Remove noise

I shoot in raw and process with raw therapee and or Corel and or art.

I recently went to Colombia and sometimes the light was apalling - hence this photo

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2nLD​owu

I ran your shot through Topaz Denoise, which cleaned it up quite a bit, but resulted in a little loss of sharpness. I did a second pass through Topaz Sharpen AI, which resulted in the second image below.

I've never played with Topaz on a JPG (especially a low-res jpg). I usually go from RAW to TIFF to Topaz. Don't know if it matters, but thought I'd mention it.

First pass: Topaz Denoise AI

I also have a beta version of Topaz Photo AI, which combines the Denoise, Sharpen and Gigapixel apps into one app.

For grins, I ran your picture through that. It denoised and sharpened, as expected, but also increased the dimensions 4x from 1024x691 to 4096x2764 (.7 mp to 11.3mp). I hadn't noticed it was doing that when I pressed save.

davholla wrote in post #19425333
I shoot in raw and process with raw therapee and or Corel and or art.

I recently went to Colombia and sometimes the light was apalling - hence this photo

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2nLD​owu EF7A2651_Tree_Creeper by davholla2002, on Flickr

What would people recommend to get rid of the noise? Is Topaz as good as claimed?

Give DxO Photolab 5 a try. You'll never look back. There's nothing better for RAW files on the market. Post a link to a RAW file or send it to me in a PM and I'll show you what it can do with your photo.

Played around a little in ACR only.

rrblint wrote in post #19425357
Give DxO Photolab 5 a try. You'll never look back. There's nothing better for RAW files on the market. Post a link to a RAW file or send it to me in a PM and I'll show you what it can do with your photo.

Thank you all here is a link to the raw file
https://drive.google.c​om …E6WebQw9/view?u​sp=sharing

davholla wrote in post #19425379
Thank you all here is a link to the raw file
https://drive.google.c​om …E6WebQw9/view?u​sp=sharing

Here you go. Top is DxO Photolab 5 with lens corrections and denoising only, bottom with a little brightening of the shadows.

Thanks a lot I will try DXO

Not that it matters. I am not familiar with Topaz in that I have not used it but I do use DxO Photolab 5 as part of my work flow. Depending on the ISO & comparatively, the noise, I will either use HQ, Prime or Deep Prime. The less the 'noise' the less the processing, i.e. HQ vs Deep Prime. I then export those photos to Capture One for any additional processing. With a less powerful computer at hand, the more 'noise' reduction the longer to export the images. Just my experience and a call to DxO support, which have been fantastic BTW. Good luck, let us know your experience.

Tom

The best results I've ever seen come out of DXO Deep Prime.

jcothron wrote in post #19425603
The best results I've ever seen come out of DXO Deep Prime.

Yes, Deep Prime is more than just NR, it is also a demosaicing algorithm. It demosaics and does NR at the same time, NR is applied strongly where needed and less so where not as much is needed. There is no reason to ever use HQ or Prime anymore. I use Deep Prime on all my photos regardless of ISO. I haven't seen a file yet that didn't benefit from Deep Prime's demosaicing and NR.

rrblint wrote in post #19425637
Yes, Deep Prime is more than just NR, it is also a demosaicing algorithm. It demosaics and does NR at the same time, NR is applied strongly where needed and less so where not as much is needed. There is no reason to ever use HQ or Prime anymore. I use Deep Prime on all my photos regardless of ISO. I haven't seen a file yet that didn't benefit from Deep Prime's demosaicing and NR.

I realize it does more. For my use case (as a Lr) plug-in I only use it on high ISO files where I find the noise objectionable from time to time. In those cases it seems to do a really good job outside of the noise reduction as well. Now there are some holes in their lens database, and you have to be careful that the wrong lens is t picked out…otherwise you can get some errors. Other than that I find it to be one of the most useful tools I’ve ever used in that arena.

jcothron wrote in post #19425640
I realize it does more. For my use case (as a Lr) plug-in I only use it on high ISO files where I find the noise objectionable from time to time. In those cases it seems to do a really good job outside of the noise reduction as well. Now there are some holes in their lens database, and you have to be careful that the wrong lens is t picked out…otherwise you can get some errors. Other than that I find it to be one of the most useful tools I’ve ever used in that arena.

If people want it for NR only there is PureRaw. It has a little less control but only does one thing. Not great value compared to getting PL but I think it is easier to use. I also use it only when necessary (tougher jobs) as at low ISO I can't see big difference enough difference demosaicing between DXO and LR.

I also have On1 NoNoise and Topaz Denoise. However my most used app is Topaz Sharpen AI. Again when needed. Exiting times. ON1 is coming out with a combined NoNoise + Tack Sharp plugin. I wonder if DXO will offer something similar with PL6.

For the OP. I would not buy any DXO products now. PL6 and PureRaw 3 will come out sometime in late October or early November. DXO gives you one month within the purchase of software to get a free upgrade. If you are outside that month you have to pay for the upgrade.

I think most NR is applied too strongly and the AI solutions make NR seem more complicated than necessary, often creating more problems than originally existed. The point of NR is not to remove every trace of grain, but to manage noise, especially color speckles (high-frequency color noise) and blotches (lower frequency noise).

Here is your low-resolution image treated with Neat Image. You can filter by noise frequency across the luma and color channels in Neat Image, but I just applied a very basic "remove less noise" preset, concentrating on the color noise. The luma noise is not objectionable, and trying to get rid of it will affect the acutance of the image, especially at lower resolutions. Some grain enhances the perception of sharpness (acutance) in the image.

Top: original
Bottom: Neat Image treated, auto profile, "remove less noise" preset.

Once you manage the noise to your liking, you can sharpen the image (selectively, or otherwise) to achieve the final image at the intended resolution (for screen display, print, etc.).

Kirk