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I know - I look very goofy in the photo - but that's not important in this example. An unexpected, incredible powerful change has been made to the Adobe RAW plugin for Photoshop.
Noise AI
The latest Adobe RAW converter / plug-in for Photoshop, got a new feature - which can take care of noise in RAW / DNG images. And to my surprise, it works just extraordinarily well. I tested it on an ISO 51.000 image i took this winter in a goofy self-portrait at work, with the Sony A7s camera... and then used the RAW Noise AI... and boy, it really took very well care of the high ISO in such a nice way... it was remarkable.
High ISO noise is often more tricky for Noise software
I am not saying it works 100% - but boy, it certainly takes care of high ISO noise (including the colour noise) in ways, I consider even better than the very good Topaz Noise AI / Topaz Photo AI software.
It is really that remarkable. Another thing I liked about it is, that when you use the Noise AI in the RAW plug-in, the DNA files becomes more malleable, e.g. when you want to make the image brighter - without falling apart. (Well, the Sony A7s high ISO files are a bit special, by providing a lot of head room even at higher ISO, compared to other sensors)
Another thing that is remarkable is the preservation of the COLORS, while reducing colour noise. Normally, the fine micro colours get lost, when you are trying to make the high ISO noise become a little less. But the Adobe RAW Noise AI - instead preserves it, giving a high ISO colour photo unexpected nuanced fine colours, even in smaller details.
High ISO colours preserved and enhanced
Let's me try to show this down below. When you look into the right eye, you see in the left photo, that there is no real colours left. On the right side however, you see that there are fine nuances of blue and green preserved.
For being an ISO 51.000 image, you do have to admit, this is damn good ! Normally, we don't get much quality from such extreme high ISO images. So, not only does the RAW plug in give the opportunity to make noise far less, it also does so with the color noise, while at the same time preserving the colors. That at ISO 51000 is simply this: Absolutely remarkable !
Big Thumbs up from me.
Good for Leica M9 High ISO files
That's also beautiful. Since the Leica M9 only goes up to ISO 2500 at the most, which is pretty noisy especially with today's standards - the Adobe RAW Noise AI definitely takes care of the noise, and pulls out some fine details colors. That is of course excellent for a camera, whose is so limited in sensitivity.
The image below in the dark Villa Bellini, I used the Leica M9 at ISO 2500. Filled with color blotches... they completely vanished with the Adobe RAW Noise AI... fascinating. And it vanishes without any strange patterns and artifacts.
Now that is what makes it rather magic, and highly useful for enhancing high ISO images, such as from the Leica M9 (or any other camera, of course).
And the BEAUTY is, that this even works well in the fine details, not just because the below images are small (which usually makes grain look less invasive). No, the AI filter works wonders, into the fine details, and any color noise what so ever - even the really blotchy coarse one - gets entirely removed.
Yet, the colors are preserved, even into finer details.
Comes to more type of files in the future
Utilizing AI technology is Adobe's new Denoise AI tool inside Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, and ACR (Adobe Camera Raw). The new noise reduction technology promises improved results thanks to the power of AI. It's currently available just for raw images but will be available for additional file types later.
I call that (useful) magic.
It is absolutely lovely, and helpful to trim even old RAW images, to a much higher standard, believe me.
Sal in Catania, 2016 • Leica M9 at ISO 1250 with Adobe RAW Noise AI
Sal in Catania, 2016 • Leica M9 at max ISO 2500 with Adobe RAW Noise AI
Sal in Catania, 2016 • Leica M9 at max ISO 2500 - no filters applied
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