HOW IT WORKS Noise reduction tools

You’ve got three main options for reducing noice, and here’s where you’ll find all the buttons and sliders

01 Before and after view

Click this button and pick Compare Before and After Images from the dropdown menu to check alterations against the original image. Do this before you start work – the ‘before’ shot reflects the state of the image when you press the button, not the saved version you first opened.

02 NR button

Click this button to display the Noise Reduction panel. The panel can be ‘docked’ at the side of the screen or floated over your image.

03 Noise Reduction checkbox

This switches the noise reduction on and off. Use it to see what your image will look like without any noise reduction at all. You might switch if off if you’re going to apply noise reduction in Photoshop instead, though.

04 Method menu

This has three options: Faster (the default), Better Quality and Better Quality 2013 (more complex).

05 Faster

This method has two sliders: Intensity and Sharpness. Intensity increases the noise reduction effect while Sharpness enhances fine detail to counteract the softening effect. They interact closely, and reducing the sharpness will also reduce the noise. At the bottom are an Edge Noise Reduction box (which can be effective, though edges may look artificial) and an Astro Noise Reduction box for long exposures.

06 Better Quality

The Better Quality method offers the same controls as Faster. In fact it’s quite difficult to see the difference in results between this and the Faster method, though in some instances the rendition of textures and details in darker areas looks a little better.

07 Better Quality 2013

This is the most complex method, and does not necessarily yield the best results. It offers both Luminance and Color Intensity sliders, but as the other two methods remove colour noise automatically, having the Color sliders here is not necessarily an advantage. The Luminance and Color Intensity sliders have their own Sharpness sliders underneath, which adds a further layer of complexity.