Noise is one of the most common issues photographers have to deal with, and there are lots of different ways to deal with it in post-processing. This excellent video review takes a look at one of the most advanced pieces of specialized software for the task and how well it can take care of noise in your images.
Coming to you from Anthony Morganti, this great video review takes a look at Topaz DeNoise AI. Noise is an issue photographers across a ton of genres have to deal with, and it can range from being an inconvenience to a deal-breaker for image quality. The majority of the time, when working on it in post-processing, you have to trade off keeping detail with reducing noise, but the promise of DeNoise AI is leveraging the power of artificial intelligence to retain more detail while getting rid of noise. In my experience, DeNoise AI can give some great results, but it can require some significant time and resources. This means you might not want to apply it to large collections of images, rather saving it for those where top-notch quality is most important to you. Check out the video above for Morganti's full thoughts.
Lately a lot of photos bloggers are publishing raving reviews of Topaz products. Are they really that good or is it just a marketing blitz? The sheer number makes me very suspicious.
I tried this product and thought it wasn't worth it. You can reduce the noise in LR or PS just as effectively.
I agree, tried the one that's supposed to fix out of focus pics and it just left artifacts that looked over sharpened.
I second it. I have all of the Topaz software. Most usefull ones are Denoise, Sharpen and Mask. I purchased all of the Topaz software even before 30 days trial expired.
I use Topaz denoise and sharpen - Sometimes LR is better, sometimes not. They're not expensive and when they provide good results, the results are very good indeed. You still need to tweak the settings and view 1:1, but I personally find those two tools super valuable.
It's still an issue. Especially if the client has a comparison. I often supply a set of images that include shots made with Nikon D850 and Mavic 2 Pro. The Mavic shots would look fine if they weren't alongside the DSLR images. Denoise AI takes the Mavic shots much closer to the D850 level noise.
I've used Gigapixel AI several times for my day job. Sometimes I need to source a > 1080p image for a video but one doesn't exist. It upscales up to double size with not much noticable noise/artifacting. It's a handy tool to use in a pinch.
i still use noiselessCK (Macphun) from time to time. And still works fine.
Neat Image for me!
I bought a suite for $200 consisting of DeNoise, Sharpen, Gigapixel, and some JPEG app I ignored. These apps are hit an miss, especially at high res. That said, they have their moments. The best NR workflow I've developed is giving a light NR "kick" in LR to just temper the noise. Color NR I also perform in LR. I then take what I render and drop it into DeNoise, and cross my fingers. This one-two punch works fairly well for me. It's nearly perfect for web res images, the combo gives me beautiful results almost always. At full res it's a different story, but sometimes that story has a happy ending.
So if you're curious about this app just down load the demo and let it interact with your LR or CO or whatever RAW processor you may use, and see how it works for your particular type of work.
That lite kicking in LR is a good point - Makes a big difference.
I do'nt want superclean image, noise is ok for me.
"DeNoise AI can give some great results, but it can require some significant time and resources"
This was true of the older versions of DeNoise, and the fiddling required made it entirely unsuited to my high-volume event photography. Which is why I chose DxO several years ago and stick with it today. Not only is PhotoLab's PRIME noise reduction still at or near the top of the heap, but it's just one part of an excellent RAW processor that excels at detail retention and lens & geometric corrections.
I guess it depends on what you're shooting I suppose. I found PRIME to be total trash.
if I have to wait that long for previewing the image every time I adjust it, I prefer to have the noise.
I've been a Topaz customer from virtually the day they started. To me their AI products are almost always simply magical.
I have told them, though, two things related to DeNoise AI that I hope they will forever take to heart.
First is that they should not discontinue their DeNoise 6, which was their flagship DeNoise product before DeNoise AI. There are some shots of mine with some texture in them that DeNoise AI insists on sharpening and accentuating even with the noise slider all the way to the right and the detail slider all the way to the left. Their intelligence thinks it should be sharp and it shouldn't. There is simply no way around it. It happens rarely, but when it does, I go back to DeNoise 6 and get the smooth result I want while still holding detail, which was DeNoise 6's signature point-of-difference.
Second is that Topaz should not be so quick to turn their single best product into a forgotten stepchild. Their first AI product if I am correct was AI Clear. It transforms lower res. photos to super-clean photos that belie their original size. It's the Topaz product I use the most of any in their arsenal. Now, however, AI Clear is relegated to a second drop-down button in DeNoise AI that can very easily get lost if you're not looking for it. Here's a puny 178 x 115 pixel crop of what it did in one click to one of my 1997 Kodak DC210 photos. If it can do that to 178 x 115 pixels, imagine how good it works on a 24 MP photo. The good news is that it's still there, but I think it has enormous applications beyond simply reducing noise and as such should have its own stage and not be buried in a DeNoise dropdown.
I have a third issue of way preferring their non-AI Adjust product to its AI successor, but that is getting OT from the DeNoise subject at hand.
I'm not associated with Topaz in any way other than a customer, but if I am correct, all their products have a fully-functioning 30 day trial without watermarks, so you can give it a full test drive to do your own assessment.
The fact that there is no gradient control of any of the parameters that allow you to gradate down to zero is what I find annoying about the Topaz AI products. Your choices are either this much, or this much more. Really annoying.
This company has always targeted primarily non-professionals, and is one of those companies that promise to magically process your images to look great, similar to what DxO promises. So for these companies, less (for you) is more.
Some of the comments here are a bit odd to say the least....I like noise.....! When photographers spend thousands on cameras and lenses the last thing they should want is noisy images. Shooting birds for example at 1600 ISO to allow a reasonable shutter speed the final image is going to have noise. Put the image through Topaz and it won’t. For most images Lightroom doesn't come close. In the end it’s about how much you care about your images. Any wildlife photographer who says they prefer noisy images should perhaps think about taking up stamp collecting. Topaz works for both noise reduction and sharpening though in my opinion their masking app sucks big time, at the moment..
Depends on what you're doing. Sometimes you need to get rid of it. Most event photographers make use of some form of NR in stuff like wedding pictures, etc. People don't want the artistic license of noise, they want crisp clear pictures.
Noise isn’t a problem if you shoot at 50 ISO. Crank the ISO up and it can become a big problem. If you need some fast shutter speed like 1/3000 to freeze some action shooting small birds.....noise is a real issue if it’s left as it will render the image unusable. Put the image through Topaz and the noise is no longer a problem. To say noise is no longer a potential problem is totally not the case.