Adobe Lightroom Classic v12.3 Includes AI Denoise

Adobe Lightroom Classic v12.3 is released, and the headline feature is the brand-new AI Denoise.

My initial impression is that the effect is quite impressive, though a bit slow even compared to DxO DeepPRIME XD.

Annie

I just installed the 12.3 update and used AI Denoise on a few photos. My initial impression is that it's a good start but not quite where it needs to be. The tool seems to err on the side of making surfaces that lack detail too smooth. Specifically, I'm a wildlife photographer, and the coats of mammals either show detail in the hair or look smoothed over. I suspect the tool will do well when applied to finished surfaces and materials...architecture, buildings, cars, machinery, etc. Again, this is an initial impression after 10-15 minutes of playing with it. I'm planning to spend more time with the new tool, tonight.

Even if it isn't quite ready for primetime, if Adobe stays true to form, they'll release a couple of updates over the next 9-12 months that improve the performance. These things are tough to get right straight out of the gate.

This is good to see.

I do wish that they had also been able to bring this to an M1 iPad as I do much of my work there. Perhaps and iOS limitation? Anyway, hopefully they will be able to bring it in the next few months.

The feature may introduce loss of detail, but I am yet to find generated artifacts, i.e., fake details like DP XD.
At the moment I know it does not work with iPhone images, but I would probably play with a few more OM-5 raw images tomorrow too.

I have been using the prerelease version of the Adobe denoising tool for a while now. I stopped using DxO software once the initial bugs were ironed out.
Looking forward to a version that does not generate a new file (maybe possible).

Another big feature: curves on masks!!!

as it is the same approach as long ago released AI-demosaick and upsize we shall not get a true parametric raw conversion (generating another file is not parametric) from Adobe in ACR/LR any time soon - so people have to live with huge secondary DNG files permanently residing in the file system - which further cripple backups ( to cloud for example in terms of speed and money ), etc ... DxO PL has a big advantage that their approach is truly parametric, even at cost of having a WYSIWYG only in a small preview crop in NR tool

Adobe did not do any good QA testing - already bugs were found (and reported and acknowledged) for Fuji X-Trans CFA raw files ... which brings the question why their QA manager in charge still has a job as it is literally QA101 ?

blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2023/04/18/denoise-demystified

Adobe said (Eric’s blog post):
We’re even looking into ways to speed up the workflow by not needing to make a new DNG file.

The access to prerelease was quite long (2 months?), but apparently there were not enough Fuji photographers among the prerelease testers.

Thanks for posting the link to the "Denoise Demystified" blog. That was a fun read. While the new tool is impressive on many levels, the sample photos tend to confirm my initial impression that it may err on the side of smoothing areas that don't show much detail. I'd like to see the next version have sliders allowing for a degree of customization on how the tool is applied to different textures or even some form of recognition of what's being denoised...people, animals, natural setting, buildings, etc.

Greg Benz did a comparison:

gregbenzphotography.com/photography-reviews/ai-denoise-lr-acr/

Can you provide a link to where the Fuji bugs are reported please?

Adobe has forums @ community.adobe.com/

a disingenuous comparison vs PureRAW instead of PL ...

you do not need a Fuji photographer to test Fuji raw files

PS: and it is even worse as non Buyer CFA arrangement clearly calls for specifically testing how your stuff works on it ( and they surely were aware or at least shall be aware that DxO delayed release of their most advanced AI-NR for X-Trans CFA raws ) ... just think about it... now granted this is not a mission critical software and users pay to be guinea pigs :-)

yes, they are looking since Enhanced Demosaick started to break parametric editing approach .. that will be how long ? since Feb 2019 at least ... 4+ years