SilkyPix provides an extensive amount of control over how RAW files are processed. Among these are a lens aberration tool that includes not only controls for lens distortion but a really nice tool for removing chromatic aberrations. Chromatic aberrations are typically a red/blue halo around high contrast area in a photo. These are pretty well controlled on the G9 but can be seen in some instances. This tool makes this easy to fix. These show the before and after effects:

Noise reduction goes beyond just sliders for luminance and chroma. SilkyPix combines sharpness and noise reduction into a set of related controls.

These controls interact with each other so some experimentation is in order. It is important to draw a balance between how much sharpness you want along with how much noise you’re willing to accept. With the G9 when dealing with high ISO pictures (ISO 400 - 800), I am not looking to eliminate all of the noise. My goal is to reduce the noise to what looks like film grain, which I don’t find objectionable, and keep a fairly high level of detail. This is a 100% view of an ISO 800 photo with no sharpening or noise reduction being applied:

After applying noise reduction and sharpening:

Again, you have to decide what level of noise reduction and sharpening you think is appropriate for your photo. SilkyPix gives extreme control over just how much is applied and provides tools for restoring lost detail due to applied noise reduction.

SilkyPix includes a unique highlight controller which allows you to recover and blend in or emphasize overexposed areas. This is done through two sliders labeled Chroma/Luminance and Saturation/Hue. Blown highlights can also be tamed with the supplied dynamic range expander. It’s good to have the histogram displayed as you apply dynamic range expansion. You will be able to see the exposure pull in on the right side of the histogram. It is suggested that this control be used in conjunction with others and to use sparingly

Once you are satisfied with your changes, you can hit Ctrl-S. SilkyPix will then bring up the file save dialogue. Here you can specify the output type (JPEG or TIFF). In the case of TIFF, you may select 8 or 16 bit format. In addition, you can change the saved file resolution, apply sharpening, and the quality level if saving in JPEG. If saving for further work in a photo editor, select TIFF format. You may want to save more than one copy using different levels of noise reduction. By combining these in a photo editor, you can then decide where different levels of noise reduction are most appropriate.