I was always a strong believer in Open Source software. However, last year, my faith had been shaken. I used to spend several minutes fiddling around with slider or even masking in order to remove noise while other software out there can do it in just one single click!

Eurasian blue tit

I take mainly bird photos. Those little cute birdies never stand still therefore a high shutter speed is a must. But high shutter speed comes with its cost: high ISO, which in turn result in more noise. In addition, bright midday is not the most flattering light. Less light means higher ISO and more noise. I would say, the light was never bright enough and the shutter speed was never fast enough when it comes to bird photography. High ISO is your permant compagnion.
I bought a camera with very good high ISO/Noise ratio performance, the Nikon D850 and the Nikon D500, and a fast prime lens, the Nikon 500mm F4 VR, but the noise from high ISO was still always there. Then I read about softwares that were supposed to give stellar noise reduction performance because of their Artificial Intelligent (AI) denoise engine. I tried and bought 3 of them: DXO Photolab Elite with Prime denoise feature (more expensive than the standard version), Luminar 4, and Topaz Lab Denoise AI.

The Denoise Battle!

Luminar

The First software I bought was Luminar 4. Not because it has the best denoise engine but more on its creative feature: sky replacement and sunrays. I dare to say that Luminar is really doing a good job on those! However, the denoise performance was not as good as I expected, therefore, I kept looking around for better denoise software.

DXO Photolab

I tried Topaz Lab Denoise AI but back then, I did not like the output result. It looks like the only thing it did was to find and mask out, very poorly, the focused area in the image and blurred the rest. The result was a noisy ream along the edge of the subject but indeed a very smooth, noise free background. Something I was not very convinced with.
So I ended up buying DXO Photolab Elite with its Prime denoise feature because I was quite satisfied with the result during the trial period. The first thing to know when it comes to DXO Photolap is that the "low cost" 130 Euro advertised software is NOTHING THAN A RAW PROCESSOR. It can not do more nor better than any free software out there! I mean really any! It does not have HSL, lens correction, perspective correction. And the denoise engine is quite poor. In order to get their so called "fancy" features such as HSL function, Prime denoise and lens correction, you will have to buy the Prime version which cost almost twice as much! Oh yes you heared it! you have to get the Elite version, which I did, for 200 Euro.
Unfortunately, the more I used the software, the more I disliked it. It was like using a Beta version software. And when you report bug or make feature request, the only answer you get is "we will implement that in the next major release!" The next major release which you will have to pay extra for. I find this practice a little bit against their "buy once, own and use it forever" moto. What is the point of a owning something which is not working properly? And indeed, I bought that software because I did not like Adobe's subscription system. However, if I have to pay 200 Euro for the software and then 90 Euro every year for an update then what is the difference with paying a monthly subscription? I am not saying that he DXO software did not do a good job, indeed, it does it very well but only if DXO has data about your camera - lens combination and if you are not annoyed with the interface of the software and ready to pay 90 Euro a year for an upgrade! Here is what I mean. I had an old Nikon 500mm f4 non-VR lens. I was pairing it with my Nikon D850. The DXO software does not have that lens in its database so I ended up with mediocre result. My Tamron lens was recognized as a Sigma lens, my old Sigma lens as a Nikon lens. In addition, even if the lens is in the database but not the lens paired with a teleconverter, then I still ended up with mixed result. It was just a mess!

Topaz Lab Denoise AI

So I had enough and decided to give again Topaz Lab Denoise AI a try. To my surprise, with the newest version of the software, the noisy ream was not present anymore in the photo. It was working perfectly! You do not have a raw processor but for the only task it does, it does it perfectly! I noticed as well that in the forum, they really listen their customer and do not charge for all the new improvement that they bring in. I am happy I ditched DXO and I moved to Topaz Lab Denoise AI.
Last but not least, Topaz Lab also has various AI photo editing software. I am using extensively their image resizing software Gigapixel AI for enlarging image, and Sharpen AI for smart sharpening. In addition they also have their own raw - photo editing Topaz studio, Mask AI for quick and smart mask, Jpeg to Raw AI for editing Jpeg like raw file, Adjust AI for those fancy filters, Video enhance AI for video editing. I mean, Topaz Lab has then all as long as it the name of the thing you looking for ends with AI!
If you want to give Topaz Lab a try then click here. You will get 15% off any product from Topaz Lab!
May the camera be with you!