[Leica] LR Denoise

[Jeff Moore]

On Tue, Apr 18, 2023 at 11:46 AM John McMaster <john at mcmaster.co.uk> wrote:

> In latest release, not tried it yet but looks good….
>
> https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2023/04/18/denoise-demystified


That's impressive!  I tried it on a picture taken with the SL2 at EI 6400
(where I think noise and in particular a tendency towards desaturation are
just about saying you shouldn't take this camera deeper into high ISOs),
and IMO this crazy-magic new tech has some definite potential.

Here are various versions of my first sample (a picture of WFMU
<https://wfmu.org/> radio personality Clay Pigeon
<https://wfmu.org/playlists/WA> showing off his customized wristwatch):

https://photos.bazbarfoo.com/Photonerd/Adobe-Super-Duper-Denoise-Try/

The first two are my chosen whole crop, without then with the new NR
applied at its default level.

The second two are the same photos but at a tighter crop, encompassing the
place the lens was focused (the watch on his wrist):

https://photos.bazbarfoo.com/Photonerd/Adobe-Super-Duper-Denoise-Try/i-JjZTc2R/A

https://photos.bazbarfoo.com/Photonerd/Adobe-Super-Duper-Denoise-Try/i-r5ZGCgR/A

You can see the several upsides and some potential downsides to this new
processing.

Pluses:

 - the noise is basically gone, without the usual most obvious artifacts of
heavy noise reduction

 - the high-ISO / weird-light desaturation of colors on the watch face
(especially the red) is fixed, seemingly impossibly well

Possible minuses:

 - his nylon jacket may be a touch oversmooth; it feels a bit more "there"
to me in the original version

 - the leather of that Bund strap may have gotten a little too aggressively
saturated in the processed version, and there are a couple of red
highlights which might be true recovered reflections of a red light source
or may be artifacts

I expect the minuses could be controlled to a reasonable extent by
moderating the level of the noise reduction (which slider may just be
changing the ratio of original noisy picture and new processed picture).

Super cool.  Getting the hang of this will definitely continue.