Tackling High-ISO with Topaz DeNoise AI

Cash Register at Architechtural Salvage in Little Italy San Diego, cropped

Noise.

The scourge of most photographers. Whether you shoot with a smartphone or high-end camera, at some point you’ll be in low-light and have to crank the ISO. This results in annoying specks of unattractive grain throughout the photo. Luckily we have Topaz DeNoise AI to help reduce this photographic annoyance.

Topaz DeNoise AI

My favorite noise reduction tool is Topaz DeNoise AI. It has been my go-to tool for several years to rescue high-ISO images from anything from an iPhone snap to images captured with my big-girl camera.

Where DeNoise AI Excels

DeNoise AI does an amazing job at reducing noise while maintaining incredible detail. It comes in handy particularly when:

  • I’m forced to crank up the ISO in low light
  • Minimizing artifacts when brightening shadows in post processing
  • Correcting noise created by HDR processing or other heavy-handed processing techniques

Take this example of an old cash register. It was captured at Architectural Salvage – an incredible store, full of treasures, in San Diego’s Little Italy.

Cash Register at Architechtural Salvage in Little Italy San Diego
1/60th sec at f/4, ISO 2500

Let’s zoom in and take a look at the detail.

Zoom view before and after Topaz DeNoise AI
Left – before; Right – after

The image on the left is before jumping into DeNoise AI (no sharpening or noise reduction applied). You can see that the grain is quite visible and distracting.

On the right we have the results using the Low Light mode in DeNoise AI. The grain is nearly invisible and thanks to built-in sharpening, the overall result is sharper and more well defined.

Who needs noise reduction?

All photographers I know can benefit from a solid noise reduction solution – it doesn’t matter if your camera of choice is a smartphone or a high-end mirrorless or DSLR. We all encounter situations where blurry isn’t an option, thus we crank the ISO.

For the Lightroom folks who think that LR’s built in noise reduction is enough, check out my comparison of Lightroom and Topaz DeNoise AI. You might be surprised at the results!

Add Topaz DeNoise AI to your toolbox

Ready to add awesome noise reduction to your arsenal? Click here to purchase Topaz DeNoise AI and be sure to enter my coupon code ANGANDRIEUX at checkout to save an additional 15% on your purchase.

Questions?

If you have questions about DeNoise AI or any other Topaz Labs applications, please let me know in the comments below, or send me an email. I’m happy to help in any way that I can!

Disclosure: One of the ways I support this website is by partnering with awesome companies, whose products I use and love. These partnerships allow me to earn a small commission when you make a purchase through one of my affiliate links, but there is no additional cost for you. Thank you for your support!

6 Comments

  1. […] Tackling High-ISO with Topaz DeNoise […]

  2. […] Tackling High-ISO with Topaz DeNoise […]

  3. tammiekersey on October 8, 2020 at 7:51 pm

    Great article.

  4. grettafoos63 on October 9, 2020 at 3:54 pm

    Great post.

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