 HotPixel
==========
(C)opyright 2003-2008 Red Paw Media

About
-----
HotPixel is a Photoshop-compatible plug-in designed to remove "hot pixel" noise
from digital images.

"Hot pixel" noise often occurs when taking a photograph with a digital camera
using a long exposure in low light situations.  It appears as coloured spots of
around one pixel in size.

This filter allows automatic detection and removal of these hot pixels without
degrading fine image detail.  It should work on all but the most noisy of images.

For more information, please see http://www.redpawmedia.com/

This filter is free to use.  If you find it useful, you might like to visit
our website and see our other free and commercial filters.  

All feedback is welcome, please email support@redpawmedia.com

Installation
------------
Simply copy the HotPixel.8bf file into your image editor's Plug-Ins directory
and restart the application.  The filter should then show up in the editor's
menus under "Red Paw Media" -> "Hot Pixel Noise Reduction...".

For example, if you are installing the filter to work with Photoshop CS,
you would probably place the filter in

	C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop CS\Plug-Ins\
	

Instructions
------------
The defaults seem to work well, but there are three controls that can be used
to alter the filter's action.

Threshold:  
Move this slider to change the hot pixel detection trigger threshold.  The
lower this value, the dimmer the hot pixels it will find - but at the risk of
attempting deletion of fine image detail.  If set too high, some hot pixels
will be missed. (Default=20)

Process bleeding:
When a hot pixel is removed, the surrounding pixels may appear too bright.
Select this checkbox to remove these pixels as well.  (Default=On)

Process dark noise:
HotPixel will attempt to filter bright pixels by default.  Enabling this
checkbox forces the filter to look for "dark" noise as well as "light" noise.
If your image has some odd dark pixels, select this option.  (Default=Off)

Version History
---------------
25/03/08 - Version 1.3
 - Vista compatibility updates
 
20/02/05 - Version 1.2
 - Released under Red Paw Media brand
 - Larger preview window
 - More reliable operation
 
02/11/03 - Version 1.1
 - Improved hot pixel detection, fine verticals and horizontals are no longer
   wrongly detected.

02/11/03 - Version 1.0
Initial public release
