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New Lightroom Classic - now with "AI" noise reduction

pdk42

pdk42

Moderator
The latest LR Classic (12.3) has added a number of nice improvements, including an "AI" noise reduction tool (à la Topaz/DxO etc). It seems to work very well.

LR_AI.jpg
 
Yeah! I just tried it with some party pics which i edited in Black and white to compansate for extreme ISOs. Its impressive what wrinkles it brings to light. Still there is a steep threshold to failure e.g. one part of the eyelashes look superb the other half is missing completely.
 
Yes, I just tried it on some ISO 12800 shots from my S1R with the shadow slider pegged. Worked great. Really no difference from the same shot on an S5 after the AI NR. Pretty amazing, and might even make me rethink u4/3rds.

S1R shot, 100% crop, ISO 12800, shadow slider maximized:
P1512554-Enhanced-NR-3.jpg
  • Panasonic - DC-S1R
  • LUMIX S 20-60/F3.5-5.6
  • 60.0 mm
  • ƒ/8
  • 1/500 sec
  • Pattern
  • Auto exposure
  • ISO 12800


<edit> it's a little grainy, but it seems to be displaying at something like 300%. Not sure why.

Capture One has promised forthcoming AI features as well.
 
I remember all the debates about Topaz AI adding made up data, and real photographers would never use it. Despite that I've used Topaz Denoise AI and Topaz Photo AI quite a bit, almost always successfully (and now and then a case where it doesn't do a good job, it can throw away data it thinks is noise). I've not used DxO, or the DxO Lightroom plugin, so I can't compare it, but I will be doing some comparisons with the new Adobe Lightroom AI capability. A problem with Topaz is that it still doesn't accept S5II raw and you need to use the TIFF conversion path in Lightroom. This might give a slight advantage to the Lightroom version; but Topaz and DxO have a huge lead in denoise AI.
 
CharlesH said:
I remember all the debates about Topaz AI adding made up data, and real photographers would never use it. Despite that I've used Topaz Denoise AI and Topaz Photo AI quite a bit, almost always successfully (and now and then a case where it doesn't do a good job, it can throw away data it thinks is noise). I've not used DxO, or the DxO Lightroom plugin, so I can't compare it, but I will be doing some comparisons with the new Adobe Lightroom AI capability. A problem with Topaz is that it still doesn't accept S5II raw and you need to use the TIFF conversion path in Lightroom. This might give a slight advantage to the Lightroom version; but Topaz and DxO have a huge lead in denoise AI.
Click to expand...
Yes, more real-world tests are needed, for sure. I should dig up some of my high-ISO S1R wildlife shots.
 
CharlesH said:
(and now and then a case where it doesn't do a good job, it can throw away data it thinks is noise)
Click to expand...
I remembered a shot with a deer standing on a road with fine gravel. Topaz AI would see this fine gravel as noise and clean it up so it looked like a dirt road. I went back to look at that shot again with Lightroom A1. It did a good job and left the gravel unchanged. But I looked at it anew with Topaz AI (which has gone through several updates since I looked at that shot last summer). And Topaz now looks at the gravel correctly - it leaves the gravel unchanged, so Topaz has fixed this problem. The results looked identical between the programs. A few other photos with noise also showed identical results with Topaz AI and Lightroom AI, both very good at reducing noise and maintaining detail.

There are bound to be lots of YouTubers explaining tjhis all. Here is one that does an okay job.
 
I noticed this in the latest LR update yesterday. The S5 is so good I rarely need any NR. My A7Riii on the other hand... I'll be editing images and wondering "Why is this so noisy, it doesn't look like a dim scene?" then I check the EXIF and it's only ISO1600... Ahh this must have been taken with the Sony camera... yes there it is in the EXIF.

This new NR does seem to work better or at least seems to retain more detail. Although when I was experimenting I found I still didn't want to go above 20 in areas with a lot of shadow recovery.
 
GeorgeHudetz said:
might even make me rethink u4/3rds
Click to expand...
Yes, I've been using Topaz noise reduction with m4/3 for quite a while. For some shots it makes a big difference. It doesn't turn a m4/3 camera into an S5, but it can definitely extend its range. When I have time I'll go back and look at some m4/3 shots I've recovered with Topaz and see how they do with Lightroom.
 
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