Topaz Denoise AI vs Lightroom Denoise

I took these photos using my Nikon Zfc with an AF-S Nikkor 28-300mm 3.5-5.6G lens with the F to Z mount adapter. When I took these photos of my granddaughter’s soccer game, the skies were partly sunny, so the ISO was pretty low. This photo was taken at ISO 250, and you would expect there not to be very much sensor noise at this ISO, but I was curious and decided to try the new Lightroom Denoise with AI.

I changed the Profile to Camera Flat to see the effect of the Enhance feature in Lightroom Denoise. I’m using the April 2023 Lightroom 12.3 release, which introduced the new Denoise feature. I used the default settings (Amount 50, Raw Detail checked). The processing was pretty quick. I can’t say that I saw sensor noise in the original photo, but there was some distortion that I can see. Lightroom Denoise appeared to smooth and sharpen the image overall, increasing its vibrancy and saturation. Overall, it looks much better, and I was pleasantly surprised.

Usually, I would have done the first batch process Auto White Balance and Develop for photos like these rather than process each image individually. It’s quicker this way; these were not photographs from a wedding, which demand more care and time. With the new Lightroom Denoise, maybe I’ll use it instead.

I believe Topaz Denoise AI could give me good results as well. I’ve used it many times before. But, conveniently, this capability is built right into Lightroom now. Lightroom Denoise creates an additional file in DNG format, whereas, for Topaz Denoise AI, you must make a TIFF file before using it. So, you do end up with an extra file using either case.

Here are photos zoomed at 300% showing what Lightroom Denoise did. Not only did the Lightroom denoised photos look smoother and a little sharper, but the color saturation increased as well. That’s not bad for a single-button press feature!

I would say that in terms of modifications to my workflow, it pays for me to use Lightroom Denoise since it also uses AI technology and avoids the round-trip to another software application, Topaz Denoise AI. I must do more research to determine when Lightroom Denoise will fall short, and I need to use Topaz Sharpen AI. Generally, the more I can stay within an application and avoid a round-trip, the better from a workflow standpoint.

I found a beneficial article by Ken Lee at Photofocus titled ” The Battle of AI Denoising: Topaz Labs vs. Lightroom Classic ” that you should read if you’d like more information on this topic.