One of the most useful features added to Lightroom (and other programs like Topaz) is the new Noise Reduction Module. As you may know, noise in a photo looks like small colorful dots scattered across the image. When the camera’s sensor doesn’t receive enough light it introduces noise to fill in the areas it isn’t able to resolve. An indicator on the camera of how much noise will be introduced is its ISO. The camera automatically sets the ISO depending on the shutter speed, aperture, and the amount of light reaching the sensor (unless the photographer overrides the automatic function). The lowest ISO for cameras is 100 (which indicates the camera is getting all the light it needs) and for my camera it can get up to 12,800. In older versions of Lightroom when my images had an ISO of 100-600 I could use a noise reduction slider to effectively eliminate noise. About a year ago Lightroom introduced a new process which uses AI to reduce noise and I use it for most of my images now.
In the old version of noise reduction I was unable to completely eliminate noise on any image with an ISO over 600. The latest version now does a pretty good job of reducing noise even up to ISO of 12,800! This gives me much more latitude when taking shots because I can now use a higher shutter speed than usual or I can take a photo in very limited light.
Let’s take a look at an example of a low-light exposure with high noise. While in Ecuador we spotted a Swainson’s Thrush. It was 6:15 AM and the only light came from a bulb illuminating a moth screen. As you can see in this unprocessed image it was pretty dark so a lot of noise was generated.
In the image below I cropped the otherwise unprocessed shot. Here you can see the noise more clearly. Not a very satisfying image.
Here in the final version the exposure was bumped up a bit but more importantly the AI noise reduction feature has been applied. Perhaps not a GreatBirdPic but this image is quite an improvement from the first and second ones.
This more powerful noise reduction function in Lightroom has freed me from the fear of too much noise. Before, I would lower the shutter speed to very slow settings in order to keep the ISO/noise down. Now, I feel free to use faster shutter speeds or take shots in very low light situations and I am confident that the final image can be created with minimal noise.
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