Have you ever taken your ISO to the limit?
Or is there only a specific limit you are comfortable with?
I’d say I was the latter before this experiment. I wasn’t comfortable taking my ISO to extreme amounts due to fear of losing data and detail in the capture and noise reduction process. Regardless of what any camera review, manufacturer, etc told me, there is no way I was going above ISO 2000-3200.
Here we are in 2024, when “that’s how I’ve always done it” really needs to get kicked to the curb.There have been incredible advancements in camera sensors and post-production software regarding noise handling and noise reduction.
So, I decided to put it all to the test despite my silly fears. Setting my camera to ISO 102,000 seemed like a very bad idea. There I go with that fear again—let it go!
Topics Discussed:
00:00 Introduction
00:11 AI Clarification
00:46 Macro Opportunity
01:57 How I shoot Macro
03:11 ISO Experiment Discussed
04:47 How to Use AI Noise Reduction
06:24 Why is AI Denoise Grey & Unusable
08:44 AI Denoise + Manual NR
12:22 How far can you go?
13:06 ISO 102K Experiment
14:36 Thoughts from the Experiment
15:22 Conduct your experiment
For Blake, it's all about the art and process synergy. He dives deep into complex topics and makes them easy to understand through his outside-the-box thinking so that you can use these tricks in your workflow today!
Good to see that Adobe is catching up, Blake. I do think, though, that they are not yet quite at the level of DxO PhotoLab with its Prime XD technology (or DxO Pure Raw 4 with Prime XD2). I have shot many photos at ISO 10,000, mostly with my Nikon D750. More recently, I’m shooting with a Fujifilm X-T5 as I’m getting on in years and I got tired of hauling around a full frame body and lenses—not to mention that my neck refused to put up with it. Thanks for all the valuable information you make available in your videos; not only do I learn, but I have fun doing it!
Maybe not where those are, but this is incredible. Especially because I don’t have to leave my workflow at all. I cant stand program jumping. So for me to go from aCR with this feature right into PS, man I’m a pig in slop kind of happy! Thanks for sharing alternatives.
Completely agree with you Blake
I usually convert my camera specific RAW files to DNG files using the Adobe DNG Converter app. I find that ACR Denoise opens and processes these resultant DNG files without problem. Another very helpful video. Thanks for posting these.
Thanks for the overview Blake. Informative as usual. What is a bit confusing is after years of Adobe promoting DNG lately their enhancements seem to leave it out. What about every one not shooting in native RAW. Many times it takes Adobe months to add cameras so DNG was the go to option for RAW. Also the volume of people shooting on I Phones or Android are left out as well. (JPEG, TIF, or DNG) Just a interesting direction for Adobe.
I’ve been informed it does work on some DNG files, sounds to me like it’s those dng files that are converted from Lightroom. However, it doesn’t work on ACR converted dng files for some reason.
I can’t speak for Androids but while the ProRAW files from the iPhone native camera aren’t compatible, RAW files from 3rd party apps on the iPhone (e.g., Lightroom camera) work just fine.
After shooting at 10,000 ISO I found the faces distorted when working with ACR Noise reduction. Any suggestions?
I second the point about PureRaw, especially the latest version. It’s the clear winner. And it’s got a plugin for a roundtrip to Lightroom. And it doesn’t just do noise reduction, it does lens corrections better than Lightroom. I have found that it is making Topaz Sharpen AI not really needed.
it will not be grey out if it is a DNG fill converted on import into LrC the ONLY DNGs it does not work on are DNGs created in LrC or Ps like panos etc so you denoise first. you are not restricted to running AI Denoise on your cameras RAWs you can run it on DNGs created on import. Every image i bring into LrC is converted to a DNG and AI Denoise runs every time on them when i need it. It is slow, but is fine. I just ran AI Denoise on 60 DNG files created on import into LrC. Maybe before doing a video on AI Denoise you should learn something about it and what it can be used on. also since AI Denoise creates a new DNG file, if you want to mask out and area from being effected you can bring both the original file and the denoised file into photoshop and do masking. you can also layer the denoised version above the original and adjust opacity etc
Hi Blake. I do event photography. When photographing concerts and live theatre with low and complicated lighting, I must increase my ISO sometimes as high as 25000. I too have experimented with Adobe’s denoise, which I use a lot. If I focus on denoising an object, like a guitar, the person’s face comes out looking like a manikin. So, I always denoise for the person’s face, which requires a lower setting than for an object, and leave it at that. I’m now interested in what other area specific denoise techniques you do in Photoshop.
After photographing an event where I take over 1000 images, and selection around 200 for the client, I batch denoise to save time. I first group the images by ISO, and batch denoise images with similar ISO. I have denoised batches of up to 50 images, which sometimes takes 2-3 hours – these are 45mb images from a Nikon Z8. While Adobe and my computer are working at this, I’ll go for a ski or bike ride or bake bread.
also you can run AI Denoise on DNG files created from the Adobe DNG converter.
The only DNG files you can not run through AI Denoise are ones save or exported from LrC, Ps, Lr or created when LrC etc creates a Panoramic or HDR
ISO represents an organization. Calling it Eye-so is like calling the government agencies Feebee (FBI) or See-eee-ayyy (CIA).
Thanks for posting your experiment. I have a Nikon D3300 so my highest ISO is 12,800 with a super-mach-expando mode Hi-1 at 25,600 but I am looking forward to my own experiments.
Hi Blake, I did this early this year with my new Nikon Zf, up to 51200 and was blown away too. I mostly use auto ISO now and with deNoise there’s no worries.
I just got a Zf too! I love that camera! It’s my walk around camera when I’m out on quick family trips and stuff. It’s a beautiful machine!
The AI button is greyed out for me….🤣
Thank you. Very informative on two levels – the high ISO concept and AI De-noise processing. You and Matt K. are my two primary photo mentors that really help to make me “smart”.