Thanks! I do appreciate your videos. Definitely my favourite bird channel. I purchased my new camera gear based on your videos, body and lens included! now Topaz. Warm Regards, Eloise
Thanks so much for sharing this with us. I did click on your affiliate link, even though I have an old Topaz account, I wanted you to get the commission. They gave me the software as a free upgrade. I have to say it is amazing. I applied it to a photo I took yesterday of a rabbit at ISO 12,800. It looks like it was taken at a much lower ISO, the grain is pretty much gone, and the detail, especially in the rabbit's hair, is excellent. I also applied it to a photo of a Common Moorhen I took at ISO 6400. Great results, after applying Denoise, I boosted the shadows in Lightroom Classic at 50+, and no noise showed up. Color me impressed. Thanks again for all you do for us, Duade.
G'day Bob, thank you for thinking of me, I appreciate it. Yes it really is a game changer in relation to removing noise in high ISO photos. Thanks again, Cheers, Duade
Hi Duade. At approx. 7.00 you talk about Sharpening.> Amount and Noise Reduction > Luminance. I watching another RUclips video by someone else two or three years ago. He said a good starting point is to add the numbers of Sharpening > Amount and Noise Reduction > Luminance together. Aim for less than 100. That is a good starting point for further adjustments. Adding your two sliders together came to 94.
Amazing!! I have been struggling with noise in my images since I bought a 150 to 600 Sigma. All the time I have been thinking fastest shutter and lowest ISO to freeze and get the best quality. I watched the first 5 minutes of this on how to avoid it the noise and I was shocked to see your correctly exposed higher ISO had less noise that a lower ISO slightly underexposed. I went straight out to the garden, at twilight, snapped some images of various things around the garden at up to 12800 ISO and my pictures are great. Expose to the right it is from now. Thanks heaps
Downloading that Topaz software in the link above even as I type this comment. Got a heap of high ISO, low light bird shots that can use something like this! Many thanks!
This is a super-helpful video! I really appreciate your clarity, good examples, and articulate presentations. You've helped me improve a lot. Thank you! (I also like how you don't have music going behind your audio track. So refreshing.)
Great tutorial, Duade. I have been using Topaz Denoise for a little while now and it saves me a ton of time. I have learned from this video how to better use the recover detail slider, so thanks for that!
That's great to hear Steve, yeah I am always trying to maintain the details in the birds plumage so that slider is handy. We sure are lucky to have great cameras and software these days. 👍Cheers, Duade
Thanks Duade for showing the difference Topaz Denoise can make on a noisy image. I have been thinking of purchasing this software and you have sure convinced me on how effective it is. I'm really enjoying your channel, you demonstrate with great detail!
Thanks Kathy, I appreciate the comment. Thankfully the newer cameras do a great job but every now and then I shoot in poor light and this software comes in very handy. Cheers, Duade
Since using larger zoom lenses I have learned a lot about noise. I started using Topaz Denoise about 6 months ago. I run the image through Denoise first for noise reduction and recover detail in the current Topaz version through the Topaz Sharpen software by ONLY sharpening the bird/subject through their easy-to-use mask. Often I am only adding 5-15 sharpening to the subject only, leaving the background untouched. With the select subject mask, I can selectively choose the subject I want to highlight for the viewer. These two Topaz products have been game changers as add-ons to Lightroom and Photoshop. Once you find them there is no return to trying to reduce noise in Adobe.
I did the 30 day trial of Denoise and was stunned at the results. Kicked myself a few times for missing the sale😂 They don't seem to discount it very often.
Been using Denoise since October. I love the capabilities. I usually run auto on it, look it over and send back to PS and then reduce the opacity to taste. Haven't even fooled with sliders. I'm sure if I had shot some wildlife with higher ISOs i may need to. So far on landscapes its worked nicely.
Thanks Jesse, Yeah it seems to work really well, I still try to avoid using too much noise reduction on the bird itself so will often mask out the bird but denoise makes it way easier that is for sure. I haven't used their other products too much yet, do you use the other products? Cheers, Duade
@@Duade No I haven't used anything other than Denoise. But I have sen a few videos of the sharpener and it seems to work just as nicely. I'm sure I'll end up with several others if they will work for me down the road.
Great video! Only recently discovered you, a fellow Victorian! Trying to improve my bird photography so have been now following everything you’ve put up in the past on RUclips. Great tip about exposing to the right, didn’t know that so keen to get out and try to reduce ISO. Recently bought the canon r6, still working on dual back button focus to nail focus with mixed results. Keep up the great work!
Lee-Anne, welcome to the channel, I am happy to hear you are finding it useful. Good luck with the R6. I use traditional AF most of the time to locate the bird then activate bird eye AF to focus on the eye and track the bird. Cheers, Duade
Again a fantastic and useful review. Topaz Denoize is fantastic, I have the evaluation version for 30 days but it is sure that I will take it. Thank you!
Great tutoral Duade, thanks for taking the time to share your comparisons with us. Topaz Denoise looks incredible! Going to check it out, it will save a lot of time compared to using Lightroom as I do now.
@@Duade I looked for discount code however it seems it has expired. I probably missed out by one day for Feb discount. I haven't purchased yet so I will check again before I do. Can't wait to try it out.
Thanks for all your effort Duade, helping get me on the right track. Re: The edge issue, I'm coming in very late, but I believe that is a canvas edge from one of the processes, and may represent a transparent space. Cheers
Hi Duade great tutorial and some stunning images I have been using Topaz for a while now what a godsend save me a lot of time and effort keep up the Great Work Mate
As I’m still using a 7D mk1 I still see noise like this in my images. I use ISO800 as my walk around setting, I ETTR and rarely go higher as the image starts to fall apart. I’ve got an R6 in my basket right now but I’m nervous about pulling the trigger as I was hoping Canon would have released an APS-C R7 by now. I don’t want to lose the ‘reach’ of the crop sensor but I’ve seen your shots with the R6 at 12,800 and they’re incredibly clean straight out of the camera...................
I used the 7D myself for many years so understand its shortcomings. Have you tried out the free trial of DXO Pure RAW? It works wonders with noisy RAW files. I really do hope Canon release the R7 this year as many people are waiting for it. Cheers, Duade tidd.ly/3hH0Kta
Hi Duade, very helpful thank you. I’m not sure what the cause is for the banding issue. However, sometimes on digital files where there is a predominance of a single colour, like a blue sky for example, you can get banding issues. The cure for that is to actually introduce a bit of noise into the file via Photoshop. I know that seems counterintuitive but it it helps. I wonder if the same would work for those areas where you have the problems you mention on the edge of the file. You could work in layers and just paint it in to the areas you need. On the sharpening side of the things - the bird feathers and eye. I sometimes use the High Pass filter to enhance detail around the eye and feathers near that area. You have to work using masks as you are familiar with, but you also have to alter the blending mode to luminance. It’s a technique that portrait photographers utilise to subtly enhance things like eyelashes to draw attention to the eye. I have found that picking up techniques from other genres of photography and transferring them sometimes helps.
Thanks Dave, I did what you mentioned or just cropped a little more. I can happily report that the later versions did not have this issue. Cheers, Duade
I use denoise as well and pretty happy with it. I do get the same band around the edges as well. I use a windows pc. Not sure if that’s the issue. Also on rare occasion, denoise will introduce red artifacts on very noisy dark areas which make the images unusable. Not sure if this is a bug that will be fixed on next update. Or this could be my pc as well. It’s fairly old and not very powerful. But 99% of the time it does a good job at noise reduction. I also use sharpen ai after I apply denoise and that’s a clear improvement from denoise alone. It sharpens all the details but also applies more noise reduction to background. I prefer the combination of both over just using denoise.
G'day, thank you for your comment, yes those issues are a little odd given how well it performs. Glad to hear the AI Sharp is working well for you. Cheers, Duade👍
Hi Duade, I notice your topic at the Birdlife Australia Photography Conference in May is on using Lightroom. Currently my Mac is too old for Lightroom but I can use a version on iPad. Not sure I can justify a new computer as I don’t have much other use beyond what my iPad does. I would like to get something out of your presentation so how limiting is just using an iPad? I have a monitor to get a bigger image but it was not meant for photography and we don’t have a 4K TV. Are my available combinations suitable? I can get a version of Affinity on my Mac and iPad. I could get a MacBook but not to specs Jan suggests. That costs more than the house :-) Do I need to take the plunge on a MacBook Pro with 16gb RAM and come prepared in May or can I get by with my iPad? I have no ambitions to enter competitions or earn money from my photography. Hobby only and maybe a calendar for family and friends. I would appreciate your thoughts. Cheers, Tony
Tony, my talk will likely focus on why it's important to edit your shots with a little bit of Lightroom, it won't be too tech heavy. Your Ipad should be fine if that is what you have. I look forward to catching up at the event. Cheers, Duade
I’ve been wondering about Topaz Denoise as the method I use in PS is not perfect (can’t really really remove noise from the bird). I use a Canon 7D mkii and noise is often an issue (I rarely go above ISO 800-1000) this looks an awesome plugin. Time to get to get it, thanks Duade.
Thanks Ruben, yes it is a game changer that is for sure, be sure to get the latest version as it appears I have been using an older one. I used the 7D series for years and had similar issues as you mention. 👍
HI, just had a look at your video, really informative. I have a tip for anyone using Lightroom, to make the application of noise removal easier, it has a masking slider at the bottom. If you press alt key and move the slider to the right you will see it shows the mask being applied in a black and white image. You can experiment with how much you want to move it to the right as it masks more. It will attempt to selectively mask the bird/branch and leave the background. So when you then apply the noise reduction it will only apply to the background and not the bird. Please have a go and let me know what you think. I do however see that the AI functioning of Topaz seems to do it smarter!
Thanks Michael, some great info there, I have been using the masking slider recently and it works well. Thanks for taking the time to post the suggestion. Cheers, Duade 👍
@@Duade Hi, yes I've been doing likewise with DeNoise AI. To find that although I can do some noise reduction with LR, I find I lose detail and it softens the image. However with DeNoise AI, it seems to retain a lot of the detail and just selectively reduce the noise. I'm using with Sharpen AI, which helps me resurrect some images that had missed focus etc. Thanks for the tip, some great software.
I see this is a rather recent video. I don't know if Adobe introduced its 'object selection' tool in PS before or after you made this video, but it's definitely a tool to consider in selecting the bird to give it a different treatment. For instance to exclude it from noise reduction or to apply sharpening only to the bird. I do it all the time and in general it does a very good job in selecting the bird with only a few adjustments needed, because the bird often stands out from the blurry background. Of course with Topaz you don't need this as Topaz does a good job in 'recognizing' the bird, although I suspect it simply recognizes busy textures. I use Topaz DeNoise myself and combine it with Topaz Gigapixel to blow up (well....digitally, of course) small birds that were too far in the distance. The results are remarkable...
G'day and thank you for your detailed comment and advice. Yes the object selection tools do work well and I use a combination now of the Magic Wand, Object Selection and just letting Photoshop select the subject. The hard part is when you have a busy background with lots of different colours. But as you mentioned creating masks is the best way to get the most out of Denoise. I have yet to try Gigapixel but may in the future. Cheers, Duade 👍
Great video Duade, for the banding have you tried using the content aware tool to get rid of it, I find it works great these days running it on the edges of the photos. Thanks for the informative tutorial.
Great video, I recently started make Wildlife Videos and was curious how wildlife photographers handled this scenario. Downloading the program now and going to give it a try on some older images :). Thanks again.
Hi Duade, Another great video of yours, thank you! I wonder, RAW images I imported in Lightroom get automatically some sharpening already. Also there are other sliders which are not set to zero anymore. Should I put them all to zero in order to get best results in Topaz Denoise? Or doesn't it matter since Topaz will analyse the picture and just do the right thing? And for as post processing in Lightroom after Denoising in in Topaz, do you still pull or push some sliders in the detail section of Ligtroom? I tried to figure out this myself but I find it hard to draw conclusions on this issue.
Duade, wondering what the best version of topaz denoise I should purchase? So many different professional 3, denoise AI? Wondering if you could help me out with this. Cheers/ God bless. Thx. Mary
Hi Mary, Topaz Denoise AI is the version I use, however I have just stumbled upon DXO PureRAW which is also a very good option. You can download and try the trial versions to see if they work for you first. Cheers, Duade
Hi Duade, Aren't you going to install the free upgrade to version 2.0 that's just been released ? It's even better. I processed an image yesterday from my Canon 6d at 25,600 ISO and the results are amazing. I think that the AI Clean function is even beter than the Denoise function in the latest version. They've also included a Chroma noise slider for Colour noise. I highly recommend the free upgrade. Anyone who might be thinking of buying it, won't regret it.
Julie, thanks for the comment, I currently don't use any sharpening software beyond photoshop at the moment. I'll have to check out Studio 2, Cheers, Duade
G’day, thank you, that could well be a limitation with using Lightroom as I do not believe you can make further adjustments after running Topaz. That is where layers in Photoshop come into their own. Cheers, Duade
Hi Jordan, there are a few ways to do it, but I use Topaz Denoise as the very last step once I have done all the other edits. I do the RAW conversion in Lightroom, export as a TIF, do the final touches in Photoshop and then use Topaz as a plugin in Photoshop as the last step. Cheers, Duade
Thanks for the vid. Had to stop around 18 minutes in & try it in LR6.14 on some small back yard birds taken with a Nikon D810, iso 3200. Worked great. I have been thinking of Buying the Topaz Utility Bundle. Have you tried Topaz Sharpen AI?
G'day Ted, yes, I tried it and it seems to work well, but I did not buy it as I didn't find I used it often enough in my workflow. Maybe try the trial and see how often you use it. Cheers, Duade
Toasting in an old bread... But, could someone tell me what was so wrong @ 4:51 that required the adjustment of the Exposure (Module, sorry I'm coming from Dark Table), to "Fix it"? Perhaps it's just me, but I thought that that image was _correctly_ exposed (for what it was, a dark environment.). But I'd love to know why it seems to be the opinion of so many that such an Image is in their opinion underexposed. In which case wouldn't global Inclination not brighten it up a hair more? I'm not able to wrap my Mk1 peepers 'round what looks ok, and technically shouldn't be.
Hey mate, I saw this review yesterday and bought TopazAI 3.1.2. It seems to work well, but when it exports the photos back it has like made the colours crazy saturated. Any suggestions as to why? I can't find anything online.
@@Duade I use Luminar4. I realized after I posted that the files that it stuffed up were processed tiffs- I’ve tried again with the raws and it seems fine- thanks for the reply. I’ll let you know if it goes wrong again :)
Great vid.! Ive been trialing the 30 day free trial. Going from a raw file to topaz doing adjustments. It comes back to editing ( On1 photo raw) as a jpeg. So i can't do as much editing with a jpeg than a raw file. Should i edit raw file first then send to topaz ??
Hi Brian, you are correct, Topaz converts the image to a jpeg, which means no further RAW adjustments. As a result it is the last step I would perform before export. Cheers, Duade 👍
I downloaded the trial version of Topaz AI and I was impressed. But something strange happened in some images after converting them from raw to jpeg. Some looked much darker after saving them as jpeg. I didn´t get it as I don´t like to complicate much life postproducing. Friends, I have a problem: my Lr version is 6.4 and it is not compatible with the D500 so i can´t use it and I would like to, specially for removing noise quickly from the clean skies which is very fast and useful on Lr. Adobe pushes us to purchase Creative Cloud and I don´t want it. I have no interest in having stuff on the cloud. I want to have Lr in my computer. No problem to pay for it, but I want it in my computer. Any help, please? Thanks.
G'day, the Adobe Photography plan with Lightroom and Photoshop is downloaded to your computer and works just like 6.4, you just have to pay a monthly fee and you get constant updates. There is no need to store any files on the cloud if you do not want to. I hope that helps. Cheers, Duade
Great but when you was in light room and removed the noise from the background, then you clicked on a brush tool somewhere and removed the noise reduction from the bird, I couldn’t follow as I have light room not light room classic
Personally I find Topaz creates way too many odd artefacts on fine detail. It clumps pixels together in rows, reducing the resolution of the image with its weird zippering effect . There's also a vague cross hatched appearance you sometimes get on the background that makes the image look like its been printed on canvas. I've tried every setting combination possible but I just can't get a result I'm happy with. Its just too flawed when you print large or zoom right for my tastes.
G'day Mark, sorry to hear you are having some issues with it. I only apply it to the background and not the bird and then use the opacity slider in photoshop to reduce the impact, I reduce the noise by around 50% if that makes sense, so you can still see some noise. Of all the things I have tried I find Topaz the best. The other thing is we possibly make too much fuss about noise when many images look just fine with noise in them. Cheers, Duade
@@Duade Yes that's right mate, you don't want totally grain free images or they get that artificial "wax works " look about them. I'd much rather use the iso abilities of my camera to keep my shutter speed up. The world's full of noise free, but soft, images!. Aas for only having the topaz working on the background, a fair few people do that and that must have a lot to do with them introducing the new masking feature in the latest version. Thanks for the reply Duade.
WHAT THE HELL... Logitech X 530? I hope there is standing something better already I sold them for like 30€ over a decade ago because especially the subwoofer sucked (something was getting loose inside and it rumbled badly at any activity of the woofer and the speakers also sounded VERY BAD. Had a while a Logitech Z 5500 system on the computer (via a proper soundcard, the SoundBlaster X-Fidelity with Front I/O plate for instruments recording as well), it was ok ish, but sold this too after a few years and got proper studio monitors and reused an older HiFi stereo amp hidden behind the desk, their 2.0 is MUCH BETTER than anything i ever had on my desk before! I bet you dont need any good sound at all at your desktop, but X530/540 is.... well in 2020 there were already much better and smaller setups for PC/desktop sound. I mean to just check the audio of your videos you need something else than these Logitech things :D
Lol, yes, I have had those speakers for 15+ years I think, a very long time. I actually use Rode Headphones so don't really use the speakers for anything to be honest. But yes I could do with an upgrade for sure. Cheers, Duade
@@Duade Some speakers are old and gold, but these didnt deserve to be used 15 years :D But they served me also well for at least 2 years ... i think about 100€ was good for just anything in 5.1 with integrated amp and it fits nice to a desktop setup, slim LCDs these days barely had speakers also (or useless ones)
G'day Ted, some great advice and one we should all aim for, I plan to cover this in a future video. However, many people do struggle with noise, especially with older cameras and having the ability to remove it is a worthwhile skill to know. Cheers, Duade
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
Thanks! I do appreciate your videos. Definitely my favourite bird channel. I purchased my new camera gear based on your videos, body and lens included! now Topaz. Warm Regards, Eloise
Thanks Eloise, congrats and thanks for the support, I appreciate it, Cheers, Duade
Thanks so much for sharing this with us. I did click on your affiliate link, even though I have an old Topaz account, I wanted you to get the commission. They gave me the software as a free upgrade. I have to say it is amazing. I applied it to a photo I took yesterday of a rabbit at ISO 12,800. It looks like it was taken at a much lower ISO, the grain is pretty much gone, and the detail, especially in the rabbit's hair, is excellent.
I also applied it to a photo of a Common Moorhen I took at ISO 6400. Great results, after applying Denoise, I boosted the shadows in Lightroom Classic at 50+, and no noise showed up. Color me impressed. Thanks again for all you do for us, Duade.
G'day Bob, thank you for thinking of me, I appreciate it. Yes it really is a game changer in relation to removing noise in high ISO photos. Thanks again, Cheers, Duade
I have purchased the De-noise A1 and it’s brilliant , even on old pictures taken some years back . It has given them new life . 👍🏆
Robin, that is great to hear, I am glad it is helping, Cheers, Duade
Hi Duade. At approx. 7.00 you talk about Sharpening.> Amount and Noise Reduction > Luminance. I watching another RUclips video by someone else two or three years ago. He said a good starting point is to add the numbers of Sharpening > Amount and Noise Reduction > Luminance together. Aim for less than 100. That is a good starting point for further adjustments. Adding your two sliders together came to 94.
Thanks Roger, thanks for the input. I usually adjust the settings until it looks right which can be hard to explain. Cheers, Duade
Amazing!! I have been struggling with noise in my images since I bought a 150 to 600 Sigma. All the time I have been thinking fastest shutter and lowest ISO to freeze and get the best quality. I watched the first 5 minutes of this on how to avoid it the noise and I was shocked to see your correctly exposed higher ISO had less noise that a lower ISO slightly underexposed.
I went straight out to the garden, at twilight, snapped some images of various things around the garden at up to 12800 ISO and my pictures are great. Expose to the right it is from now.
Thanks heaps
G'day Tony. I'm glad to hear the video helped, yes exposing to the right sure does help with noise levels. Good luck and happy birding. Cheers, Duade
Thank you for the video and discount code, Duade! Just bought the software and it works simply amazing!
Thanks Nikolai, it is my pleasure, glad it is working well. Cheers, Duade 👍
Downloading that Topaz software in the link above even as I type this comment. Got a heap of high ISO, low light bird shots that can use something like this! Many thanks!
Good luck, DXO Pure RAW is also worth trying, I have both. Cheers, Duade tidd.ly/3hH0Kta
This video has changed my workflow with my pictures. Thank you so much. I wish I found it earlier.
This is a super-helpful video! I really appreciate your clarity, good examples, and articulate presentations. You've helped me improve a lot. Thank you! (I also like how you don't have music going behind your audio track. So refreshing.)
Hi Dan I'm glad you found it useful. Cheers, Duade 👍
Great tutorial, Duade. I have been using Topaz Denoise for a little while now and it saves me a ton of time. I have learned from this video how to better use the recover detail slider, so thanks for that!
That's great to hear Steve, yeah I am always trying to maintain the details in the birds plumage so that slider is handy. We sure are lucky to have great cameras and software these days. 👍Cheers, Duade
Thanks Duade for showing the difference Topaz Denoise can make on a noisy image. I have been thinking of purchasing this software and you have sure convinced me on how effective it is. I'm really enjoying your channel, you demonstrate with great detail!
Thanks Kathy, I appreciate the comment. Thankfully the newer cameras do a great job but every now and then I shoot in poor light and this software comes in very handy. Cheers, Duade
Since using larger zoom lenses I have learned a lot about noise. I started using Topaz Denoise about 6 months ago. I run the image through Denoise first for noise reduction and recover detail in the current Topaz version through the Topaz Sharpen software by ONLY sharpening the bird/subject through their easy-to-use mask. Often I am only adding 5-15 sharpening to the subject only, leaving the background untouched. With the select subject mask, I can selectively choose the subject I want to highlight for the viewer. These two Topaz products have been game changers as add-ons to Lightroom and Photoshop. Once you find them there is no return to trying to reduce noise in Adobe.
Great to hear Joanne, they do work very well, Cheers, Duade
Very clear and very helpful tutorial . Thank you for sharing it.
My pleasure, Cheers, Duade
The new Topaz DeNoise AI is amazing. It gets rid of noise and color aberration in almost every photo. It's saved a lot of my pictures.
G'day Theo, yes it works very well that is for sure. Thanks for your comment. 👍
Brilliant video, very helpful and informative, Beautiful photos. Many thanks for sharing. 🇬🇧
G'day Paul, my pleasure, Cheers, Duade 👍
I did the 30 day trial of Denoise and was stunned at the results. Kicked myself a few times for missing the sale😂 They don't seem to discount it very often.
Hi Mark, yes it is very good. You can often find 15% codes online if you search for them. Have fun, cheers, Duade
A great tutorial and a big thank you for the Topaz link, it really worked.
Great to hear Catherine, yes it is very effective that is for sure. Cheers, Duade 👍
Been using Denoise since October. I love the capabilities. I usually run auto on it, look it over and send back to PS and then reduce the opacity to taste. Haven't even fooled with sliders. I'm sure if I had shot some wildlife with higher ISOs i may need to. So far on landscapes its worked nicely.
Thanks Jesse, Yeah it seems to work really well, I still try to avoid using too much noise reduction on the bird itself so will often mask out the bird but denoise makes it way easier that is for sure. I haven't used their other products too much yet, do you use the other products? Cheers, Duade
@@Duade No I haven't used anything other than Denoise. But I have sen a few videos of the sharpener and it seems to work just as nicely. I'm sure I'll end up with several others if they will work for me down the road.
@@vacanechaser lp
Thanks Duade, another awesome video mate. Congrats. Will definitely get Topaz denoise and use affiliate link.
Thanks Robert, I really appreciate the support, let me know if you need any help. Cheers, Duade
Great video! Only recently discovered you, a fellow Victorian! Trying to improve my bird photography so have been now following everything you’ve put up in the past on RUclips. Great tip about exposing to the right, didn’t know that so keen to get out and try to reduce ISO. Recently bought the canon r6, still working on dual back button focus to nail focus with mixed results. Keep up the great work!
Lee-Anne, welcome to the channel, I am happy to hear you are finding it useful. Good luck with the R6. I use traditional AF most of the time to locate the bird then activate bird eye AF to focus on the eye and track the bird. Cheers, Duade
Again a fantastic and useful review. Topaz Denoize is fantastic, I have the evaluation version for 30 days but it is sure that I will take it. Thank you!
Thanks Daniel, yes, it is magic, Cheers Duade.
Great lecture. But , how do you save the repaired mage from Topaz (or Giga) directly into Lightroom?
Ivan, I open the topaz plugin within photoshop and it returns the noise reduction as its own layer. Cheers, Duade
Great tutoral Duade, thanks for taking the time to share your comparisons with us. Topaz Denoise looks incredible! Going to check it out, it will save a lot of time compared to using Lightroom as I do now.
Thanks Kim, yes it is very good at removing noise that is for sure. Be sure to google a code to get a discount if you do purchase it. Cheers, Duade
@@Duade I looked for discount code however it seems it has expired. I probably missed out by one day for Feb discount. I haven't purchased yet so I will check again before I do. Can't wait to try it out.
Hi Kim try msjphoto15 I think that is current. Cheers, Duade
Thanks Duade, it worked! $12.00 discount. I will try it out tomorrow :0)
Thanks for all your effort Duade, helping get me on the right track.
Re: The edge issue, I'm coming in very late, but I believe that is a canvas edge from one of the processes, and may represent a transparent space. Cheers
Thanks for your feedback, the banding seems to have been addressed in later versions. Cheers, Duade 👍
Thanks Duade - very informative
Thanks Alan👍
Thanks for the tips!!!
Aaron, my pleasure, Cheers, Duade
Great videos, you are fun to watch and a very humble photographer amigo. cheers mate
Thanks Matt, I appreciate the feedback, happy birding, Cheers, Duade
Hi Duade great tutorial and some stunning images I have been using Topaz for a while now what a godsend save me a lot of time and effort keep up the Great Work Mate
G'day Chris, thanks for your comment, glad to hear you are finding Topaz useful. It is another tool that works well when required. Cheers, Duade 👍
As I’m still using a 7D mk1 I still see noise like this in my images. I use ISO800 as my walk around setting, I ETTR and rarely go higher as the image starts to fall apart. I’ve got an R6 in my basket right now but I’m nervous about pulling the trigger as I was hoping Canon would have released an APS-C R7 by now. I don’t want to lose the ‘reach’ of the crop sensor but I’ve seen your shots with the R6 at 12,800 and they’re incredibly clean straight out of the camera...................
I used the 7D myself for many years so understand its shortcomings. Have you tried out the free trial of DXO Pure RAW? It works wonders with noisy RAW files. I really do hope Canon release the R7 this year as many people are waiting for it. Cheers, Duade tidd.ly/3hH0Kta
Great tutorial. I've just bought Topaz denoise.
Thanks John, I appreciate it. Good luck with it, let me know if you need any help. Cheers, Duade 👍
Thanks for the good examples Duade!
My pleasure, I think I could have easily used many more images, the 7D got a pretty heavy workout back in the day. 👍
Ha Duade, just purchased denoise,,thanks.
Robert, good luck with it and thanks for the support, Cheers, Duade
Hi Duade, very helpful thank you. I’m not sure what the cause is for the banding issue. However, sometimes on digital files where there is a predominance of a single colour, like a blue sky for example, you can get banding issues. The cure for that is to actually introduce a bit of noise into the file via Photoshop. I know that seems counterintuitive but it it helps. I wonder if the same would work for those areas where you have the problems you mention on the edge of the file. You could work in layers and just paint it in to the areas you need.
On the sharpening side of the things - the bird feathers and eye. I sometimes use the High Pass filter to enhance detail around the eye and feathers near that area. You have to work using masks as you are familiar with, but you also have to alter the blending mode to luminance. It’s a technique that portrait photographers utilise to subtly enhance things like eyelashes to draw attention to the eye. I have found that picking up techniques from other genres of photography and transferring them sometimes helps.
Thanks Dave, I did what you mentioned or just cropped a little more. I can happily report that the later versions did not have this issue. Cheers, Duade
I use denoise as well and pretty happy with it. I do get the same band around the edges as well. I use a windows pc. Not sure if that’s the issue. Also on rare occasion, denoise will introduce red artifacts on very noisy dark areas which make the images unusable. Not sure if this is a bug that will be fixed on next update. Or this could be my pc as well. It’s fairly old and not very powerful. But 99% of the time it does a good job at noise reduction. I also use sharpen ai after I apply denoise and that’s a clear improvement from denoise alone. It sharpens all the details but also applies more noise reduction to background. I prefer the combination of both over just using denoise.
G'day, thank you for your comment, yes those issues are a little odd given how well it performs. Glad to hear the AI Sharp is working well for you. Cheers, Duade👍
Hi Duade, I notice your topic at the Birdlife Australia Photography Conference in May is on using Lightroom. Currently my Mac is too old for Lightroom but I can use a version on iPad. Not sure I can justify a new computer as I don’t have much other use beyond what my iPad does. I would like to get something out of your presentation so how limiting is just using an iPad? I have a monitor to get a bigger image but it was not meant for photography and we don’t have a 4K TV. Are my available combinations suitable? I can get a version of Affinity on my Mac and iPad. I could get a MacBook but not to specs Jan suggests. That costs more than the house :-) Do I need to take the plunge on a MacBook Pro with 16gb RAM and come prepared in May or can I get by with my iPad? I have no ambitions to enter competitions or earn money from my photography. Hobby only and maybe a calendar for family and friends. I would appreciate your thoughts. Cheers, Tony
Tony, my talk will likely focus on why it's important to edit your shots with a little bit of Lightroom, it won't be too tech heavy. Your Ipad should be fine if that is what you have. I look forward to catching up at the event. Cheers, Duade
I’ve been wondering about Topaz Denoise as the method I use in PS is not perfect (can’t really really remove noise from the bird). I use a Canon 7D mkii and noise is often an issue (I rarely go above ISO 800-1000) this looks an awesome plugin. Time to get to get it, thanks Duade.
Thanks Ruben, yes it is a game changer that is for sure, be sure to get the latest version as it appears I have been using an older one. I used the 7D series for years and had similar issues as you mention. 👍
HI, just had a look at your video, really informative. I have a tip for anyone using Lightroom, to make the application of noise removal easier, it has a masking slider at the bottom. If you press alt key and move the slider to the right you will see it shows the mask being applied in a black and white image. You can experiment with how much you want to move it to the right as it masks more. It will attempt to selectively mask the bird/branch and leave the background. So when you then apply the noise reduction it will only apply to the background and not the bird. Please have a go and let me know what you think. I do however see that the AI functioning of Topaz seems to do it smarter!
Thanks Michael, some great info there, I have been using the masking slider recently and it works well. Thanks for taking the time to post the suggestion. Cheers, Duade 👍
@@Duade Hi, yes I've been doing likewise with DeNoise AI. To find that although I can do some noise reduction with LR, I find I lose detail and it softens the image. However with DeNoise AI, it seems to retain a lot of the detail and just selectively reduce the noise. I'm using with Sharpen AI, which helps me resurrect some images that had missed focus etc. Thanks for the tip, some great software.
@@wintryguy G'day Michael, yes it does work very well. 👍
I see this is a rather recent video. I don't know if Adobe introduced its 'object selection' tool in PS before or after you made this video, but it's definitely a tool to consider in selecting the bird to give it a different treatment. For instance to exclude it from noise reduction or to apply sharpening only to the bird. I do it all the time and in general it does a very good job in selecting the bird with only a few adjustments needed, because the bird often stands out from the blurry background.
Of course with Topaz you don't need this as Topaz does a good job in 'recognizing' the bird, although I suspect it simply recognizes busy textures.
I use Topaz DeNoise myself and combine it with Topaz Gigapixel to blow up (well....digitally, of course) small birds that were too far in the distance. The results are remarkable...
G'day and thank you for your detailed comment and advice. Yes the object selection tools do work well and I use a combination now of the Magic Wand, Object Selection and just letting Photoshop select the subject. The hard part is when you have a busy background with lots of different colours. But as you mentioned creating masks is the best way to get the most out of Denoise. I have yet to try Gigapixel but may in the future. Cheers, Duade 👍
Great video Duade, for the banding have you tried using the content aware tool to get rid of it, I find it works great these days running it on the edges of the photos. Thanks for the informative tutorial.
Thanks Nev, yes you are right I will give that a go next time. 👍
Great video, I recently started make Wildlife Videos and was curious how wildlife photographers handled this scenario. Downloading the program now and going to give it a try on some older images :). Thanks again.
G'day Erick, it can be useful in situations with a lot of noise. Good luck with it. Cheers, Duade 👍
Hi Duade,
Another great video of yours, thank you!
I wonder, RAW images I imported in Lightroom get automatically some sharpening already. Also there are other sliders which are not set to zero anymore.
Should I put them all to zero in order to get best results in Topaz Denoise? Or doesn't it matter since Topaz will analyse the picture and just do the right thing?
And for as post processing in Lightroom after Denoising in in Topaz, do you still pull or push some sliders in the detail section of Ligtroom?
I tried to figure out this myself but I find it hard to draw conclusions on this issue.
Great software, ill look into it. 👍
Robert, good luck with the trial. Cheers, Duade
Duade, wondering what the best version of topaz denoise I should purchase? So many different professional 3, denoise AI? Wondering if you could help me out with this. Cheers/ God bless. Thx. Mary
Hi Mary, Topaz Denoise AI is the version I use, however I have just stumbled upon DXO PureRAW which is also a very good option. You can download and try the trial versions to see if they work for you first. Cheers, Duade
Hi Duade, Aren't you going to install the free upgrade to version 2.0 that's just been released ? It's even better. I processed an image yesterday from my Canon 6d at 25,600 ISO and the results are amazing. I think that the AI Clean function is even beter than the Denoise function in the latest version. They've also included a Chroma noise slider for Colour noise. I highly recommend the free upgrade. Anyone who might be thinking of buying it, won't regret it.
Thanks for that, I will upgrade and try it out. Amazing that they can make it even better.
@@Duade Yeah, and it's great that the upgrades are free.
Excellent tutorial Duade. Do you use Sharpen AI on the bird after Denoise AI? Have you tried Studio 2 Clear AI?
Julie, thanks for the comment, I currently don't use any sharpening software beyond photoshop at the moment. I'll have to check out Studio 2, Cheers, Duade
Maybe you don´t need to crop for the banding correction. Have you tried correction tool? Regards
G'day, in the latest version of Topaz I no longer have the banding issue. Cheers, Duade
thats awesome! Didnt know about Topaz, thanks for the info
My pleasure, I was a little late finding it but thought it was worth sharing. Good luck with it. 👍
Great video thanks
my pleasure, Cheers, Duade
THE CAT! 😻
Thanks, Cheers, Duade
Great video and some great Aussie birds
G'day, I totally agree, the Pink Robin really is unique and beautiful. 👍
Very useful video, thank you. It seems you cannot use the Topaz plug in with the adjustment brush in Lightroom, true?
G’day, thank you, that could well be a limitation with using Lightroom as I do not believe you can make further adjustments after running Topaz. That is where layers in Photoshop come into their own. Cheers, Duade
so a quick question.....you use Topaz for the noise, then do you use LR to do the other edits and cropping to the photos? Thanks
Hi Jordan, there are a few ways to do it, but I use Topaz Denoise as the very last step once I have done all the other edits. I do the RAW conversion in Lightroom, export as a TIF, do the final touches in Photoshop and then use Topaz as a plugin in Photoshop as the last step. Cheers, Duade
@@Duade thank you for the quick reply. I appreciate your videos. I will use your affiliate link to purchase the program.
Thanks Jordan, Cheers, Duade 👍
Really useful, thx
Thanks again Catherine, Cheers, Duade 👍
I like your videos and i am really helpful ..thank you for your videos 💗🇧🇩
G'day Rakin, my pleasure, Cheers, Duade
@@Duade Can i contact with you?... if i have some problem on photography?😊
G'day, feel free to send me an email do duade.paton@gmail.com Cheers, Duade 👍
Thanks for the vid. Had to stop around 18 minutes in & try it in LR6.14 on some small back yard birds taken with a Nikon D810, iso 3200. Worked great. I have been thinking of Buying the Topaz Utility Bundle. Have you tried Topaz Sharpen AI?
G'day Ted, yes, I tried it and it seems to work well, but I did not buy it as I didn't find I used it often enough in my workflow. Maybe try the trial and see how often you use it. Cheers, Duade
is Topaz a yearly substripion or preset for noise reduction for photoshop?
G'day Marilyn, it is a one off purchase. It is a plugin for Lightroom or Photoshop, I think it can be used on its own also. Cheers, Duade,👍
@@DuadeI really appreciate your feed back, Hope to get that in the future.Thanks cheers marilyn
Toasting in an old bread...
But, could someone tell me what was so wrong @ 4:51 that required the adjustment of the Exposure (Module, sorry I'm coming from Dark Table), to "Fix it"? Perhaps it's just me, but I thought that that image was _correctly_ exposed (for what it was, a dark environment.). But I'd love to know why it seems to be the opinion of so many that such an Image is in their opinion underexposed. In which case wouldn't global Inclination not brighten it up a hair more?
I'm not able to wrap my Mk1 peepers 'round what looks ok, and technically shouldn't be.
Hey mate, I saw this review yesterday and bought TopazAI 3.1.2. It seems to work well, but when it exports the photos back it has like made the colours crazy saturated. Any suggestions as to why? I can't find anything online.
Paul, how are you using Topaz? In Lightroom or Photoshop? Are you using it on the Raw file or a Jpeg or Tiff. Cheers, Duade
@@Duade I use Luminar4. I realized after I posted that the files that it stuffed up were processed tiffs- I’ve tried again with the raws and it seems fine- thanks for the reply. I’ll let you know if it goes wrong again :)
I find that most of my stuff from topaz ends up with a green tinge. Do you edit in Lightroom before topaz or after topaz? Having heaps of trouble
Super vid so helpful l
great video, RE; on the banding, no need to crop anymore than needed, just use healing tool. :-)
G'day Mike, yes you could use the healing tool. Just wish I didn't have to. Cheers, Duade 👍
Great vid.! Ive been trialing the 30 day free trial. Going from a raw file to topaz doing adjustments. It comes back to editing ( On1 photo raw) as a jpeg. So i can't do as much editing with a jpeg than a raw file. Should i edit raw file first then send to topaz ??
Hi Brian, you are correct, Topaz converts the image to a jpeg, which means no further RAW adjustments. As a result it is the last step I would perform before export. Cheers, Duade 👍
I downloaded the trial version of Topaz AI and I was impressed. But something strange happened in some images after converting them from raw to jpeg. Some looked much darker after saving them as jpeg. I didn´t get it as I don´t like to complicate much life postproducing. Friends, I have a problem: my Lr version is 6.4 and it is not compatible with the D500 so i can´t use it and I would like to, specially for removing noise quickly from the clean skies which is very fast and useful on Lr. Adobe pushes us to purchase Creative Cloud and I don´t want it. I have no interest in having stuff on the cloud. I want to have Lr in my computer. No problem to pay for it, but I want it in my computer. Any help, please? Thanks.
G'day, the Adobe Photography plan with Lightroom and Photoshop is downloaded to your computer and works just like 6.4, you just have to pay a monthly fee and you get constant updates. There is no need to store any files on the cloud if you do not want to. I hope that helps. Cheers, Duade
I love you !
For that cat :)
Thanks, yes she is a lovely cat :-)
Great but when you was in light room and removed the noise from the background, then you clicked on a brush tool somewhere and removed the noise reduction from the bird, I couldn’t follow as I have light room not light room classic
Edit the photo in 16bit color to avoid banding occurrence.
G'day Siddhun, thank you for your suggestion. Cheers, Duade
The latest version of Topaz Denoise now has the option to apply masks
Gday, yes you are right, thanks for that, I personally still prefer to use Photoshop masks but its a good option to have. Cheers, Duade
80 dolars for one year or forever...i dont know! can you tell me,please?
Hi Vlad, it is a one time forever payment. Also be sure to search for a 15% discount code as they often have sales. Cheers, Duade 👍
Personally I find Topaz creates way too many odd artefacts on fine detail. It clumps pixels together in rows, reducing the resolution of the image with its weird zippering effect . There's also a vague cross hatched appearance you sometimes get on the background that makes the image look like its been printed on canvas. I've tried every setting combination possible but I just can't get a result I'm happy with. Its just too flawed when you print large or zoom right for my tastes.
G'day Mark, sorry to hear you are having some issues with it. I only apply it to the background and not the bird and then use the opacity slider in photoshop to reduce the impact, I reduce the noise by around 50% if that makes sense, so you can still see some noise. Of all the things I have tried I find Topaz the best. The other thing is we possibly make too much fuss about noise when many images look just fine with noise in them. Cheers, Duade
@@Duade Yes that's right mate, you don't want totally grain free images or they get that artificial "wax works " look about them. I'd much rather use the iso abilities of my camera to keep my shutter speed up. The world's full of noise free, but soft, images!. Aas for only having the topaz working on the background, a fair few people do that and that must have a lot to do with them introducing the new masking feature in the latest version. Thanks for the reply Duade.
Its so pleasant to listen to your kiwi accident, haha
G'day Dustin, glad you like it, however it is not as strong as it used to be as I have not lived in NZ for 17 years. 😀👍
WHAT THE HELL...
Logitech X 530? I hope there is standing something better already
I sold them for like 30€ over a decade ago because especially the subwoofer sucked (something was getting loose inside and it rumbled badly at any activity of the woofer and the speakers also sounded VERY BAD.
Had a while a Logitech Z 5500 system on the computer (via a proper soundcard, the SoundBlaster X-Fidelity with Front I/O plate for instruments recording as well), it was ok ish, but sold this too after a few years and got proper studio monitors and reused an older HiFi stereo amp hidden behind the desk, their 2.0 is MUCH BETTER than anything i ever had on my desk before!
I bet you dont need any good sound at all at your desktop, but X530/540 is.... well in 2020 there were already much better and smaller setups for PC/desktop sound. I mean to just check the audio of your videos you need something else than these Logitech things :D
Lol, yes, I have had those speakers for 15+ years I think, a very long time. I actually use Rode Headphones so don't really use the speakers for anything to be honest. But yes I could do with an upgrade for sure. Cheers, Duade
@@Duade Some speakers are old and gold, but these didnt deserve to be used 15 years :D
But they served me also well for at least 2 years ... i think about 100€ was good for just anything in 5.1 with integrated amp and it fits nice to a desktop setup, slim LCDs these days barely had speakers also (or useless ones)
Don't create noise in the first place then you won't have to remove it in post production.
G'day Ted, some great advice and one we should all aim for, I plan to cover this in a future video. However, many people do struggle with noise, especially with older cameras and having the ability to remove it is a worthwhile skill to know. Cheers, Duade
Topaz is better
Thanks, Topaz and DXO are both very good I must admit. Cheers, Duade