Trying out Topaz Labs Denoise AI

This inspired me to have a try as well. Still not quite sure how I like it. It handles some things really well: sky, even surfaces are just amazingly smooth. Especially with sky it seems to be more aggressive as with the rest of the pictures (here at 100%):

This thing is really slow on my machine. Is there a way to batchprocess a whole series?

Yeah the "waxy" look is a big problem. Mostly with subjects with a lot of detail.

If you're heavy handed with the noise reduction results generally aren't good. I haven't found the detail slider to be of much help?

i-G12 wrote in post #19044616
I haven't found the detail slider to be of much help?

Same here. If I use the detail slider to get back the faces, then I end up at a place Lightroom or Capture One can achieve as well.

Here's another area where the software really excels: Flat surfaces. To get the details back, it applies aggressive sharpening (e.g. visible in the jumper of the woman running).

Try Noiseware out. If you would like to share a noisy raw, I can run it through my version and process to see what I can do. My goal is always 1 stop noise without loss of detail.

TeamSpeed wrote in post #19044643
Try Noiseware out. If you would like to share a noisy raw, I can run it through my version and process to see what I can do. My goal is always 1 stop noise without loss of detail.

Nah. The file I have is ISO 20000. It’s of my Irish Setter. Don’t think anything can fix that ****.

I'm still very novice but don't use sharpening and didnt find recovering details gives results I like.
Don't think I've gone past 35% noise reduction.
Generally though I've been very happy.

avondale87 wrote in post #19044725
I'm still very novice but don't use sharpening and didnt find recovering details gives results I like.
Don't think I've gone past 35% noise reduction.
Generally though I've been very happy.

I’m generally happy with Denoise. I’ve been pushing the envelope and it’s iffy. But at ISO 6400 it’s been pretty good. Some things at ISO 12800 or ISO 20000 mostly of my dog are not so good. Goon try shooting ETTR and see what kind of results I get.

Let me see if I can post an example of the “waxy” look I’m getting. Nothing I do can to prevent it without re-introducing a lot of noise. If I want the waxy look it’s easily produced in Lightroom.

Example...I guess not too bad? What do you guys think?

#1 Is RAW file with basic processing in Lightroom (no noise reduction)

#2 is RAW file processed through Denoise with processing in Lightroom after noise reduction

I shoot ISO 32000.

Lighting was non-existent with these, just street lights that were scattered around. Low light or artificial lights make a huge difference in noise characteristics vs better natural light. That will play a bit part in the noise management, along with proper white balance.

The more I test, the less I am convinced that software is a good remedy for my noisy pictures. Topaz Denoise is doing what you expect it to do - quite well I might add. It reduces noise substantially as the examples above show. However, there is also a heavy price you pay: softness, that is compensated with strong sharpening and a loss of contrast. As a consequence many for me important parts of the picture look flat or over-sharpened. The solution is of course to reduce noise reduction and sharpening - but then you get into what e.g. LR and C1 can do as well. Currently, I am debating with myself what is more distracting: noise or over-sharpened softness. Any thoughts on this?

Number two looks good... but to my eye... over sharpened. I just do see noise in there that is "offensive". The dogs fur hides noise well. You see it in the background objects.. Orange thingie...... but I just don't care. The orange thing isn't the subject.... the dog is. So if I had to choose one.. it would be image 1. There is also a marked luminosity difference.

I just picked this up yesterday. Loving it so far. I also have Sharpen AI. That one is a bit more mixed - some images are amazing results, others are hardly noticeable or created unwanted effects (lots of odd lines on teeth specifically). These were ISO 8000 on the EOS R. Hopefully I don't even need to say which is which.

Edit: That 100-400 is crazy sharp. Please don't call my wife. rofl

i've been using topaz denoise ai for awhile now. the sony a7r iv is horribly noisey and topaz is pretty good at minimizing it. i usually set it to auto and pull the denoise slider back a little bit. topaz sharpen ai is also pretty decent.

but i wish they were just a little quicker or at least load multiple photos at once instead of looking at the splash screen every time i load a photo.