The Noise Reduction and Sharpening sliders might be the obvious go-to tools for optimizing high-ISO images, but these can easily leave you with soft, wishy-washy detail or exaggerated noise as you try to play one off against the other. In fact, there are better ways to get your high-ISO images looking smoother and sharper.
You’ll find Lightroom’s sharpening and noise reduction tools live side by side in the Detail tab in the Develop module. That’s logical enough, since you often have to play one off against the other to get the best out of high-ISO images.
But you’ll probably have notices that both sections in this panel have a Detail tab, whose function is rather less obvious. When you use them in conjunction with the other tools, though, you open up the potential for much better results at high ISOs.
01 A high-ISO shot that needs help!
This image was taken in a dimly-lit motorcycle museum on a 42-megapixel Sony A7R II at ISO 12,800. A high ISO on a high-resolution camera is always going to be trouble and, sure enough, zooming in on this image shows a very clear noise pattern.
02 Lightroom’s default sharpening and noise reduction
For a start, Lightroom applies the same sharpening and noise reduction settings to every image, regardless of the camera, resolution, sensor size and ISO. The sharpening Amount is set to 40, the sharpening Radius to 1.0, the Detail to 25 and the Masking to 0. No Luminance noise reduction is applied by default, but it does set the Color noise reduction to 25.
03 Let’s apply some Luminance noise reduction
So if our image has obvious noise, it seems the logical thing to do is apply some noise reduction. For this we need the Luminance noise reduction slider. We don’t need to do anything with the Color noise sliders because it’s almost always luminance noise that’s the problem. If we push the slider up to 50, the noise is largely gone. The trouble is, this makes details look quite soft.
04 Can we increase the sharpening?
So if the fine detail is starting to look mushy, the next logical step is to try increasing the sharpening. This works up to a point, but quickly re-introduces the noise you’ve just suppressed. And once you start trying to play off the sharpening and noise reduction sliders against each other, you can easily introduce that unnatural tell-tale ‘watercolor’ effect. This becomes especially apparent if you try to limit the sharpening effect with the Masking slider – we’re definitely leaving that well alone.
05 This is where the Detail slider proves its worth
Instead of increasing the sharpening Amount value (we’ll reset that to the default value of 40), what about the Detail slider? This is a very interesting option. It can enhance the appearance of fine detail in low ISO shots, but can also introduce noise on cameras with smaller sensors and at high ISOs. It’s both the villain and the hero for noise reduction! In this instance it’s the hero, because we can push the Detail slider all the way up to maximum to add some real crispness to the fine details without a huge penalty in noise – the adjustment we made to the Luminance slider earlier keeps it well under control.
06 More Detail in the Noise Reduction section!
This isn’t the only Detail slider. There’s another in the Detail panel’s Noise Reduction section, and this can be equally useful for enhancing detail in high-ISO images. This ‘detail’ slider is slightly different, preserving and enhancing fine detail as part of the noise reduction process. Let’s push this right up to maximum too. Even after this, the noise is still pretty well under control, but the detail in the photo has a lot more ‘bite’.
07 Even more definition with the Texture slider
If you want even more definition in the detail, exit the Detail panel altogether and head to the Basic panel instead. In the Presence panel, push the Texture slider right up to maximum (you may not have to go that far but this will quickly show its potential). The Texture slider is an interesting late addition to Lightroom, enhancing the contrast in fine details in a more natural looking way than regular sharpening.
08 Before and after comparison
So what have these rather aggressive-looking detail and texture increases done to the noise in our image? Well, the noise is increased, but not that much. If we compare it to the original it’s both crisper and smoother – and if there’s a little too much noise, still, you can wind back the adjustments a little.
09 Saving a preset
This is a very useful set of adjustments for high ISO images but it did take a couple of minutes – so it makes sense to save them as a one-click preset for future use. But make sure you don’t save ALL the adjustments applied to your image, only those directly related to the sharpening and noise reduction. That’s the Detail section (all boxes) and the Texture box in the Basic section. I’ve also checked the Support Amount option, bottom left.
10 Applying the preset
Let’s say I want to apply the same noise reduction settings to a different image. It’s always best to zoom in first so that you can see the effect. Now I can just select my new preset from the left sidebar and, because I checked the box when I saved it, I also have an Amount slider so that I can vary the strength of the effect to suit the image!
So why not just use the Enhance option instead?
Good question. The Lightroom Enhance option can apply AI noise reduction and detail enhancement that’s far more effective than the regular sharpening/noise reduction tools. I don’t like using it unless I have to, though, for the following reasons:
- The Enhance option takes a few seconds and it’s effective on single images but too laborious to apply to whole batches of them
- It also produces a demosaiced part-processed DNG file that’s 2-4x larger than the original RAW file, and that can quickly swallow up valuable storage
- Very often images need only a light treatment, not the full weight of Adobe’s AI processing
- Sheer stubbornness – I think Lightroom ought to be able to produce decent results on its own without leaning on AI!
