tomc601 Loc: Gilbert, AZ

A few years ago I had the occasion to shoot a dance recital dress rehearsal for a friend of mine. I was told it would be lit as it would be in the performance so I couldn't control the lighting at all. And since dancers dance, I had to shoot at a shutter speed of at least 1/500th or faster to stop action as best I could. I didn't hold out much hope for quality images but, using Topaz Denoise and doing batch processing, I was able to get passable images for my friend. They were only going to be used as mementos for the dancers so printing was not at issue. Everyone was happy.

Fast forward to Adobe's Denoise in LR and I decided to try one of the images using the new software. I'm kind of blown away with what it did for this image. The included image was shot at 12,800 ISO at 1/1000th at f4. The before is with no processing and the after is with processing in LR, PS, Topaz Studio 2, Luminar Neo and Topaz Adjust AI. This is my usual workflow for my images with variations depending on the image. Let me know what you think. Images should be downloaded to appreciate the difference.

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PAR4DCR Loc: A Sunny Place

Great results Tom.

Don

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

joehel2 Loc: Cherry Hill, NJ

Amazing results. The LR Denoise has me resurrecting some of my high ISO photos also.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

We can't go back and reconsider 1/1000 sec in this low light situation. However, today, you might reconsider your workflow. When you finish processing your image through a series of software tools / edits, the end-result should be re-imported into LR and placed into a 'stack' of all your working-versions of the image, a stack including the original image import. This keeps all the image formats / versions together, while presenting just the top of the stack as the active version. Then, you can use your LR export processing to 1, resize the image for digital sharing and 2, assure the JPEG 'share' versions uses the sRGB colorspace, an error found in both example images.

UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT

Great results!

gwilliams6

I wont question your good results, just curious you said these are from a few years ago, right. What version of Topaz did you use years ago?

There have been numerous updates of Topaz Denoise AI over the past few years. Will you try one of the original images with the latest Topaz Denoise AI and compare that to the ones done with Adobe.

I have both Adobe Denoise and Topaz Denoise AI, and I am sure your comparison between the latest of both will be helpful to many . Thanks

Cheers and best to you.

tomc601 Loc: Gilbert, AZ

I don't like to stack my images when I bring them back into LR. I'd rather have them fanned out so I can see them at once without having to open the stack. I usually do export the images from LR for sharing but since they were both open in PS I just did it there.
Not sure why you would question the shutter speed. Anything slower in that situation would have resulted in motion blur since they were moving throughout the dance.

tomc601 Loc: Gilbert, AZ

I used Denoise AI version 2.2.12, the older version of Topaz Denoise. I don't own the latest version (don't like their new pricing scheme) so I can't provide a comparison. Thanks for commenting.

yssirk123 Loc: New Jersey

Very impressive Tom!

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

Jimmy T Loc: Virginia

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

The difference is certainly noticeable. I'm struck by the change in colour of their dresses.

Earnest Botello Loc: Hockley, Texas

WOW, great results, Tom, the difference is like night and day.

Bubalola Loc: Big Apple, NY

Excellent processing, Tom!