In this video we’ll take a deeper look at just the Noise Reduction that has been added to Lightroom Classic in the April 2023 update.
Click Here to Watch My Full “What’s New in Lightroom (April 2023 Update) video
Click Here to Find Out More about my Wildlife Editing Course.
Question about your Wildlife Editing Course and Pre-sets on sale…. I see that it was put out in April 2021, 2 years ago.
Has it been updated to the new masking options in LR or is it mainly PS?
Hi. It has not, but if you know masking you’ll see it’s easy to follow. The same tools I used are still there, but now it’s just easier to make a mask.
Great video on the new LR noise – Topaz AI also smooths noisy faces in low light shots which I like.
Another great update from you, many thanks
Hi Matt!
One thing I have noticed is that using the new Denoise function in Camera Raw or Lightroom takes much longer time than in Topaz Denoise when your photo is taken with a Canon camera. One example. ISO 12800 with a Canon 5D Mark IV was estimated to take 15 minutes in LR. With Topaz Denoise it took about 1 minute. (File size 41 kB)
A photo from my Fujifilm X-T2 camera with the same ISO was estimated to take 4 minutes. (File size 49 kB)
Do you have any explanation to this huge difference in processing time?
Hi. Sorry I do not.
HI Matt:
I use a Cannon 90D crop sensor. Cannot find a full frame with a reticulating screen .
Yes raw captures more data, but with there new 40-45 MB cameras, is it really necessary.
So, the new features of Denoise won’t work for me, as I shoot mostly JPEG?
Did I see that it worked on video? I do a lot of videography for myself and clients. I looked at the Topaz video system, but it was too slow and would not render the completes video in iMovie but only the raw clips before any editing. It would take years to do a film.
How does this new system work on video and will LR now develop video?
Would appreciate your thoughts,
Thanks,
George Brown
Hi George. It works on raw photos only and it does not work on video.
Hope that helps!
Question: What happens with the Denoise when using masks/ I often only need to denoise the background. Will that be improved?
Thank you Matt!
I appreciated your comparison.
Thank you!
Matt,
Thanks for the video. I think the Topaz products can selectively use sharpening and denoise features. With wildlife images, I often only want to use denoise on the background. From what I can see, Adobe will use noise reduction on the entire image.
Thanks so much for this deeper dive into LR’s new DeNoise feature. I also appreciate your sharing of thoughts regarding the new DN versus Topaz Photo AI. Like you, I am comfortable with my workflow, which, BTW, mirrors yours. It’s nice to know I’m not the only one to not jump ship but rather stay with what I am used to.
The new noise reduction option is a game changer for LRC. I got back to old pictures and definetly got a better result.
Thanks Matt for your insight always interesting.
Great Video. Thanks for sharing. I would be interested in a video on workflow with the newest version of Lightroom. Thanks again.
Hi. Workflow hasn’t changed at all. Thanks
I notice that your Denoise feature took about 35 sec. Mine are taking between 1 and 2 minutes per photo. The results are stunning but was wondering whether I can get a faster turn around?
Model Name: iMac
Chip: Apple M1
Total Number of Cores: 8 (4 performance and 4 efficiency)
Memory: 16 GB
I thought this would have been enough? Did you have to change any settings?
Matt,
As ever a very simple, clear honest assessment of the options. What I like so much about your teaching style.
matt,
great video as always! Love your courses and all the time you have put into educating all of us. I tried to new Denoise and yes it is fantastic! I’ve never tried Topaz so I can only relie on the comparisons you and others on the net provide. However, as a sports photographer i take 400+ photos in RAW with nikon z9 (45+megapixel). I need to quickly cull the photos and send the agency/athletic dept ~10photos within 30mins or so after each game. When i tried the new Denoise on one of the basketball images, it was great, reduced noise as expected but sharpened facial/hair detail. But it won’t work for sports shooters workflow presentlly (IMHO). One image took 3mins or longer to finish. So that is the deal breaker for me and i expect sports shooters.(And i do have a relatively fast computer). I haven’t checked if it runs on the IPAD pro and lightroom mobile which i use extensively. Anyway, thx for the update.
I note that there are specific limitations on whether or not the three Enhance options (DeNoise, Super Resolution, and the third one) can be used together. Once one of them is used, the others are not always available. Sounds like a problem. For example, I like to do DeNoise first, then Sharpening, but that is a no go for this update.
Hi Matt. Great video as always. I tried the new denoise feature and found it crashed my iMac every time. I am running a 2019 Mac with Ventura and 32gb of RAM. Have you heard any reports of this being a general problem or is it just me?
I am impressed with the results of Adobes new noise reduction system and the fact that it also sharpens the the image
Tunney Moriarty
Always Always great information Matt !!!! Thanks
Great. Clear and easy to understand.
Many thanks Matt
Thank you!!! I would be totally lost if you didn’t send out these tutorials. Very easy to understand for this 73 challenged photographer.
Hi Matt, I never try to see what LRcc changes until you do your Video. Been a fan for many years. Thanks Dale
I appreciate your honesty and all the work that you put into your free videos. I just updated my Topaz Photo AI and will continue to use it for the current time. I am glad that Abobe finally took the leap to include Denoise and some sharpening. I too believe that adobe will get nothing but better in future.
Always appreciate your videos and the comparisons really help!
Matt, I just did a quick comparison of Topaz DeNoise vs the new Lightroom DeNoise and the difference is like chalk and cheese! The image is a low light shot of an immature eagle taking off from an ice covered lake.
I, like you would not think the Lightroom version would stand up, but I was very surprised to see how poor by comparison Topaz performed (I let the app chose so it was on autopilot, Standard).
This is really going to make me consider which denoise option I choose for noisy images going forward. I’ll likely try both and pick the best of the two.
Cheers and thanks for this video, as always.
Interesting. I haven’t come across an image that was night and day different (which is what makes the choice even harder).
Any thoughts about Aurora photos Topaz vs LR?
Nope. I haven’t used it.
Thank you Matt for your videos on NR and your opinions. One thing I always like about your videos is that you give a fair unbiased opinion. Keep up the great work!
My system is a 6-year-old PC, quad-processor w/16GB of RAM and an equally old NVIDIA GPU. My results with the new ACR noise reduction are quite different from yours. I typically use either TOPAZ Photo AI or DXO PureRAW 2, depending on the photo; PureRAW always gives better results on high ISO above 800, and is faster, but the workflow with it is more cumbersome. I ran some tests with the new Adobe noise AI and, while the results are quite good, it takes forever on my machine. A typical ISO 3200 file took 4 minutes compared to 1:15 for TOPAZ and 45 sec. for DXO. Of course both TOPAZ and DXO did sharpening as well as noise reduction. As for quality, I rank them DXO first, then TOPAZ, and Adobe last (probably because of lack of sharpening). So, no change in my processing until Adobe improves its efficiency or I get a newer system!
As always, thanks for this, Matt!
I have a relatively fast Win 11 desktop, with 32Gb of RAM, and plenty of free disk space on both my cache and program SSD drives. Video card is an Nvidia GeForce 1650 Super with 4Gb onboard. Lightroom’s new denoise takes 360 seconds (6 minutes) to process a single 50Mb file from my Sony a1. Topaz deNoise AI takes 40 seconds for the same file. Another user with a similar Win11, SSD setup with 64Gb RAM also reported 5-6 minutes to process a 52MB Pentax file.
While a faster graphics card will always speed things up, if Topaz is taking 40 seconds and LR is taking 6 minutes, it’s likely a software issue, not hardware.
Both Topaz and LR seem to do comparable jobs – Topaz seems to keep marginally more detail, although one of my images with a white dress (6400 ISO) had Topaz artifacts and LR didn’t. But the 6 minute processing is a deal breaker.
It would be for me too. Not sure what to tell you other than contact Adobe to see if there’s any settings you can change.
I have a GeForce GTX 1650 and my son has a Geforce RTX 3080, the processing time for me, on the same image, was 6 minutes and my son took 6 seconds. I think that the graphics card has a lot to do with the processing times.
Great Video!!! From a cost factor. I pay my monthly Adobe fee which I feel is very reasonable If I can get as good or better without paying topaz every year to continue to get updates. Why go anywhere else.
Hi Matt, I will stick to Topaz since its performance for me in Lightroom is unacceptable. I should add that I use an Intel NUC with 32GB of RAM but without discrete graphics. Performance with Topaz AI is not bad, generally < 30 seconds vs 10-15 minutes in Lightroom. Time to upgrade my hardware 🙂
Thanks, Matt. I’ve used Topaz Photo AI since it was first available. One day last fall I shot several photos of birds at dusk which were at high ISOs (6400 to 12800). I was quite happy with the results from Topaz AI. As the plug-in has been updated since, l’ve processed those photos with it and I’ve found I like its denoising (and sharpening) less and less with each update.
I’m eager to see for myself what Adobe has done with denoising in LrC.
Thanks so much for posting your thoughts on this new capability. I’m going to purchase your wildlife photo editing class. I’ve learned a great your instruction!
As photo AI allows more adjustment of noise reduction and other features like sharpening, enhancement and enlarging, are these two tools comparable?
Thanks Matt for amother informative video. I love the way in which you show both sides of the coin. Indicating where the choise could be easy to make for some people, showing when your viewer has to make the decision oneself. And yourself not afraid to tell your viewers that you yourself still have to decide, open and honnest.
I know for myself that I will move to Adobe for Noise reduction because it simplifies my workload and because I can “afford” to not bother with the latest grain of sharpness and I will just tend to forget about is by not using Topas any more. My travel telephoto lens is not that neat and sharp that it will not show for the people looking at my prints.
I will use Topaz if I need to upsize. I recently had a very good use of this when I had to upsample en picture for a memorial from an old scanned photo..
Thanks Matt…
I use Topaz AI (latest version)….
I guess I will have to see how much Topaz charges after the first year, since I am retired I need to watch ‘pennies’.
So if Adobe’s tool meets my needs at that point, then maybe I stop the plug-in route…
I love, and am blown away by Topaz AI….
Thanks. I just upgraded my Topaz 2 days ago. With my workflow, the integrated LR Denoise works better for me. The difference is too small to bother going to an external App.
So I will probably use Topaz when I also need extra sharpening, one time out of 100.
Excellent video, and I think you are one of the best teachers out there for LR and PS.
Thanks!
Hi Matt,
Thanks for the tutorial. The information and guidance are much appreciated.
Regards,
Michael