What Level of Noise Reduction Do You Use?

I suspect the answer to my question ‘What Level of Noise Reduction Do You Use?’ will be ‘Whatever looks right’. I was just interested in what other users do. Do you always use the maximum amount of NR or link a level of NR to the ISO? Can using Deep Prime XD damage a picture that doesn’t’t need much NR?

Quick answer: so far, I have been keeping DeepPrime XD always ON at the default settings, at every ISO setting (from 100 to 6400) and for every kind of image. I have processed some 2000 photos so far (landscape, portraits, nature photos) and the default setting has always been fine: good noise reduction, no artifacts. It seems that the algorithm is smart enough to decide by itself how much noise reduction to apply.

The reason for keeping it always ON even when not actually needed (100 ISO) comes from the fact that on my RTX 3070 GPU, it’s way faster than plain old DeepPrime.

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I select DeepPrime XD by default. In the few cases that XD results in artifacts, I fall back to DeepPrime. But the number of cases I had to fall back to DeepPrime are very limited.

Perhaps I misunderstand you, but DeepPrime XD is faster than DeepPrime on your machine? It would be the first time I heard that :slight_smile:

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My mistake. It’s way faster than plain Prime. And only slightly slower than DeepPrime.

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Assuming you have a decent GPU on your system, it’s now the case that DeepPRIME is faster than PRIME (the latter does not leverage the GPU).

DeepPRIME XD takes longer to process than DeepPRIME - and is only really useful in cases where an image has been heavily cropped (as a generalisation) … Therefore, DeepPRIME is a good default option.

John M

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I have an M1 Mac mini with 16gb RAM and it is pretty quick. Time isn’t an issue for me, it’s more a question of quality. I just wondered if using Deep Prime/Deep Prime XD somehow did a little damage to IQ in a picture that was only perhaps 200-300 ISO.

No damage that I have been able to notice. Some slight artefacts may appear on images at very high ISOs (“reconstructed” detail where there was none), but never at low ISO.

I’ve posted at more length on this topic with examples (I shoot low light sports photos much of the time). Target: realistic looking image with detail and a hint of grain left. To avoid: plasticky noise reduction style images (Neat, Topaz).

HQ = 14
Prime = 8-20
DeepPrime = 0 to 10 (mostly around 4)

Don’t use XD for now and don’t plan to use it as it’s adding back imaginary texture and often generates a synthetic look of its own.

The defaults are ridiculously strong.

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I start with DeepPRIME XD set to 15 Luminance, other settings at default. For ISO < 1600, I find this is usually enough. But sometimes I get artifacts no matter the ISO: for example, blue skies end up with a faint diagonal pattern or a coarse grain that I don’t want; or, the details on a brick surface get smoothed out too much; or a tree branch shows some mazing artifacts. In such cases, I will try setting DeepPRIME XD to something very low, around 3-5. Trying DeepPRIME doesn’t usually make a difference in these particular cases, and I would rather avoid going back to ordinary PRIME if possible.

For higher ISO or noisier images regardless of ISO, I might set DeepPRIME XD initially to 25-35. I find the default value of 40 tends to be too much for just about anything I’ve tried, giving certain features a plastic look.

Most of my photos are developed from Olympus RAW .ORF files.

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What are these numbers you are referring to?

How does one best compare the before and after? From the PL6 userguides under General image corrections | Noise reduction | DxO PRIME denoising (Elite edition, RAW files)

To check and definitively apply the PRIME noise reduction, proceed to image export.

If you want to compare the original image with its processed version, select the original Image Folder in the Destination options section of Export to disk. Once exported, right-click on the original image and select View Image Folder, and there you will see the two images, co-located in the Image Browser.

I don’t see “View Image Folder” in the context menu. What am I missing?

DeepPRIME by default on everything at the beginning, then Topaz Sharpen AI at the very end. XD is good and I have found it removes the need for the Topaz Sharpen stage entirely on cropped images (in most cases). I would probably use XD on everything in the beginning if it was available in PureRaw 2 - I have a peculiar workflow

When you export to a different folder than the ‘original’ one
and want to compare the source and the output file, you choose e.g.

Screen Shot 11-28-22 at 10.11 PM
the annex to the filename “Standard Ausgabe” in this case


refers to the title of the chosen the export setting


Was this your question?

DeepPRIME at 25 for pretty much everything. I push it higher in cases where it’s needed, but that is not terribly common.

I’ve only used DeepPRIME XD in a few cases so far, as I find issues more often than not when I use it, in the form of artefacts that are more obvious than the noise it is trying to fix.

I normally use HD. If I want to push the envelope, I use DP or DPXD. XD can produce more detailed results or results that show effects I don’t want and some of these have been described in other posts. This means that I’ll do both and compare results in Lightroom.

Here’s an example in which XD has worked well and brought out finer detail in comparison to DP and the original, noisy shot.

DP vs. original noise:

DP vs. XD:

Processing used:

  1. PhotoLab 6 for NR, optical and perspective corrections, export as DNG
  2. Lightroom Classic for Super Resolution and send to SFX as TIFF
  3. Silver Efex 2 for B&W (“More Silver” preset) and save the resulting TIFF
  4. Lightroom to compare results and make screenshots

DeepPRIME XD brings back the stone’s structure that I had to “fake” with lower NR settings in DP.
Location: Cathedral in Cologne, Germany

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Thanks @Wolfgang. With your method I can get the side-by-side comparison in the viewer. However, it is not at all what is described in the online help.

Once exported, right-click on the original image and select View Image Folder, and there you will see the two images, co-located in the Image Browser.

Could this be a documentation defect?

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I have a Fuji so I can only use DeepPrime; Prime & XD not available to me for some reason. I tend to leave on HQ unless my ISO is high and needs it - my view is; why muck about with a 100 ISO image?

DeepPRIME and DeepPRIME XD is selective in it application of noise reduction to any image and is recommended by DxO for use with all images. It is especially useful, even on low ISO images to remove noise when retrieving fine detail from deep shadow areas. I, and many others here, use DeepPRIME on all our images.

Mark

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I agree that when I’m lifting the shadows it will be useful even on a low ISO picture. I am surprised that you say that DxO recommend that it’s on for all images; I’ve never heard that before. Maybe you mean that it can help all images, rather than it should be used with all images?

I shoot a lot of full range photos, but I also tend to use DeepPRIME on every image. It’snot necessarily the ISO that provokes noise, you never know when there is a darker area that might do the same, even at low ISO.

It does no harm and might even do some good.

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