Dear Preston,
To implement the procedure you could do the following:
1. Prepare the image to the final stage you wish to print;
2. Prepare the image to the final print size including your final sharpening value;
3. Crop an area within the final print image where you wish to minimize the noise, such as a square portion of the clouds or darker sky, and where you select a continuous toned area, not a blended area of light and dark;
4. activate "Neat Image" change the small square to the largest square setting within the application's window, and simply "Auto Profile" your selection without interference or changing the settings;
5. "Apply" the application's auto profile to your cropped portion;
6. Remove or "Undo" the crop by deleting that item from the History list, which will bring your original image back to its normal state, before you cropped the image;
7. Duplicate the background layer;
8. Press "Apple F" for MAC or "Cntl F" for IBM'ish computers to apply the "Neat Image" noise reduction from the last attempt to your duplicate background layer;
Note: your Photoshop application remembers the last filter you applied...
9. "Add a layer mask" to the duplicate background layer;
10. Select any brush size you wish, using any opacity you wish to remove as much noise reduction from the duplicate background layer as you so desire, and simply reverse the process as required with the brush to return noise reduction to the image, by switching foreground and background colours;
11. when you are done, save the work you did within this file as a new file, complete with both layers, since you may want to review the printed image at a later date, because you may not want to lose all your work within a one-shot deal;
12. merge the layers when satisfied, and print the finished image...
As a side note, within my landscapes, I tend to remove the noise reduction in the foreground gradually, if present, to give the appearance of a sharp image, and allow the noise reduction to drift into the clouds and sky, removing any noise within the dark sky or darker cloud formations, giving them a soft wonderfully smooth appearance.
I use this filter to remove any unwanted noise that may be present within the image after I apply my sharpening routine. Again, only if it is required...
jim k
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