Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2023/04/23
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hello Don and Howard. I don?t know if you frequent the Leica Camera Forum (l-camera-forum.com <http://l-camera-forum.com/>) at all, but if you do you might look at the topic ?Leica Q2 (a noisy camera !) Your views please. At the end of page one discussion I posted a Q2 photo of a friend cooking at ISO 6400 where the noise level is appalling. I used DxO to clean it up and posted that photo as well. Have a look if you like and can. I haven?t used LR enhance so I can?t comment in its effectiveness, but I have found with the Q2 the best noise reduction image / enhance program, by far, is DxO extreme. Previously I used stand alone Topaz Noise Reduction and Topaz Sharpen with varying degrees of success (faces too plastic in some cases for my taste). When Topaz Ai was introduced I transitioned to that and was more satisfied until trying DxO. So, in sum Don, I find your results at variance to my experience. I?m not trying to start a fight here, I?m just sayin?. I should add Don, that although I don?t comment on a frequent basis, I very much enjoy your many posted photos, illustrating life today. Cheers, Howard > On Apr 23, 2023, at 8:03 AM, lug-request at leica-users.org wrote: > > Message: 10 > Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2023 18:45:59 -0500 > From: Don Dory <don.dory at gmail.com <mailto:don.dory at gmail.com>> > To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org <mailto:lug at > leica-users.org>> > Subject: Re: [Leica] comparison of 4 noise reduction programs > Message-ID: > <CA+3n+_mc8eg1JFVcbZ6+Cmjj78iad4n_XVRe_ozjuKxuZwh4jA at > mail.gmail.com <mailto:CA+3n+_mc8eg1JFVcbZ6+Cmjj78iad4n_XVRe_ozjuKxuZwh4jA > at mail.gmail.com>> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > Howard, the algorithm in Topaz frequently has an issue with letters. As > to DxO, I was at the middle level of effect with two higher levels > available. I chose not to go there as I thought an intermediate level > would be a better comparison. I found that if I mess with Topaz I can get > a good result but that involved fueling with the masks Abbott balancing > strength and clarity. > > I purposely picked a very poor image to show what the extreme would be. I > can say that on images shot around 12000 ISO with some contrast in the face > DxO dies a better job than the Adobe product. It's why I have all three. > > > Others have commented on the stand alone Topaz products, I find their > DeNoise works very well on moderate noise if you don't need sharpening: I > will choose it when speed is important. > > On Wed, Apr 19, 2023, 5:59 PM Howard L Ritter Jr via LUG < > lug at leica-users.org <mailto:lug at leica-users.org>> wrote: > >> Don, the stunning superiority of the LR Enhance image in terms of >> sharpness of the subject?s hair, face, sweater, and nametag (or >> alternatively, the comparative lousiness of the other results) beggars >> belief. I have to wonder whether something didn?t go wrong. Among the >> three, only in the TopazAI is her face in focus, while it?s not even close >> in the other two. Something other than noise level is involved in the >> differences in resolution and focus. I can?t imagine there being any way >> that the level of detail in the LR image could have been recovered from a >> primary image as out of focus as the other two would suggest, even with a >> dedicated sharpening program, let alone merely a noise-reduction program. >> >> For example, in the LR image, look at the leftmost strand of hair, which >> goes from highlighted to darkly silhouetted against the background figure >> as it sweeps upwards. In the other images, there is not even the merest >> suggestion of this latter part, only the uniform blur of the background. >> >> Look at her nametag and ribbon. In three images, including Topaz AI, the >> printing isn?t even recognizable as such. But in the LR image, her name is >> not only recognizable, not only easily readable, but actually sharp, even >> down to the presence of the demarcation that shows her last name is >> ?Martin? and not ?Martln?. And it?s puzzling that the TopazAI image, which >> has the face in so much better focus than the Topaz DeNoise and the DxO, >> doesn?t do any better on the nametag. >> >> How can this be? Did one program perform magic, or did the other three >> actually degrade details? >> >> Can you post the unprocessed image for comparison? That would be extremely >> interesting. >> >> ?howard