“I used to do it myself, but now I let the Skynet killer robots do it for me…”
Lightroom’s new AI noise reduction tool
Have you ever thought you’d taken a great photo only to find out the ISO was so high that it was too noisy? We’ve all been there, but don’t despair. I’ve been using Topaz Labs for the past few years, and it’s worked pretty well. Now Adobe has introduced its own noise reduction tool for Lightroom and ACR—and it’s even better!
Background
Until recently, Topaz Labs was the king of the hill when it came to noise reduction. Both Sharpen AI and DeNoise AI offered excellent sharpening and noise reduction. The interface was user-friendly, and you had a manageable number of options to use masking or try out different AI models to get the best results.
There were also frequent software updates to improve the programs, and you could get them all for free if you signed up as an affiliate!
Recently, Topaz Labs released Photo AI as an all-in-one editor along the lines of Lightroom and Photoshop, and the sharpening and noise reduction appear to be a bit better than if you use Sharpen AI and/or DeNoise AI—especially in combination.
My problem with the Topaz Labs products is that there’s always been a rather unpredictable risk of artifacts, and the batch processing is unreliable. If you ask any of the programs to work out which AI model to use, it’s not terribly likely to get it right! That’s annoying when you’re trying to edit 100 files for weekly submissions to stock agencies…
I switched to Photo AI recently, but it wasn’t much better, and I still had to spend time checking every single image for artifacts and re-exporting the faulty ones. Fortunately, the latest Lightroom update introduced an even better solution—although it’s very slow!
What’s New?
Lightroom’s April 2023 release (desktop version 6.3, iOS version 8.3.1, Android version 8.3.1) introduced a number of new features, including masking enhancements, video editing, adaptive presets, support for new cameras and lenses and other enhancements.
However, the bombshell was the announcement of a new AI-assisted noise reduction tool. The old Noise slider is still there, but it’s been demoted to a manual option. The new function only works on Raw files for the moment, and it takes around 30 seconds per file to process, but it appears to be better than the Topaz equivalent.
How Does it Work?
All you have to do is select one or more Raw files (either Nikon, Canon or Sony etc) and press Control-Option-I on a Mac or Control-Alt-I on a PC. This opens the Enhance Preview window.
(Alternatively, you can go to the Detail panel and click the Denoise… button, but who wants to go to all the trouble of doing that?!)
The Enhance Preview window gives you a few different tools to play with:
Denoise, Raw Details and Super Resolution
Amount slider and text entry box
Estimated time (usually 20-30 seconds)
Create stack checkbox
Learn more link
Magnifying glass with a minus sign on the preview (to zoom out)
‘Enhanced’ label on the preview
Cancel and Enhance buttons
You can select Denoise, Raw Details and Super Resolution separately, but you have to deselect one before you select the other. The Raw Details option is automatically applied to Denoise and Super Resolution, which means Lightroom is sharpening your images as well as applying noise reduction. Unfortunately, you can’t use Denoise and Super Resolution at the same time, but Adobe’s working on that...
If you choose Denoise, you’ll see a slider and text box that accept values from 1-100. The preview shows you the ‘enhanced’ version (ie the one with Denoise and Raw Details applied), but you can click on it to show you the original version to see the difference. Matt Kloskowski recommends sticking to around 50, and I’ve found that works pretty well.
You can’t change the size or magnification of the zoomed-in preview, but you can click the magnifying glass to zoom out to the whole image and then click anywhere to zoom back in, centring the preview on that spot.
If you’re ready to go, you can press the Return key or the Enhance button, but you can always press Cancel or the Escape key if you change your mind. When applying noise reduction, Lightroom creates a DNG file, which is a type of manufacturer-independent Raw file.
Changes that you make in Lightroom are normally non-destructive and can therefore be rolled back—which is the whole point! However, noise reduction is the one exception. This is a bit annoying because you have to create a Digital Negative Image (DNG) file every time you want to reduce noise or sharpen an image. However, I understand Adobe is working on eliminating this step, which would be nice.
If you like stacking different versions of your images, you can click the Create stack checkbox. The only problem is that the DNG file sits on top of the original Raw file, and you can’t delete it from your hard drive if you’re working in a Collection rather than a folder. All you can do is remove it—which means you have to hunt for it later if you want to delete it!
If you want to create a ‘usable’ image to post online or submit to a competition, you have to export the DNG file as a JPEG file (or something similar).
Does it work?
“Yes!” is the short answer. I used Lightroom’s AI Denoise tool set at 50 for my latest batch of 100 agency submissions, and I didn’t have to redo a single one due to artifacts or noise.
The only ones I did choose to run through Photo AI were a couple of slow pans, which were unusually blurry. Photo AI still does a better job than Lightroom Denoise with Raw details when sharpening images, but that may change in a future update. Fingers crossed…!
Having said that, the word on the photographic street is that Lightroom Denoise struggles with high-contrast edges and may create halos around them. It’s also best to apply noise reduction before using any of the Lightroom AI tools, such as the healing tool or Select Subject, in order to avoid any slight shifts in colour and tone.
As a result, Topaz Labs Photo AI or DXO PureRAW3 might do better with certain images. However, this is still only version 1.0 of Adobe’s Denoise tool, so I’m sure it’ll improve in time—as HDR has in the past six months.
Verdict
The new Lightroom AI Denoise tool is a useful option if you want to apply noise reduction and sharpening to your Raw images. It beats Topaz Labs Photo AI on noise reduction due to the simpler interface and lack of artifacts—which is no mean achievement!
However, it currently only works on Raw files, it’s not quite as good for sharpening, and it does take a long time—over 20 seconds per image even with a 2021 Apple M1 Max MacBook Pro with 64GB of memory!
Over to you…
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