Denoise comparison between LR and Topaz Denoise AI

[Braineack]

I've never been quite happy with LR's denoise algorithm, and I never really liked any of the PS solutions, which required a lot of masking to prevent the loss of details, leaving you with a noisey subject and smoothed background.

So I acquired Topaz Denoise AI to try it out.

Here's a recent shot of mine and one of my worst offenders. ISO5600 on a D800 shot at f/1.6 with only lights from the sparklers to light the subjects.

Full Shot - LR without denoise. (just realized the cropped out the bottom portion of the frame, whoops)

Full Shot - LR with 30% denoise. This is how I exported and delivered it.

Full Shot - LR with 98% denoise. This is the least amount of DR to get the noise almost smoothed away.

Full Shot - Topaz Denoise AI. Look at the difference in fine details between this and above, look at how much better the noise is removed as well.

1:1 - LR without denoise.

1:1 - LR with 30% denoise.

1:1 - LR with 98% denoise.

1:1 - Topaz Denoise AI.

Pretty damn impressive. It did do weird things to the texture of the suit, and this was a pretty extreme example, and all I did was push the auto button. I have a few old shots I wanted to simply remove the noise pattern in shots, so I'm going to try to run them through and see how it looks.

 

[tirediron]

Nice write-up; thanks for posting!

 

[Flying Panda]

Nice posting Brian. I too have never been satisfied with LR algorithms. Seems the more noise removed the smoother the image. I've always heard Topaz had good software (algorithms). I only have one simple question - Is the latest version of Topaz AI user freindly or, in other words, is there a small learning curve or is it a hassle to get started with from scratch?

 

[Braineack]

There's three sliders. That's it

 

[CherylL]

I use Define in the Nik Collection. Wonder if Topaz is better? Nik does make things soft.

 

[smoke665]

I don't know if the noise reduction capability of Lr has declined or if I'm more critical, but had also thought about trying Topaz since they added AI. Looks like they may be onto something. In the last shot it appears they might not handle color noise quite as well (under man's chin).

 

[Original katomi]

Nice prog, what is the price on this ..ok I know it will be approx because of the dollar to gbp

 

[adamhiram]

Thanks for sharing! I generally prefer the high ISO noise to the resulting loss of detail, and skip the NR sliders in LR unless I am using them in conjunction with the sharpening tool. This looks very promising.

 

[Derrel]

You are now Brian. Topaz does an excellent job.

 

[Braineack]

This is an image I always wanted to fix:

as you can see, i masked the bird, feathered and then blurred the BG in PS. This was a technique i found on FM from a very accomplished bird photographer who shot Canon.


when i use LR to smooth noise, it completely trashes the images:

you lose all detail, and i had the detail slider up to 100, and denoise to 50%.



now look at Topaz:

not only did it completely eliminate all noise, it actually increased the fine detail on the bird itself. again, i pressed auto and let it do its thing. really happy with this result.

 

[DarkShadow]

I been using DeNoise 6 over a year now, its fantastic.It has 6 slider adjustments 12 presets that can be tweaked with the sliders. Another excellent one is Noiseware By Imagenomic.

 

[Braineack]

I been using DeNoise 6 over a year now, its fantastic.It has 6 slider adjustments 12 presets that can be tweaked with the sliders. Another excellent one is Noiseware By Imagenomic.

I have 1.3.3 I only have 3 sliders...

Remove noise, enhance sharpness, and recover detail.

If I read correctly, AI Clear is an older algorithm:

 

[DarkShadow]

I have the version 6 the one before the version you are using now no longer even on Topaz site as far i have seen other then AI Here is what mine looks like open with an image.There is also 5 preset with selected camera's like the D750 the D810 etc but have the foggiest idea what thats is about don't use them.

 

[SquarePeg]

I have the version 6 the one before the version you are using now no longer even on Topaz site as far i have seen other then AI Here is what mine looks like open with an image.There is also 5 preset with selected camera's like the D750 the D810 etc but have the foggiest idea what thats is about don't use them.View attachment 184697

‘That’s the version I have as well. There was a great tutorial on Topaz’s site a few years ago on using the options but typically I end up using the suggested settings with very little tweaking. I’ve been debating switching to a Mac and then will lose all my Topaz plug ins. While I do like playing around with them all, I don’t expect to re-buy the Mac versions except for De-noise which I wouldn’t want to be without.

The new Topaz AI Gigapixel looks like a winner as well - I may give that a go when the price drops a bit.

 

[DarkShadow]

I tried to try the new version as i can upgrade free but it wont even open when I try to select from where i am loading a photo in to DeNoise, it just sits there spinning away forever.I tried rebooting and reinstalling same thing every time eventually i gave up. I also have the Mac Version on macOS Mojave.