I use DeNoise AI 2.1.6 as a plugin in Lightroom 5.7. I also need to convert my photos from .nef to .dng as my Lightroom is a little too old for the .nef format. When I need to reduce the noise, I launch DeNoise from within Lightroom which will convert the file to TIFF format. In DeNoise AI the noise is reduced/removed beautifully and I hit Save which brings me back to Lightroom now working with the noise reduced TIFF photo.
But to mee it seems that some of the noise is now back, not all of it but some. Especially if I zoom-in in Lightroom the noise is not at the same low level compared to what I saw in DeNoise.
By default, Lightroom sets a resolution parameter at 300 (not sure what they mean by that) and I have tried to adjust it up to 400 but with the same result.
Means absolutely nothing as it is a DPI/PPI setting.
Make sure you are not applying noise reduction in Lightroom and make sure you compare at the same zoom level … i.e. if you were looking at 100% in Sharpen AI then view at 100% in Lightroom.
The DNG/NEF is handled by LR and your workflow is correct. You may want to open the NEF in the standalone version of Sharpen AI, apply the same settings and see if there is a difference between the TIF returned to LR and the one produced by Sharpen AI.
I think you have to make 5 posts/replies without image uploads before you’re allowed to upload an image. It’s to prevent bots/spam. You’ve already got 3 in this thread.
I use LR 5.7 and shoot with older Nikons, a D7000 and a D40, and have no problems importing NEF to DNG in LR. I ran DeNoise AI on this photo. The settings were minimal as I tend to use a light touch: noise reduction, sharpening and detail recovery were all set to 5 and color noise to 0.2. The crops are 100% before and after DeNoise was applied. When in DeNoise, I viewed at 100% and for me the results match. DeNoise saved back to LR as a TIF, and I exported to JPG.
ScottO, I use exactly the same workflow as you, but I still get a rather significant part of the noise back when DeNoise returns to Lightroom. However, I think I have found the reason for this problem and it seems that it is solved now!
I would like to post two images showing the problem and how I solved it in the DeNoise Preferences settings. Maybe it will help others on this forum.
As I have a rather powerful graphics board with 8Gb ram, I have set the DeNoise “Advanced Preferences, Allowed graphics memory consumption” to “High”. This greatly improved the DeNoise calculation speed, so I thought that this was a good setting and DeNoise did not generate any errors.
However, DeNoise cannot reduce the noise to the requested amount during “Save” operation with this setting. So when I clicked “Reset” in the “Advanced Preferences” and tested the noise reduction again it was perfect! The only drawback is that the calculation speed now is slower by a factor of about three.
It seems that others also have encountered a similar problem related to the detection of a separate graphics card and the settings in the Preference Advanced menu. They also do not get the same fine result after DeNoise has saved the final TIFF file.
Maybe it would be a good idea for the Topaz development team to have a look into this problem.
