DxO PhotoLab 8.5.1 Elite Edition - Is this software right for you?

 DxO PhotoLab 5 Series

Noise Reduction at it’s finest.

In this short article I will examine the 3 Noise Reduction options found in DxO PhotoLab 5. Yes, I know version 6 is out but for my uses version 5 meets my needs although I believe there is one more Noise Reduction option in version 6. 

I am going to compare 4 separate versions of this image I took while photographing an AHL game for ProHockeyNews.com. This image was shot at ISO 3200 on my Nikon D3s at the Air Canada Centre now known as the Scotiabank Arena which is home to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The only reason I mention this is if I was shooting this at the Toronto Marlies’ home ice, which is not as brightly lit, I would have set the ISO to between 4,000 and 5,000 which would have produced more digital noise.

We are going to look at a couple of areas in this image to see how the noise reduction affects different parts of the image. I am going to open four copies of this image; 

1) with no noise reduction whatsoever

2) with the High Quality option applied

3) with the Prime option and applied

4) with the Deep Prime option applied

In the series of images below, you will notice that I have each one labeled with a number which corresponds to the 1,2,3,4 sequence above.

 

1) - This image is straight out of the box so to speak with no noise reduction at all. There is noise everywhere. There is also texture in the jersey and most noise reduction software can’t tell the difference. So it is going to be interesting to see how DxO handles these two. Ideally we would like to rid our image of the digital noise produced by the high ISO setting and maintain the texture in the fabric - haha, good luck with that eh?

2) - This image has the High Quality Noise Reduction option applied to it. The noise is greatly reduced but also some of the edge detail is gone as well as you can see in the stitching. There is something called “Lens Sharpness” just below the Noise Reduction Panel as well as the ever present “Unsharp Mask” feature that all software has these days. Playing around with these two options may bring some of the lost detail back. Let’s not forget that noise reduction is a form of blurring so this shouldn’t surprise any of us at this point.

3) - This image has the Prime Noise Reduction option applied to it. This image has reduced noise for sure but also a bit more loss of detail. It is quite possible that sharpening the image could bring back some of the missing details in the fabric & texture in the image. It is also quite possible that the ISO used to shoot this image was not high enough to really take advantage of this option.

4) - This image has the Deep Prime Noise Reduction option applied to it. So it would seem a likely conclusion that if Prime had slight issues with loss of some of the details, then Deep Prime would have even more but this may not be the case here. There is no doubt that the noise reduction is greater here, there is more noticeable detail in some areas of this image. Odd as that seems, it could very well be that this has a more intelligent (AI) algorithm being applied.

No Noise Reduction

High Quality Noise Reduction

Prime Noise Reduction

Deep Prime Noise Reduction

So the above conclusions aside, let’s not forget that these images are being viewed at 100% for one and if downsized for web use, it is quite possible that the High Quality version would be quite acceptable. Now, going to print could be a different story here but I am willing to bet that the High Quality version, once sharpened properly for output could hold up quite well just the same.
Again, the Prime & Deep Prime could be best served with much higher ISO settings or much older sensors like the Nikon D3, D700, D300 and other brands of the same era.