Bugs happen when you design software. Sometimes they result from your own carelessness. Sometimes they result from poor/incomplete documentation with the tools you use. Sometimes they result from bugs in the tools you use.

I posted a new action set this past weekend. The actions just wrap calls to poopular Noise Reduction tools with features like adding Smart Filters layers and surface masks.

I tend to use action steps like subroutines when the same code is called several times. That makes the code less buggy. If you do use an action step like a subroutine, you have to be careful when you rename the action set. I carelessly forgot this point and introduced a bug.

I made matters worse. I was rushing on Saturday to get ready for a family activity as the bug reports came in. I thought I fixed the problem, posted a fix that wasn't a fix. That was version 1.0a. Later, I posted a real fix. That was version 1.0b.

I continue to get occasional reports of issues. The issues now involve how the noise reduction tools interact with Photoshop CS3/CS4 Smart Filters layers and when called by actions.

Truth be told, I regret releasing this action. Plain and simple reason, it is a support nightmare. I don't have a team of programmers. Just me. No team of customer support technicians, either. Just me. I don't own a Mac. I don't have multiple machines running earlier versions of Photoshop. I don't have the resources for that stuff.

My ability to support the tools I give away is much more limited than a company selling plug-in filters. I do the very best I can. ;)

Issues that users are running into right now are issues like the noise reduction actions working properly sometimes and not at other times. Since the action is not changing, that likely means the problems are resource issues. The amount of RAM, etc. is very dynamic.

What's very common is users running something like Windows Vista 32 with 3GB of RAM or Macs with 4GB. After OS overhead and background apps and treads firing away, they often have less than 2GB for Photoshop to use. Then they set Photoshop to use something like 80 history states. Open up a half dozen photos files for a 21 megapixel cameras. All the while having Adobe Bridge or Lightroom running. Etc. All of that consumes RAM. Lots of RAM. Yes, Photoshop will page to the harddrive. That's what makes it run like a tired and winded old hound, too. Users don't tend to realize that they're giving Photoshop a crushing burden sometimes. The result can be filters that run flakey, etc.

I'm not blaming users for my inefficient or buggy action code. I fess up to my bugs. These actions are extremely simple. The create a merge visible layer, convert it to a smart filter layer, add a surface mask (using code that has run fine for years -- just copied and pasted wholesale), apply the filter, reduce layer opacity. Nothing elaborate at all.

What makes this all so ugly is the noise reduction tools. They are memory hungry beasts. They're doing a lot of processing. If you run them from Photoshop under memory starved conditions, they can choke. Neat Image, for example, might tell you that it can only load a portion of the photo for preview because Photosho would not give it a larger tile. 

Most now include profiles for cameras, etc. I can test them for my photos with my profiles. Hard coding those settings is not helpful to anyone with different gear. So, I need to set the actions to have the noise reduction tools automatically make profiles and apply those. Well, not all of the noise reduction tools are equal in that regard. Neat Image, for example, will make a small sample and if that sample is extreme, it will raise a warning. That warning will bring my action to a screeching halt.

The solution is easy enough for users who are familiar with how profiles work in their tools and know how to modify action steps. Change the settings for their noise reduction tools to match profiles and change the action step to use those settings.

Sorry, though. That's not a reasonable expectation for the typical user of Neat Image or any other noise reduction tool. I'm not being an elitist here or trying to gratuitously insult anyone. Most of the people using Photoshop and noise reduction tools use automatic settings. They want to click one button, maybe two, and get acceptable results. That's not my perception. That's what I hear from the people who support Noiseware, Noise Ninja, etc.

I'll try to work up a tutorial and maybe a video to demonstrate how to modify the noise reduction tools and the action step(s) to get better results with the actions in the TLR Noise Reduction Assistant.

I should have just done this as a tutorial in the first place. It is better to teach people how to make a simple action for their own implementations of noise reduction tools. The old parable about teaching people how to fish applies very well here.

My intentions were good. I'm sure, many will find the action set to be helpful. At least, that's my hope.

I just want people to know that there's more here than just my action. Most actions just involve photoshop commands. The actions in the TLR Noise Reduction Assistant action set also depend on some delicate decisions about the settings in the noise reduction filters, how they handle automatic noise profiles, etc.

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