Adobe CS5 vs elements 10

[2slo]

I'd like to hear views from those familiar with both of these please. Elements (which I have) doesn't seem able to reduce noise sufficiently from high ISO RAW images (wildlife shots in low light). I accept my technique may be flawed here but I have tried various permutations and seem to have reached an impasse with it.
Is it worth the extra outlay for CS5, i.e. is that any or much better at fixing noise issues without losing detail? Alternatively, could anyone recommend a different piece of software to do what I need?

[Ed_P]

You could try using a plugin. I use Topaz Labs DeNoise 5 with PSE9 and find it works really well. It has presets for RAW or JPGs and then you can fiddle with the individual parameters if required. Topaz has a range of other filter packs too for adjusting exposure, adding "pop", doing B&W conversions etc.

[K12beano]

No, as a photographer Elements does a great deal of "stuff". If your only additional requirement is noise reduction you do not want Phull Phat Photoshop to cure that.

There are a number of plug-in/stand-alones that have consistently been hailed as better than Adobe's solutions.

[2slo]

Ed_P said:

You could try using a plugin. I use Topaz Labs DeNoise 5 with PSE9 and find it works really well. It has presets for RAW or JPGs and then you can fiddle with the individual parameters if required. Topaz has a range of other filter packs too for adjusting exposure, adding "pop", doing B&W conversions etc.

Sounds interesting, thanks. I've checked their website and I see they have a free trial version available which I'll download

[2slo]

K12beano said:

No, as a photographer Elements does a great deal of "stuff". If your only additional requirement is noise reduction you do not want Phull Phat Photoshop to cure that.

There are a number of plug-in/stand-alones that have consistently been hailed as better than Adobe's solutions.

Thanks, that agrees with the advice above so I'll try the plug in suggested

[Turn7]

Is Noise Ninja not the go to any more ?

[2slo]

Turn7 said:

Is Noise Ninja not the go to any more ?

Is that another plug in recommendation?

[2slo]

I googled both and found this online comparison between the two: http://photoluminary.com/2011/03/topaz-denoise-vs-... The reviewer preferred the Topaz plug in.

[Turn7]

Things move on.....

[clived]

I'd also consider Lightroom - v4 just out, pretty fine noise reduction. You might find you move most of your workflow into Lightroom and just keep Elements for when you really want to mess with the image ;-)

[Dogsey]

2slo said:

I googled both and found this online comparison between the two: http://photoluminary.com/2011/03/topaz-denoise-vs-... The reviewer preferred the Topaz plug in.

Noise Ninja is vastly improved if instead of letting the software try to work out the settings you download the correct profile for your camera. I've no idea if Topaz has camera profiles available or even if it will allow you to use a pre-set profile.

[2slo]

Topaz doesn't appear to have camera profiles enabled, generic only. Having spent a couple of hours using the trial version of the Topaz plug in today I think I'll investigate other options.
I'm reminded of something I read about post processing a few weeks ago, that being, however capable the pp software is, it can't create detail where that detail doesn't exist in the original image. Very true, or putting it another way, better to get the shot right to start with rather than trying to fix it afterwards.