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Battling Noise and Topaz DeNoiseAi - is it Magical?

I have been testing Topaz DeNoiseAI and I was impressed with the level of noise reduction while maintaining detail. But, I don’t want to just make this an ad for Topaz so I have shared some tips and tricks for dealing with noise while you are out photographing, while you are editing in Lightroom and shared a few examples where Topaz produced much better results. 

Let’s make sure we are all on the same page about noise and how to avoid it when photographing

Noise - the grain and specks that appear in your photo, especially noticeable at higher ISOs or in darker areas of the photo after you raise exposure when editing. Noise is annoying because it reduces the clarity and details of your photo.  Some higher ISO photos will end up in the trash because of the loss of detail.  

Quick Tips to avoid noise/higher ISOs - All things being equal - when photographing the only way to lower your ISO is to either lengthen your shutter speed or open your aperture (e.g. going from f/4 to f/1.8) 

• If shooting static subjects put your camera on a tripod to shoot at a slower shutter speed.

• Open your aperture to its widest setting or change lenses to one that provides a wider maximum aperture.

• Handholding your camera? Get your safe shots where you know your subject will be sharp even if that means a higher ISO. Then you can lower the shutter speed below the recommended speed (2x your current focal length) and shoot a burst of photos. Continue this process lower and lower, remember as you lower the shutter speed you will be able to lower the ISO.

• Move to an area with more light or add more light to your subject.

• Avoid underexposing if you will need to brighten when editing. Raising the exposure in your editing program will increase the noise in the shadows.

Note - in any situation don’t be afraid of selecting the settings that you need even if it means your ISO will be higher. Simply put, do not sacrifice your settings just to try and minimize noise. Noise is often very fixable and a blurry photo or one where the depth of field is too shallow is much less fixable. 

How much noise is too much noise? There is no easy answer here. Photos with strong impact - real heart and soul - I can deal with a larger amount of noise, maybe the noise is even part of the story.  But if your image is more clinical feeling - I want it to be relatively noise-free and I certainly wouldn’t want so much noise that detail or sharpness is negatively impacted in those photos.

Fixing Noise 

Removing noise is easy! Removing noise without losing detail is the challenge. 

You can see the photo on the left has noise. The photo on the right has no noise but it also has lost a serious amount of detail. It has been mushified. 

Lightroom has a dedicated Detail Panel for detail and noise reduction. The panel is capable of removing noise but in my recent tests, Topaz DeNoise AI does a better job, especially in photos with lots of fine detail. But first, let’s briefly look at these sliders. 

The Luminance slider removes the monochromatic noise that is shown as grain.  The higher the number the more aggressively Lightroom removes the noise and sadly the detail. 

The detail slider allows you to bring back … detail - the higher the number the more it tries to dig out detail - I find that this often introduces some splotchy areas. 

The contrast slider attempts to bring back contrast - the higher the number the greater the increase in contrast - I find that this too often introduces some splotchy areas. 

The Color, Detail, and Smoothness slider combat color noise. 

My Personal approach to reducing noise in Lightroom is to be very gentle with these sliders. Move them just enough to combat noise without losing detail. And, I often use the local area adjustment tools to more aggressively remove noise in the less important areas of the photo (non-subject, non-detail rich areas). 

Here I used the brush tool to brush on -100 texture, -100 clarity, noise 100 (this is noise reduction), and sharpness -100. I don’t typically use settings at their max but this shows you how easily you can combat the noise with a little local area adjustment

You also want to be very careful with the sharpening sliders - as you increase the detail slider it will increase the noise.  Be sure to use the Masking slider to remove the sharpening from areas that don’t need sharpening. Hold down the Alt key(Mac) or Option key(Windows) to get a helpful high contrast view that makes it clear where you are removing the sharpening. 

Is Topaz DeNoiseAI that much better?  Yes.

The degree to which it is better depends on the photo and the level of detail but in general, I find Topaz easier to use and it produces better results. 

Two Modes in DeNoise AI

DeNoise AI provides four sliders and has provided great results in my testing.
AI Clear is more simplified and I find it does not do as well as DeNoise AI.

The Auto-Detect setting attempts to analyze the photo and sets the values accordingly. I find that I almost always make additional adjustments and only suggest them as a starting point. 

Low Light Mode is excellent at removing color noise. 

DeNoise AI on the left vs Lightroom Noise Reduction on the right

DeNoise AI on the left vs Lightroom Noise Reduction on the right

DeNoise AI on the left vs Lightroom Noise Reduction on the right 

Three examples where the noise reduction is far superior to Lightroom. Especially when you take the time to compare the quality of the higher detail regions. DeNoiseAI is able to remove the noise without reducing the details to mush.   There are some drawbacks to introducing DeNoise AI.

Downsides - 

• A separate expense and program to run- Currently $41 USE CODE: SKEYS15

• Creates a separate file without your Lightroom editing history.

• Limited zoom views available - Cannot fit the entire photo on the screen.

• Slow to update after every change.

• Very slow on larger files and I find it slows my whole machine down when processing. Older computers may really struggle to process files.

Topaz offers a free 30-day trial and I do recommend the program and the cost if you find yourself consistently battling noise in your photos. 

Toby