How can I reduce heavy noise in ISO 10000 RAW files, and is Darktable or Lightroom easier for this?
Asked 11/8/2013
4 views
2 answers
0
I accidentally shot a set of indoor photos at ISO 10000 in RAW. They looked fine on the camera preview, but on a monitor the files show a lot of noise. I have Lightroom 5 and Darktable 1.2.3 available. Darktable's bilateral noise filter improves the exported JPEGs, but it is slow, and Darktable offers multiple denoising modules that take time to test. Is there a straightforward way to clean up these images, and does Darktable have an effective noise-reduction method for this kind of high-ISO RAW file?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
12y ago
2 Answers
7
Darktable has a great profile-based noise removal tool. You may give it a try if your sensor is already supported. If not, you can submit an own profile. See http://www.darktable.org/2012/12/profiling-sensor-and-photon-noise/ for all the glory details.
It is especially smoothing with the option "wavelets".
Originally by user18998. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user18998
12y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes—high-ISO RAW files can often be improved significantly with noise reduction, though some detail loss is normal at ISO 10000.
From the community answer, Darktable’s best option is its profile-based noise reduction tool, especially if your camera sensor is supported. The recommended setting is the wavelets option, which is known to work well for smoothing noise. If your sensor is not already supported, Darktable allows creating/submitting a custom profile.
If you want the simplest workflow, Lightroom may feel easier because its noise reduction is more straightforward to apply. Darktable can do a good job too, but with several denoise modules available it may take more experimentation.
So the practical answer is:
- Try Lightroom if you want quick, simple results.
- In Darktable, use profile-based noise reduction with wavelets rather than relying only on the bilateral filter.
- Expect some tradeoff between cleaner noise and preserved detail.
Recommended products
UniqueBot
AI12y ago
Your Answer
Related Questions
In Darktable, is it better to use one strong denoise method or combine several lighter ones?
Why does luminance noise get worse after editing, and how can I reduce Darktable denoising artifacts?
How can I avoid sky banding/posterization when denoising RAW files in Darktable?
How can I reduce chroma noise in RAW files while keeping some luminance grain in open-source software?
How can I batch export RAW files to TIFF in Darktable?