ON1 has released their noise reduction software called NoNoise AI 2021. I wanted to do a first impressions video on it and compare it to Topaz DeNoise AI which is what I currently use on my wildlife photos.
Also, if you do decide to purchase ON1 NoNoise it’s always appreciated to use my link (Click Here). Also you can use my coupon code “MATTKON1” (no quotes) to save 30%.
And if you decide to give Topaz DeNoise a try, you can find a discount over at mattk.com/topaz.
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.
I tried using On1 NoNoise as a plugin from Lightroom, and yes, I got the message about it not being a raw photo.
I thought that DNG should have been an option but only PSD, TIF and JPG are options.
So. I went to the File menu and tried Plug-In Extras and for some reason, DNG is a choice there and will call up the standalone app using a DNG file.
But apparently it doesn’t actually take over the Lightroom changes in the DNG even though it says it will. Sigh!
So, I will be using Topaz DeNoise for most photos, but closeups involving eyes? I will use NoNoise.
Sometimes Coke is fine, but sometimes I just need a Pepsi. 🙂
Great review: concise yet complete enough! Kudos!
Matt K.
Sorry for being slightly off-topic. I seem to recall a few years ago you bemoaned to end of further development of the Nik suite of filters (Analog Efex Pro Pro, Color Efex Pro, Dfine, HDR Efex Pro, Sharpener Pro. Silver Efex Pro, Viveza. Sliders for global application and brushes for local effects) when Google took it over. My work-around has been to manually Copy & Paste the Nik/Google folder into the Plug-ins folder of each new iteration of Photoshop on my hard drive (I use a Mac). Restart Photoshop and the filters show up in the appropriate drop-down menu. I still use them in layers in Photoshop without any problems.
The other “oldie but goody” that I use is Imagenomic Noiseware 5 plug-in. I am wondering if you have an opinion the effectiveness of these older proven noise reduction methods compared to the new guys like ON1 NoNoise AI and Topaz DeNoise AI (both which I have but I tend to stick with what I am familiar with). Thanks.
Hi Jack. Thanks for the message. I used to use Noiseware too. From what I remember Topaz and ON1 are much better. But I don’t have a current version to check, and honestly, I don’t want to get in the habit of reviewing any more software. I’m not really the “review” guy, and I have a good workflow that I’m really happy with. Sometimes (for me at least) that’s enough 🙂 If you have questions I’d download the trials and take a look to see what you find. It’s free and probably the best way for you to see if you find them effective. Good luck!
Matt:
I hear you. The software/review treadmill can take consume so much time that it takes a person away from photography, which is why we are all here after all.
As always a great discussion and an honest comparison. I am not a LR user. While I use Capture One for my asset manager, I frequently use both ON1 (especially since they added the Effects Plug-in) and PS. With regard to the latter, where does PS’s Super resolution feature figure in to the mix for noise reduction. I have not used it, but know it exists. If Topaz and ON1 are Cole and Pepsi, is Super resolution another cola or root beer?
Hi Harold. Super resolution is for upsizing photos. There’s lots of tutorials out there on it so you should be able to find what you need with a quick search. I typically don’t have to upsize so its’ not something I use in my workflow. Thanks!
Thanks for the overview. I would be interested in seeing you use all the sliders in each program to see what is better, rather than relying on the defaults. I know ON1 had a survey with a series of photos asking users what they would like the default settings to be in the program. I would assume that the amount of sharpening and noise reduction (two questions asked in the survey) were preset based on that survey. Since both programs have a standard for their defaults, I wonder which programs is better if someone uses all the sliders available to get what is best in their opinion. I know that is a bit more work and more time consuming, but may be a better test of the software’s abilities. Once someone finds where they usually set the sliders (or the default with changing a slider or two), the process becomes much quicker.
Hi Jim. I did the general overview and went through workflow in the hopes that if you have questions about the nuts of bolts of what each slider will do, you will download and try it out. There is no apples to apples comparison here. Don’t get caught thinking that one is significantly better than another and that you’re just missing a magic setting or adjustment that I (or some one else) didn’t demo.
You’re not. They’re both great and produce results that, in the end when the photo is shared, nobody would be able to tell which is which. These are both great programs and both work excellent – see which one fits your workflow and go with that would be my suggestion. Then move on to better stuff, because I promise you comparing these two programs isn’t going to change your photography. Thanks! 🙂
Thanks for this open-minded review. Great value. Clearly explained and illustrated.
If I did not decide on Topaz earlier on, I might decide to wait for the second version of On1, I like their tasty a tiny bit more judging from the video.
As a Lightroom+Topaz user, I will follow the advice.
Having tried to move to On1, DXO, Luminar and other families. I spend man 100-s of hours on working with alternatives. The ultimate decision was that my workflow would be Lightroom. The main point being that using several workflows overloads my brain. None was outperforming the others in the long run. And the pricing by Adobe stayed reasonable.
So for this de-noising and sharpening debate, I will hold my breath for the next Topaz release, or until something happens that replaces the whole third party add-on solution.
And thanks to the other people for their comments. It helped me to come to my decision.
I have also been a long term user of Topaz DeNoise and it has become an essential part of my workflow.
I installed On1 No Nose and immediately ran into problems, both with Windows and a MacBook Pro
Firstly there is an acknowledged bug. From LR, you can’t simply select an image in the Develop Module, click and select Edit in as we currently do with all other plugins. In On1 NoNoise you have to go to the Edit > Plug-in Manager otherwise the edit will not work.
Secondly the process is so slow, it takes several minutes on a 32GB RAM desktop and on a MacBook Pro it just stops
To me the program is at best a beta version and is nowhere near ready for release.
Stay with Topaz DeNoise
I am finding it not working as a LR plug-in too. How do I get my money back or will there be a firmware fix for this soon?
I downloaded the trial of NoNoise and am able to run it just fine on a Windows laptop with an old I5 CPU, an integrated Intel GPU and 16gb of RAM – a terrible computer to edit photos on. It takes 10 seconds to launch and the actual denoise processing is orders of magnitude faster than Topaz, so it definitely does not seem slow to me. If you care you should open a case with ON1 support.
I personally think it does a very good job, especially for V1.0.
Great review. I have both but use camera raw not on1 so like you Topaz is the way for me…….at this point. Thank you for doing this review and amazing photo of the falcon!
Fair analysis. As a Topaz and On1 user, I’ll probably switch only for the reason that in On1 I can stay in a non-destructive workflow and its faster. Having to create a .tiff and jumping over to Topaz is less than optimal and Topaz takes a long time to process. If I were working in LR or PS, i would probably stay with Topaz.
If someone wants to denoise a raw image (with Topaz DeNoise) it cannot be done from inside Photoshop. It must be via Topaz’s DeNoise standalone. Topaz only passes pixels from inside Ps to the DeNoise AI plugin within a Ps host. Like you, I prefer to work in Ps. I wouldn’t be launching standalone products (from Topaz or ON1).
Foto Maker: Your statement that using denoise on a raw image cannot be done from within Photoshop is confusing.
If I open a raw file from camera raw into Photoshop, it is still a raw file (unless i’m wrong). You can then use Denoise as a plugin to adjust the file. It’s only when you save the image that you choose tiff/jpg etc. Happy to be corrected.
Just realized that opening a raw file from camera raw to Photoshop does indeed get “processed” somewhat. Opening the raw file as a smart object in Photoshop is the way to go. Cheers.
There is a very clarifying video regarding this subject from Andy Astbury – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdGftWkCcv8
The way to apply Topaz Denoise as a plugin from within PS is by opening as a smart object indeed. You can do this also from within LR. Look at the examples in his video at 7:22, 14:40 and 23:57.
Thank you for noting the difference between tiff and dng with the two pieces of software.
I think for raw file denoising I will stay with Tab (over Coke vs Pepsi). :p
DXo loads the A1 lossless compressed raw files much quicker than ON1 NoNoise. I’ll stay with Topaz for post processing denoising. Bridge is my method of workflow with DXo denoising and then go into PhotoShop.
Disclaimer: I do not like soda. Any reference to a soda drink does not represent my preference. 🙂
Hi All, I would recommend avoiding ON1 NoNoise if you are a Windows user. There is a bug in all ON1 filters like Effects and the new NoNoise has the same issue. If you use a general user account which is a security best practice, NoNoise will not even start as a filter within Adobe Photoshop. I have reported this bug to ON1 but they are not interested in fixing this as the issue dates back to when Effects was released.
I disagree because if its your machine run as administrator. You still get all the prompts to install etc. Or you can get a Mac and enjoy not having Anti Virus or Spyware software. In the end if you are a photo editor discouraging users because you chose to run under a general account that is your best practice.
Hello to all, I am royal user for onOne for few years and it provided easy simple Adobe plugin workflow to me but I’ve started little issues with graphic card since onOne 2019 released. And hoping to will get better on updates or next release so I stayed on as plus member.
As comes onOne 2021, it isn’t getting better be the worse now Photoshop plugin to onOne 2021 can’t even open photos or Lightroom plugin to onOne 2021 crashes time to time. I have few other plugin editors in same workflow, they are working flawlessly. I contacted tech support many times but seems going nowhere…final tech support answered as
“ The only other suggestion I can make is to try creating a new admin account and installing and using under this new account.
We suspect there is some underlying issue with the user account itself causing the issues.
We have had several users report that by creating a new admin user account, they have been able to install, activate and launch the software without further incident, where all of our previous recommendations have not worked.
This article gives instructions on how to do so if you’re not familiar with creating a new account. It’s pretty easy and straightforward.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4026923/windows-10-create-a-local-user-or-administrator-account
Beyond this I don’t have any further solutions unfortunately.
We regret that we’ve been unable to determine a root cause for the issues you’ve been experiencing.
We’re a small company and do our best to troubleshoot and work to correct all user reported issues. Unfortunately sometimes there is no resolve.”
I was as Admin account but I created new admin account, guess what problems are still exist, so great…huh…
Unfortunately sometimes there is no resolve…what are fantastic comment
So what this deNoise will do as plugin
Agree with David 100%!
Windows users in “Standard User” mode should absolutely stay away from using and furnishing “Administrator Account” login credentials and right click short cuts to launch any any app.
I moved away from ON1 to avoid any future nightmare of my computer security.
Thanks, Matt, for making this comparison. I like the Coke vs. Pepsi analogy. We have two great drinks and two great noise reduction programs. I have both, so I’m super blessed. I am learning ON1 Photo Raw, so I am leaning towards ON1 NoNoise for now. Please up the good work–we need you! (P.S. – I like Pepsi, but I will often drink Coke.)
Matt, Thanks for the review. I was disappointed that On1 chose to charge On1 Plus subscribers for the initial release of No Noise. It gives one the feeling of On1 trying to grab a few extra bucks from loyal customers. Bad taste. Your review tells me that waiting for the fall release of Photo Raw to include No Noise is the way to proceed.
Hi Michael,
A Plus subscription only gets you access to additional training materials and support forums where the company and its trainers do respond. It does not include new software.
I am a On1 Plus subscriber and I got an email with the link to download Nonoise.
Matt,
Good honest review, as always. ON1 looks good but not enough to change my LR, PS Topaz workflow. Thanks again. That Laughing Falcon photo was spectacular.
Do you have a opinion on the slow speed when you open a image from lr og direct in the stand alone app.
Regards Bo
I do not. I’d contact the company if you’re having issues with that. But I do believe there is a bug if you try to open ON1 NoNoise from the LR Edit In menu. Again, I’d contact them if you’re having trouble.
It definitely takes longer to open a photo in NoNoise than in Topaz, but after that everything is essentially realtime. In Topaz, the zoom level is critical to the performance. If I’m at 100%, every time I update the preview I end up waiting at least twice as long as NoNoise took to open it. The only way Topaz is usable for me is to zoom to 200% or more. NoNoise does not have that problem – I can leave the image at 100% and move the sliders as much as I want, look at different parts of the image, etc and it is almost instant. For me, that is a HUGE time saver.
Great review. I use the same workflow as you, and I agree with you. I will be sticking with Topaz for the time being. While it may be possible to play with the On1 settings to reduce the smoothing, it is an extra step that I do not need to add.
One other significant point that I notice with On1, it is darkening my images by at least 1/2 a stop. I tried it with several images and had the same results each time. I wrote to On1 about this, and they replied that my results were not indicative of the best possible results because I was opening my images from Photoshop instead of processing the raw files. I do not know if that is true. I won’t bother to test it because I am not ready to trade my workflow to accommodate their software.
I am a big fan of On1 Photo and will keep it in my workflow for some of the tools it gives me for certain images. Their customer service is also excellent. But its a pass on DeNoise for now,
Regarding sharpening, I use both Topaz DeNoise and Sharpen. DeNoise definitely adds sharpening to images. It works very well. So well, in fact, that often I do not need to go into Sharpening at all. This is a nice bonus.
Keep up the good work. I always find your content interesting.
Hi Robert. I definitely see issues in the DNG being darkened and changed if I try to open the raw photo into ON1 NoNoise and export the DNG. Again, that’s why LR will always be the first touchpoint on my raw photos. I don’t trust anyone else to render my raw info.
Also, to be fair, make sure you rewatch the video – I had to redo it since you saw it and did open the raw photo into ON1 NoNoise and the results are much better.
Thank you! This is a big help and allowed me to see different perspectives.
Thanx for the review. As I like to resize photos before editing out of LR with ON1 Resize, I am disappointed you can’t go directly from Resize to No Noise…it requires a trip back in and out of LR. ON 1 would do well to integrate their programs better.
They do integrate them very well. That’s what the ON1 Photo RAW program does. You can’t call one Topaz plug-in directly from another either.
Matt,
thanks for this review. It confirms my findings. Since I’m a On1 user I have switchec to No Noise and stopped using Topaz DeNoise.
One thing you did not mention: In the preferences of No Noise you may select three different default noise reduction “styles” for the auto mode.
Well done that man…….good overview.