Band Aide

Band Aide is an Adobe Photoshop filter plug-in that reduces or eliminates the "pitting" and "banding" noise that occurs in high ISO photos from the Nikon D1 digital camera. At ISO settings of 800 or higher, the Nikon D1 produces photos that are (understandably) very noisy. This noise appears as both high frequency "pitting" noise, and as low frequency "bands" or lines that that streak across the entire width of the frame. Often times the bands are actually composed of the high frequency "pitting" noise.

If you zoom-in to a 800+ ISO Nikon D1 photo at high magnification in Photoshop, you will see areas that have a regular pattern of dark and light pixels at alternating pixels. We call this "pitting" or pattern noise. When sharpening is later applied, the pitting noise is amplified and becomes white speckles. This noise is difficult to remove in Photoshop without loosing sharpness or image detail. Band Aide removes most or all of the pitting noise, without loosing image detail, so that subsequent sharpening doesn't produce the white speckles. Band Aide will also reduce the bands that are composed of the high frequency pitting noise.