By lifting the shadows in post or boosting ISO to achieve proper exposure for a dark scene, one is effectively lifting the baseline amount of noise that is present in the image in addition to pixels expressing the true signal. It is not that the noise necessarily becomes stronger, it is that the signal isn’t strong enough to overcome the underlying noise present in the image. Noise is less obvious when the signal is strong such as a brightly lit scene, however, when photos are taken in low light or with high ISO settings, noise becomes more noticeable. In simple terms, the weaker or noisier the signal, (i.e., quantity and quality of light photons reaching the sensor), the more noise becomes evident in pictures. These can be caused by random emission of photons from light sources, or during the process of converting the analog signal of light hitting the sensor to digital pixels in-camera. Noise is a digital “grain”, or erroneous colors that show up at the pixel level. What is image noise and why would you want to remove it?Įvery camera on the market produces digital noise, and every image taken has some amount of noise. For the “too long, didn’t read” crowd, please feel free to jump straight to the results. If you are viewing on mobile, I suggest going straight to those full size jpegs to review the images and using pinch to zoom to inspect closely. I have also posted a link to the full-size jpegs for those who might prefer to make their own comparisons. Today I wanted to investigate three different methods of noise reduction for digital photos and answer a question that has been on my mind for a while: how do different post-production noise reduction techniques compare? Do the differences even matter? To do this, I compared the same photo with noise reduction applied using three different software methods: Topaz DeNoise AI, DXO Photolab 4 DeepPRIME, and Lightroom Noise Reduction. Early in my hobby I was quick to throw away images with noise, but with great improvements in noise reduction software technologies, reasonable improvements can be made to even the most noisy images. These issues, coupled with limited budgets with which to buy expensive lenses that fare best in low light conditions can only lead to one thing: noisy images. When photographing wildlife, there are a number of challenges that affect the quality of the final photograph:ġ) the need to shoot in low-light when many wildlife are most active,Ģ) the lack of reach due to far-off subjects or “too short” lenses, which necessitates cropping to get a desirable compositionģ) sometimes subjects are fast moving and dropping the shutter speed to compensate for low light is not an option Flickr has an amazing world of great photographers so I know to check my ego at the door.Unlike working with human subjects or in a studio, wildlife are unpredictable, and rarely are conditions ideal for getting the best quality photo possible. It’s just a thrill to take a decent picture. I’m a hobbyist, I like to share my photos but I’m not out to impress anyone. It’s good enough to be a one-stop shop for many pictures. ![]() ![]() Also DXO Photolab is not a one-trick pony. One thing nice about DXO is that the noise reduction (if you are shooting raw and using”deep prime”) tends to work great with default values. ![]() ![]() Topaz JPEG to Raw hasn’t been real helpful for me. Topaz Gigapixel AI works very well too, though I have only used it a couple of times. Here you can see some of my pics-I think in all of them since last April (2020) or so I used Topaz DeNoise or Topaz Sharpen at some point: / The defaults tend to be too strong for my taste. I also find Topaz Sharpen AI to be superb, but again I back off of the default settings a little. On Topaz DeNoise AI I usually back off of the default settings a little and adjust as needed. Check out the Dpreview retouching forum for real-world comparisons. It will correct for lens flaws, and buy you an f-stop or two extra with best in class noise reduction. If your aspiration is to cover ground optically and for noise reduction through software that would otherwise be covered by more heavier and more expensive gear, DXO Photolab 4 (Elite) is pretty awesome (as long as you are shooting raw with a supported camera). I love the Topaz DeNoise AI, but there is a new champ in town that does noise reduction even better-DXO Photolab 4 Elite.
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