Everything You Need to Know About Denoise in Lightroom Classic

In this video, Julieanne walks through the new Denoise feature in Lightroom Classic and explains how it works, when in your workflow to apply it, tips for removing noise when using Photo Merge/Super Resolution and more!
Additional tips, tricks, and tutorials from Julieanne Kost can be found on her blog: jkost.com/blog
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Twitter: / julieannekost
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[@MrSimonj1970]

Always the best source of info, no waffle, just the facts ma'am! Thanks Julianne.

[@apeel2008]

Been watching a number of content creator’s videos on the new denoise feature. They have a LOT to learn as you cover many topics that they did not. That said, I bet they all subscribe to your channel. You are the G.O.A.T.

[@sjsphotog]

AMEN

[@JohnMacLeanPhotography]

Julieanne is the definitive source direct from Adobe!

[@jackwebb2425]

Julieanne, you are my very favorite Adobe tutorial go to person and channel. Your presentations, knowledge and teaching is the absolute best! Thank you Ma'am!

[@6rimR3ap3r]

This is probably the most easy to follow video on this topic while also covering a vast amount of information in it. Thank you!

[@GeoffGrant2010]

Thanks Julieanne, including the tip on adding back in some grain. I’m greedy and at some point I’d like to add denoise to an area and not the whole image. Thanks again!

[@sjsphotog]

great new feature. thanks for the informative video as always JK. You mention things in your video that others covering this new topic had not talked about so I appreciate your insights. Keep up the great work

[@michaelspivak6697]

Thank you so much for your description of the new Denoise Feature. As usual your descriptions are always the most useful and enlightening.

[@NinjaCutsAus]

super clear and concise, just wondering what the difference between checking/ unchecking stack, and what it means

[@6ixshawn6ix]

It says denoise is not compatible with this photo format; what format does it your image need to be in?

[@weisserth]

I tried this out recently, on a photograph taken at maximum ISO with a ten year old Micro Four Thirds camera - I was blown away.

[@Teeb2023]

Thanks for these very handy tips. I've only tried it on a few images so far, but it is impressive.

[@Rori72]

Probably the best tuto i ever seen, god damn

[@Selah7791]

Thank you for teaching us to edit better images

[@danlavorgna7645]

GREAT video that succinctly covered only what was important. However I would like to see something that addresses whether subject masking should be done pre or post enhance feature applied.

[@siantrenberth7460]

Julieanne is the best

[@whateverphoto]

Thanks, you answered all the questions I had.

[@ivanosrin2126]

Clear and concise

[@jcamilophoto]

Cool info! pratical and detailed!! thank you!

[@cadmus777]

This new feature, along with some recent changes to photoshop, are making me finally upgrade my graphics card, as just one single image (ISO 32000, 42MP) is taking 24 minutes to denoise!! I love the results though, so it's worth it.

[@joshs7642]

Whoa! What GPU are you using? With my 3080 (and AMD 5800x cpu) it takes about 5 seconds.

[@quirkworks4076]

Stunningly good tutorial!!!

[@youphototube]

You think you know it all then you listen to Julieanne.

[@ssrrfff]

Amazing feature

[@csc-photo]

This new Denoise feature has exceeded my expectations. Now I'm wondering, in the ongoing pursuit of simplifying my workflow - do I still need DxO PureRaw or Topaz DeNoise?

[@CostaMesaPhotography]

Julieanne-- you've answered questions from me before so I'm hoping you will/can this time... After applying Denoise to an image, I'm reluctant to delete the original file. 1) should I keep it? 2) do you anticipate Adobe improving Denoise such that it "sticks" to the original file negating the need to create a new file?

[@finnurhrafn]

Keep it, AI noise reduction is just starting, it will improve in the next few years. But it will need the original RAW file to work

[@theprintguide3610]

Excellent explanation! I hope this function come to Photoshop.

[@jpdj2715]

Julieanne Kost does a great job explaining how this AI Denoise works but does not say "where" it happens. My wild-assed guess is that it happens in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). Lightroom Classic (LrC), like Photoshop (Ps), cannot "raw process" and both run the ACR plug-in at that. Most people are not aware of this in LrC because it is masked in the User Interface (UI). But in its website, Adobe clearly indicates using the ACR plug-in in LrC. That is relevant to your question, because both the luminance and colour noise you see in example images, in my opinion, can be considered as artefacts following from raw processing. It is conceivable that the colour and luminance noise is generated in a similar way that Moiré is generated by raw processing. That is hard to prove and I would counter such a reply to my point by saying, well then it is insufficient deBayerisation (the first main part of raw processing) and demosaicking (the second part in raw processing). The Denoise algorithm we see at work in the video does a pretty good job. But detail retention, or prevention of detail loss, probably can be improved upon - and sharpening is another ACR weakness - very bad. Together with detail retention/sharpness another thing that can be a lot better is the upsampling to much higher MP images. So, if Denoise happens in ACR then you have it in Ps as well. Note here that I am subscribed to the Adobe photography bundle for over 10 years. And my rant about this recurs for years already. I was not able to verify this as 15.3 has not yet been distributed to my neck of the woods. I'm still at 15.2. In Ps, the detail panel is in ACR - visually different UI from LrC but that's where I expect it. Then I started LrC to see if it had been upgraded already (note to self: makes no sense because it uses the same ACR) and Adobe asked me if I would recommend their software to friends, relations and put a likelihood number on that from the scale 0..10. My answer 0. My answer to the question what they need to do for me to recommend it: "For you to remove the need for me to also buy Topaz DeNoise AI, Sharpen AI, and Gigapixel AI. Or DxO PhotoLab/PureRAW. Adobe Camera Raw's "raw processing" is very bad and I feel cheated on when you release all sorts of parallel products or bells & whistles but don't fix the basics."

[@theprintguide3610]

@@jpdj2715 My Photoshop and my Adobe Camera Raw plug ins are as far as I can determine up to date and do not have this NR option. So, however it's done, I hope this function comes to PShop/ACR.

[@jpdj2715]

@@theprintguide3610 - ACC just updated ACR and I started Ps, then opened a raw file. Ps kicked off ACR and loaded the image. And the Denoise function is there, in the detail menu. 15.2 would open with the detail menu closed, but in 15.3 ACR opens with the Denoise function in the Detail menu exposed.

[@grantnewton5705]

I have upgraded LrC and tried it out but notice there is a bug - it creates a purple band down the right hand side of the image… image was shot on a Fuji XT2, so xTrans sensor.

[@jpdj2715]

@@grantnewton5705 - is that camera property still in the metadata of this image? Is it still "raw"? It was said in several places that this ACR Denoise had Xtrans compatibility, not just Bayer. I cannot verify that claim and do not know if all of the XT cameras are actually supported, but at the moment the statement is "Bayer, Xtrans, raw" and no other formats

[@jenda3322]

Skvělý tutoriál děkuji👍

[@rodneyrev]

Great tutorial. The app worked quicker than the competition in Photoshop but when I went to use it today it disappeared of Photoshop and Lightroom. What happened?

[@scdawes]

Excellent video , unfortunately to denoise programme is painfully slow ( average 45mins per image ) on my PC which precludes me using it whilst Topaz Denoise AI takes 2mins max , shame really as it looks good .

[@nadroj8992]

I max out at about 45 seconds

[@lynnduerksen8445]

When I remove chromatic aberrations in Lens Corrections they seem to return after denoise. Is this a common issue? Using a Nikon D810 with Sigma 50-500mm lens.

[@violettaschmieder2096]

do you have any idea why lightroom makes virtual copies of every denoised photo? when i want to export after denoise, i have a ton of 'duplicates' where one is denoised and one isnt, its soooo messy. how would i turn that off or filter only the denoised ones for export?

[@acciaremy]

Thanks a lot!! 😊

[@EhtishamMirza]

thank you.

[@sadeqsegaraga8766]

What if the photos are JPEGs? Can this denoise function like this?

[@sykoNR]

Why I don't have Denise option on my LR ?

[@bkpeary]

The denoise has stopped working in my LRCC. Any suggestions on how to get it going again. I have done the restart..

[@carldaniel3155]

Hi Is Denoise available from ACR or Photoshop? (I don't use LR - I select my files from Bridge to ACR to Photoshop). Thanks

[@FSEGresearch999]

Thanks for the video and the advice. But I'm having real problems using the new LR AI DENOISE. I would very much like to know what is going on with the new DENOISE feature in LR and if there is something I can do to optimise the performance. My computer has the I7 12 Gen CPU and NVIDA RTX 3060 Ti GPU. When I try to do heavy editing on the AI DENOISED file in LR the system is painfully slow, to the point of not being useable. I can't beileve that my computer does not have enough muscle to process the images, so I must be doing something wrong or my system is not set up right or my workflow is not right. I should also say that I tried optimising my LR catelogue just in case this is what is slowing down the system, but this does not help. My original image is a SONY RAW out of camera file, which starts of as a 37 MB ARW file (I'm now using L lossless compression hence the smaller size) and after the LR AI DENOISE process a new 102 MB DNG file is created - so I now have two files after the LR processing, my original SONY RAW 37 MB ARW file and the LR AI DENOISED 102 MB DNG file. Actually, I have three files, as I then produce the JPG file which comes in at 3.6 MB. So, the extra large DNG that AI DENOISE is a bit of a problem, but not my main issue. The problem is the painfully slow processing of the DENOISED image. Perhaps its my workflow that is contributing to the very slow performance? My workflow is: 1) Import SONY ARW file into LR 2) Crop ARW image to desired size 3) AI DENOISE image, creating the very large DNG file. This process is a little slow but tolerable 4) Edit AI DENOISED image which includes heavy editing such as adding a number of masks to touch up various parts of the image. This is the painfully slow part of the process. Working with the AI DENOISED image is painfully slow to the point of not being useable. 5) Export final image as jpg. Exporting from the edited DNG file is also slow (in comparison to exporting from the edited ARW), but tolerable. What am I doing wrong? Why does editing the AI DENOISED file take so long? Any advice welcome.

[@MrRojo1959]

Can I ak if you got any advice? I am running Lightroom on an older PC and a fairly new laptop, and AI Denoise runs very slowly (15 minutes plus per image), so I was going to buy a better specified computer. However, it looks like you have the kind of hardware I would look to get, but you seem to have the same issues,.

[@FSEGresearch999]

@@MrRojo1959 unfortunately, I didn't get any advice. What I've done is changed my workflow. I do all my post editing first and then apply teh AI Denoise last. Actually running the AI Denoise does not take too much time on m system, its just editing the denoised image.

[@MrRojo1959]

@@FSEGresearch999 thanks. Sorry for the late reply - the notification went to my Gmail account which i hardly ever read!

[@williamfitch1408]

Shoot five files in AEB. Apply denoise to all five and you get ten files. Apply HDR and you have fifteen files. Does anyone know how to work around this?

[@RaymondParkerPhoto]

Thanks

[@janein6491]

00:17-00:22 : "Currently De-Noise can be applied to both bare and x-trans raw files". What does "bare raw file" mean ? What does "x-trans raw file mean" ?

[@joshs7642]

Bayer, not bare. It's a type of sensor.

[@joxford1951]

Good video but why is the audio volume so low? I usually have my Creative speakers at 30 - 40 in Windows 11 - on this vid even at 100 it was low.

[@MrRojo1959]

I was going to buy a better specified PC as AI Denise runs very slowly on my fairly new laptop. I see processing time in the video of seconds, but mine is minutes (15-45) per image. What is the crucial factor to run AI Denpise quickly? Is it processer speed, GPU memeory, etc? Thanks in advance.

[@cameraman655]

Why was this not added to iOS mobile...?

[@TheBigBlueMarble]

AlI AI noise removal works by finding consistent patterns across the entire image. Anything that is consistent everywhere in the image is likely to be identified as noise. Therefore, it works best and preserves the most detail if you have as large an image as possible (don’t crop before removing noise), with a variety of objects and textures in the image, and some light and dark areas. If you took a photo of a blank wall, and the wall filled the entire image, any small pattern in the wall would likely be considered noise by the AI. This is why TEXTURE and GRAIN should NEVER, NEVER, NEVER be applied before Denoise.

[@Bullwinkle056]

Why does LR tell me that ot doesn't support my .DNG files that were shot with a Nikon camera? I later found that files in the .NEF format did work with the new denoise feature. When I called product support at Adobe I was told that denoise is a third party app and I should call them.

[@hchandless]

Nikon files are .nef, so a .dng would already be a processed file. You have to use the original .nef.

[@donbrockmeier5523]

After Denoising an image, I later find that someone want an increased resoution. I go back to use SR but it won't let me. It seems I can only do DN or SR not both to the image. Is that correct?

[@apeel2008]

I think she addressed this in the video. If I recall correctly, she said do a Denoise first, then export to a TIFF then do a Super Res on the TIFF.

[@kaieteurcanada]

hmmm... running denoise sometimes takes 3+ minutes per 24mgb image... and creates a duplicate raw file three times the original file size... madness no??

[@MrSamoDude]

Does the new Denoise feature only work for certain X-Trans sensors? Every photo I've tried from my Fuji X100F results in a transparent purple edge on both the top and right hand edges of the photo, approximately 50 pixels wide. Other than that the photo looks good, but not usable due to the crop needed to remove this issue. I see the same issue in Camera Raw 15.3. Thanks

[@grantnewton5705]

Yep I get the purple band on my Fuji XT2 image I tried

[@grantnewton5705]

I compared LrC enhance (Denoise and raw enhance) vs DXO PureRaw 3 for a low ISO image and the PureRaw is far superior, but due to DXO handling the demosaicing much better …. Just has much better detail on xTrans images than LrC manages. Will be interesting to see how high ISO images compare …..

[@AndyHayter]

What is an X-Trans or Bayer file? How do I know if a file is one of those?

[@jkost]

Most current cameras use Bayer petter arrays, most Fuji camera's use X-Trans.

[@zeebuzz2734]

Take a drink everytime she says Denoise.

[@MisterDavidH]

Really, Really slow! 1 photo to denoise took 15 minutes. UGH!

[@photoflick]

Same here. Nikon D850 file. Large file or incompatible file?

[@hchandless]

@@photoflickThis is likely your GPU (or lack of a decent one). My computer has a RTX 2070 in it and it does my 45 MP Z9 files in 15 secs. Yup seconds.

[@photoflick]

@@hchandless Thanks for feedback. I use Intel I7-8700K @3.70GHZ, Navida Quadro and 64GB RAM. But It's still a slow process.

[@joshs7642]

​@@hchandlesssame. 5 seconds with my 3080.

[@timstv75]

shit sucks takes forever

[@tectoramia-sz1lu]

To have Denoise work properly, you need an internet connection.

[@MrDan1509]

Or just create a virtual copy, no need to export, the copy will be a DNG!

[@MrDan1509]

It's so freaking slow tho!

[@joshs7642]

It only takes 5 seconds for me. I have a very good, but by no means top end computer.

[@MrDan1509]

@@joshs7642 Iv got a newer HP Laptop! Lightrooms Ai stuff is stupid fast on it.

[@joshs7642]

@@MrDan1509 weird. I wonder why denoise is so slow. What GPU do you have?

[@MrDan1509]

​@@joshs7642 Here's my system info: Processor AMD A6-6310 APU with AMD Radeon R4 Graphics, 1800 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)

[@joshs7642]

@@MrDan1509 probably the main issue is your integrated graphics card. I believe the denoise function makes significant use of the GPU. A good dedicated GPU would be much faster

[@buyaport]

De-noising with AI, masking with AI, but when your external drive has gotten another letter than before Lightroom is totally at loss. "Intelligent" search for your picture files? Nope!