Noise Reduction Comparison

Lightroom 3 beta offers a new Color Noise Reduction processing that is AMAZING! I compared its performance against Lightroom 2.5.

Camera is a Canon 1Ds Mark II at ISO 3200.

Lightroom Settings:

Exposure: +.05

Recovery: 0

Fill: 100

Blacks: 22

Brightness: +50

Contrast: +25

Clarity: +56

Vibrance: 0

Sharpening: 25

Radius: 1

Mask: 0

 

I applied 25 CNR in Lightroom 3 beta and then did the same in Lightroom 2.5, but then I thought "well Beta 3 uses a different method, so let's see if 2.5 could do just as well at 100 CNR." As you can see, CNR at 100 didn't do much better than 25, and not even close to Lightroom 3 beta. This feature will make Lightroom 3 a worthwhile upgrade.

Done