I shot my first family event last week and although reasonably happy with the outcome some of the clips suffer from noise due to low light at the venue.

I am currently using iMovie to edit, however there does not appear to be any noise reduction software available for iMovie.

Is there a standalone program for noise reduction that I could use

Thanks Phil

neat video $99

Neat Video can work miracles on noisy footage but be aware that it can be very very very slow.

Thanks for the replies, I thought neat Video was a plug in for the more Pro oriented software I wasn't aware it was a standalone.

Where does it fit into the workflow, I am shooting GH3 mov files, do you run it through the software and save it in the same format.

Thanks Phil

Phil

Phil, I looked on the website and it appears you are correct, Neat Video is a plug in, I did not see a standalone version.

Thanks Jeff, I haven't managed to find a standalone.

Phil

iMovie really isn't much use for anything other than compiling a few clips together. It's not designed for anything more complex than that. It does what it does quite well, but isn't an expandable platform.

Thanks Paul
I was planning to get a more advanced program at some point but maybe I need to take the plunge earlier than anticipated.

Phil

Phil, what you could do is download a fully functioning trial of Vegas! then download Neat Video plug in. Vegas is good for 30 days. You could learn your way around it well enough to simply render out a de-noised version of your footage, and then edit in iMovie.

Thanks for the tip Jeff.


I was considering moving up to FCPX at some point, Video editing is very new to me so I was going to learn my way around iMovie first, I am not sure if that is the best program however.

Video is a very new experience at present but I am finding it quite exciting after shooting stills for so long.

Phil

As a user of FCPX and the Panasonic GH series, I wish I could help you with iMovie but I don't know it at all. There are people who have done rather complex tasks with iMovie that would surprise people with more advanced editing programs. Perhaps a web search will find you something. I can tell you that FCPX does not come with a noise reduction filter built in to the program but it does come with lots of other useful filters. There are ways to reduce noise by layering color channels from your clips and placing blurs plus sharpening on the color channel that has the most noise. That's not the clearest explanation but perhaps someone knows how to do this in iMovie. The Neat Video plug in for FCPX is great but it can make footage look cartoony if overused.

Yes, if you are serious about video editing, get FCPX, but for fooling around, iMovie is just fine for learning how to not use high ISO in situations if it can be avoided.

Thanks for the feedback William, I am likely going to get FCPX

The biggest insult from video editors when FCP X was shipped is that it was too much like iMovie & it's true that the interface has many similarities. I would imagine that if you are familiar with iMovie that you would find it very easy to adapt to FCP X. There is a 30 day free trial then you can try out the 30 day free trial of Neat Video too. Alternatively look at the Red Giant Colour Suite (also a 30 day trial) that includes amongst other items a very effective Denoiser which in my experience is much faster than Neat Video.

Thanks Nigel, I had not heard of Red Giant software I will check it out