If you’re editing a lot of photos at once, and you use Lightroom’s DeNoise AI feature, you may want to speed the process up by batch processing the noise reduction. In this video we’ll look at the workflow for running noise reduction on a bunch of photos at once, as well as some clean up strategies to help make organizing those files easier.
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I love teaching and photography... In that order. I feel that enjoying photography, and photo editing can get WAY too complicated. So my personal mission (and favorite thing to do), is to create education that simplifies the process of taking great photos, and how to edit them to get the results you’ve always wanted.
Is the noise reduction in batch available in Lightroom CC? I am not seeing it, but wanted to double check.
Hi. Did you try doing what I did in this video? It should work the same.
Thanks Matt, as always, love the info you present. Small, meaningful, comprehensive bites! Perfect! sue
Matt, Will making an adjustment with Clarity or Texture affect the performance of Noise Reduction? In other words, should one avoid making those adjustments on the photo when processing it for Noise Reduction?
Thanks!
James
Hi James. I’d suggest doing what you need to the photo and looking at it to see the final result. Will be different for every photo so just test it out to see how it looks. For me, I add texture all the time to photos that I do noise reduction on.
Matt,
When I import my photos (NEF Nikon) into LR, I convert them to DNG.
So, does this noise reduction NOT work on DNGs (even though that’s Adobe’s RAW).
I don’t import NEFs as NEFs, because DNGs are smaller in size to save in my LR library.
Please advise!
Thank you.
Ilene Hoffman, MSSW
Photographer, Content Creator, Macintosh Consultant
Hi. I’m not sure. I don’t convert to DNG. Give it a try. Worst thing that can happen is it will be grayed out meaning it won’t work. Thx
Thanks Matt. Ever video you present gives great tips and I always learn great things. Thanks for continuing to help educate us.
FYI I have a mac studio M1 max and denoise takes an average of 20 seconds. Haven’t tried to batch yet.
I have heard that you can batch process photos in Topaz Denoise and Straighten. However, when I try to upload multiple photos only one image appears in Topaz. I am operating on a Lenovo PC.
Thank you so much for this video. Learned more in a few minutes than many other videos.
Hi Matt,
Just a quick message to say thanks for the video on batch noise reduction. I found it very interesting and informative.
Thanks also for all the work you put in creating videos to help people like me and many more I’m sure, get the best from Lightroom and Photoshop.
Great work – well done.
Many thanks,
Neil.
You’re very welcome Neil! Thanks! 🙂
Thank you. I tried the LR noise reduction when it first appeared and was amazed by the long processing times. I regularly use Topaz deNoiseAI on exported JPEG images where the processing times per image average about 7 seconds. In your experience, is there any advantage to the LR process? I’ve learned a great deal from your posts over the years. Much appreciated!
Hi Ken. Other than price, since LR is already part of what you’re paying… there’s only an advantage if you see it. For me, I see it. Many others don’t. Definitely no rules here… use whatever works and if LR is too slow, it’s unusable and Topaz is a great option. Thanks.
Thanks for this awesome video! Great tips for workflow in Lightroom too.
Thanks Matt. That was very useful. I do use topaz and not Lightroom for sharpening and noise right now. But I would like to stay within Lightroom so at some point I may switch but not now.
I have a hearing problem, and rapid speech can be hard to process. Usually I use closed captioning to assist my comprehension but your videos do not supply closed captioning. In this lesson, you are speaking very rapidly and I have to focus very intently. This processing issue is common in older adults. Therefore,I would appreciate it if you could speak a tad slower. Hearing aids do nothing to help this processing problem.THANKS FOR YOUR CLASSES AND UPDATES!
If you view on you tube in the top right hand corner you will see cc. Click on it and closed caption is turned on
Or select cc in the bottom Ishtar hand corner in the YouTube video. This will create closed caption information
Does this procedure also work on ON1 raw standalone?
Hi. I don’t have the software, but give it a try.
As ever, Matt, an informative and useful video. Thank you.
Great ideas. Why not make an action that does the denoise and removes the flag? Then select all, click the action and go have dinner.
If Lightroom supported actions that would be a great idea 🙂
Duh
Hey Matt! Great information. I personally have not used Topaz that often but have tried various pieces of the software. The only editing software I care to use is PS, LR, and Dxo which brings me to the pure RAW software from DXO. I think the edge goes to DXO Pure Raw for me and fellow photographers who found the pureRaw to do a better job than Topaz. However we are talking about LR denoise so enough about topaz. The LR denoise is a good start and can only get better. Correct me if I’m wrong but I understood you to say you ran denoise last. I on the other hand run my raw files thru PureRAW denoise to begin work on a “clean” file which is dng. That would be my biggest complaint with PurRAW. I have never thought about it but is it better to run denoise last and if so could you briefly explain.
Hi Mitchell. To be honest I just do it when it’s convenient. My eyes don’t notice a difference so for me it’s just a matter of convenience. Most of the time it’s last because that’s just more convenient for me. Can’t say I’ve even compared to see if doing it first or last makes a difference as I’m happy with my results. Thanks!
I understand. For me, I just found trying to see what may or may not need correction difficult because of noise distraction. I think I will try both options and see if I notice a difference. Also, all the new improvements in LR have been needed and really puts Lightroom at the top of the heap for me.
Side note: Keep up the great work and software builds. Your teaching style and skills are second to none. Plain spoken down to earth and you teach on a level everyone can grasp without sounding like a blowhard.
Thanks. . . good workflow and information. Cheers
So have you moved on from Topaz Denoise and/or Topaz AI?
I have. LR is just better to my eyes, but both work very well.
Matt, thank you kindly for the video on this topic. I’ve recently gotten back into my photo editing and this video is timely. I appreciate your clear how-to explanation, the options and why you do what you do. I always find it helpful to know what experts do and why. This was especially true when you explained deleting the RAW image in the collection but not deleting it forever. Does this batch de-noise technique work in all versions of Lightroom? I have an older version.
Thanks for this, Matt. A few things (I’ve worked with this since it came out and did extensive comparisons with Topaz deNoise). 1/ alternative to the menu selection process you do, once images are selected, you can also just go to the Detail tab and it WILL process all selected images. 2/ because the amount of deNoise processing can vary with ISO specifically, I select images by ISO in grid view and process those groups separately – shooting dance on stage I routinely use ISOs of 6400-10,000. 3/ LR, perhaps surprisingly, does a better job than Topaz, 4/ updating my 3-yr-old graphics card (4Gb) to a newer one (12Gb) improved Win11 processing times from 6+ minutes to under 40 seconds.