Lightroom AI

[Alex Ramsay]

Has anyone else tried the new AI noise reduction in the latest (12.3) iteration of Lightroom? I have been amazed by what it can do, and in well under a minute per (large) file too.

 

Alex

[mwakeling]

I usually use ON1, which in it's original AI (rather than high detail which is fake looking IMO) does a stellar job quickly. I tried the Lightroom version, and it took three minutes to process My desktop is a bit older, but has oodles of RAM. Matt Kloskowski has a great video on his website about using the denoise feature and compares it to Topaz. It's worth watching.

[M.Chapman]

I just gave the new LR/ACR denoise a spin and it's pretty good. It's more subtle than Topaz which is no bad thing since Topaz tends to over-sharpen. What LR/ACR denoise wasn't any good at was reducing film grain in digitised 35mm slides (it probably wasn't designed for that) whereas I find Topaz Denoise AI works well.

 

Mark

[gvallee]

I did a limited test on one image only in ACR. Seen side by side, ACR is not bad but for me Topaz wins.

[Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg]

AI Denoise appeared on Photoshop, too.

I'm not understanding why its any better.

At 100/100 strength, edges are way blurred.

At 25/100 on ISO 1600 image, its sort of OK.

But it suffers from same noise reduction

side effect as other denoisers ==> softening...

People, won't you...
😱enlighten    😱me    😱please

[mwakeling]

4 hours ago, Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg said:

AI Denoise appeared on Photoshop, too.

I'm not understanding why its any better.

At 100/100 strength, edges are way blurred.

At 25/100 on ISO 1600 image, its sort of OK.

But it suffers from same noise reduction

side effect as other denoisers ==> softening...

People, won't you...
😱enlighten    😱me    😱please

Recommendations include cancelling any sharpening and manual noise reduction in the develop module, and applying denoise prior to any masking. You can control the amount of denoise with the sliders; 50-60 works well. You can then add some sharpening, but it appears some is added in the denoise process. I highly recommend Matt Kloskowski's video on his website about using the denoise feature and compares it to Topaz. It's worth watching. I find that it compares well to ON1, but it's just too slow with my current system.

[MDM]

4 hours ago, mwakeling said:

Recommendations include cancelling any sharpening and manual noise reduction in the develop module, and applying denoise prior to any masking. 

 

I just tried this out on a couple of shots with these recommendations and I'm very impressed by my initial results at default settings. I only compared it to Lightroom's own noise reduction with some settings I normally use and it does a better job on background noise while having no effect that I can see on subject sharpness. The results were very natural with no visible artifacts and no obvious deterioration of the image. 

 

It uses the Raw Details feature which can't be turned off it seems when using Denoise. I've never bothered to use Raw Details before, as I was very unimpressed by the other AI Super Resolution, which was massively hyped at the time of its release (maybe it's improved now but it was very disappointing in its initial implemenation).

 

It can be run on a batch of files so I can envisage running it immediately after import to Lightroom with an import preset setting sharpening and manual noise reduction to zero for files from ISO 400 and above where I can normally see luminance noise at 100%. So this could be a major change in workflow for me if it as good as it seems to be. One problem might be what to do with the initial raw files, which I always keep indefinitely, as well as the DNGs. 

 

 

 

Edited April 23, 2023 by MDM

[Cal]

Mine hasn't updated yet but I'm eager to try it. I've all but stopped using Topaz as I find in most cases it just turns the photos into a waxy looking blotchy mess. Would far rather a bit of grain than something that looks like that. In the past I've found Lightroom's AI upsize feature "Enhance" to be very useful and very passable in quality so hopefully this implementation is also better.

[Rebecca Ore]

16 hours ago, MDM said:

 

I just tried this out on a couple of shots with these recommendations and I'm very impressed by my initial results at default settings. I only compared it to Lightroom's own noise reduction with some settings I normally use and it does a better job on background noise while having no effect that I can see on subject sharpness. The results were very natural with no visible artifacts and no obvious deterioration of the image. 

 

It uses the Raw Details feature which can't be turned off it seems when using Denoise. I've never bothered to use Raw Details before, as I was very unimpressed by the other AI Super Resolution, which was massively hyped at the time of its release (maybe it's improved now but it was very disappointing in its initial implemenation).

 

It can be run on a batch of files so I can envisage running it immediately after import to Lightroom with an import preset setting sharpening and manual noise reduction to zero for files from ISO 400 and above where I can normally see luminance noise at 100%. So this could be a major change in workflow for me if it as good as it seems to be. One problem might be what to do with the initial raw files, which I always keep indefinitely, as well as the DNGs. 

 

 

 

I'm curious how it performs compared to DxO PhotoLab 6's  DeepPRIIME XD.   I see that someone earlier compared Deep PRIME XD to Topaz DeNoise, but haven't checked that site.

[Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg]

13 hours ago, Cal said:

Would far rather a bit of grain

can I ask that we all take a moment to bow our heads...

Gawd is Great

Grain is Good

and we thank it

for our sales

give us weekdays

our daily $bread$

AHEM 😇PRECIOUS LAWD PRAISE GRAIN

Edited April 24, 2023 by Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg