS using the Select - Color Range tool. Under the select dropdown, pick hilites, close and press Ctrl-J to copy this selection to a new layer. Do this once again for midtones and then shadows in Select - Color Range. The result is a new layer for each range of hi, mid, and shad. You can then run NI on each layer and then use blending modes and/or opacities to fine tune. These simple steps will bring a totally new meaning to noise reduction on average and allow a much broader range of adjustment than simple global reduction.
You can carry this even further by adding the claw selection method, LAB or RGB channels or even pen or lasso selections in their own layers. Once you compare these localized selection results with global results, you'll see how much can really be done.
Of course, this does take a little more time but if you want the best, it's the way to go with NI and PS.
Any type of targeted range selection or mask in PS deals with transparancy unless there is an area of only a single color. In a photographic image, you will never find this unless its a totally blown shad or hi area.
Regards,
VG
Paul Demers wrote:
>
> VG wrote:
>
> > NI 5 now works with transparent selections.
>
> What do you believe the advantage of this ability?
>
> >You're much better off using S/H on
> > selections based on shadows and hilites, then running NI on these
> > selections. This avoids the haloing that is rampant with S/H,
> > especially in extreme dynamic range.
>
> Are you refering to a luminosity mask / inverted luminosity mask (
> not sure if that has a name) ? If so, there would be a lot of
> transparancy...?
> Thanks
> Paul