Adobe Lightroom 3 – Noise Reduction (NR) Comparison

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Here is a comparison of the NR results (100% crop 800×600) from the five different NR software. The NR settings used are as follows:

• Lightroom 2 – 70% luminance, 80% colour
• Lightroom 3 – 70% luminance, 80% colour
• Noise Ninja – Default settings, automatic profiling
• Noiseware Professional – Default settings, automatic profiling
• Define 2 – Default settings, automatic profiling
• DxO 6 – Default settings, automatic profiling

My preferences

1. LR2 – Maintain a lot of details similar to the original, some noise still presence
2. Noiseware Professional – Similar results to LR2, but reduced contrast
3. DxO 6 – Still some noise especially chromatic noise, a bit smudged
4. LR3 – Very clean , but image became a bit soft. Perhaps a lower NR setting will help
5. Define 2 – Similar results to LR3, but losing contrast and details
6. NoiseNinja – Feels a bit smudged, image became a bit soft, losing contrast and details

Second test image – An image of Xiamen skyline taken with a Nikon D700 @ ISO5000, f/2.8. It also has a lot of dark/shadow areas where noise is a lot less tolerant.

Here is a comparison of the NR results (100% crop 800×600) from the five different NR software. The NR settings used are as follows:

• Lightroom 2 – 70% luminance, 80% colour
• Lightroom 3 – 70% luminance, 80% colour
• Noise Ninja – Default settings, automatic profiling
• Noiseware Professional – Default settings, automatic profiling
• Define 2 – Default settings, automatic profiling
• DxO 6 – Default settings, automatic profiling

Click image for full resolution

My preferences

1. NoiseNinja – Some noise remains, but maintained most details and contrast
2. DxO 6 – Some noise remains, a slightly soft
3. Define 2 – Some smudged and image became soft
4. LR3 – Very soft, but not as patchy as others
5. LR2 – Smudged and patchy, image became soft
6. Noiseware Professional – Smudged and appears to have halo effect

Remarks
LR3’s NR algorithm is capable of removing image noise very well without adding artifacts to the image. However, in the test results above,  the images became a bit soft. Perhaps the NR settings at 70% luminance and 80% colour were too strong. NR is a compromise really, you are prone to lose some of  image details (i.e. image becomes soft) when you remove too much noise.

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• Adobe Lightroom 3
• Niksoftware Define 2
• DxO Optics Pro