Denoise and Masking Updates in Adobe Camera Raw (v15.3)

Adobe Camera Raw (v15.3) introduces Denoise and several Masking updates including new People Masking Categories and Adaptive Presets.

Enhance > Denoise — Denoise was designed to remove noise with the help of Artificial Intelligence in photographs taken in low light situations that require high ISO settings without loosing sharpness and detail. Denoise does a noticeably better job than the traditional Noise Reduction tools, removing noise while maintaining color separation, preserving details in an image, and cleaning up noise in shadow areas. Currently, Denoise can be applied to Bayer and X-Trans raw files. For additional information, be sure to check out the video below:

There are four ways to access Denoise

• Click the “More Image Settings” icon (the three dots) and choose Enhance.
• Rt-click in the image area and select Enhance from the context sensitive menu.
• Use the keyboard shortcut Command + Shift + D (Mac) | Control + Shift + D (Win).
• Click the Denoise button in the Detail panel. 

When Denoise is enabled, Camera Raw also applies Raw Details. 

Click and hold in the preview area to toggle between Enhanced and Without Enhance. 

• Click the magnifying glass to zoom out, then click in the preview area to zoom to a specific location. Or, click anywhere in the image to zoom to that area.
• Use the Hand tool in the preview area to scroll the image.

The default Amount is set to 50, but you can use the slider to tone down or amplify the amount of Denoise in an image. To reset the slider to the default of 50, double click on the tic mark. Note: applying the minimum amount of Denoise will not look the same as unchecking the Denoise option because some aspects of noise reduction (especially color noise) are still applied when Denoise is enabled (even when the value is set to 1).

When applying Denoise, the resulting file will be saved as a new DNG and the file name appended with “-Enhanced-NR”. 

The enhanced DNG file is added to the filmstrip next to the source photo and Adobe Camera Raw will automatically target the new DNG (unless you’ve selected another file before the Enhance operation completed).

Denoise carries over any enhancements made to the source image. However I would suggest that you apply Denoise early in your workflow so that you’re making adjustments on the cleanest file possible. Otherwise, enhancements that you’ve made (Sharpening and Texture for example), may need to be revisited after running Denoise. 

• Content Aware Healing spots don’t preview in the Enhance dialog. However Camera Raw will automatically update any healed areas after applying Denoise. Note: if you have a lot of healing spots, it might take a bit longer to render the new document and you’ll want to be sure that you review the results.
• Masking will also be automatically updated after applying Denoise.

To batch process images, select them in the Filmstrip and choose Denoise to adjust the Amount slider in the Enhance dialog.  Or, press Option (Mac) | Alt (Win) and click the Denoise button to apply Denoise to all selected images without displaying the Enhance dialog (Denoise will apply the same Amount value as the previous time Denoise was applied)

You can’t apply Denoise on an image more than once  although you can return to the original raw file and apply Denoise using different settings.  

All of the legacy Manual Noise Reduction features are still available in the Detail panel if you want to add “additional” noise reduction, either globally or locally.

If the resulting image looks too smooth after running Denoise, use the Effects panel to add Grain.

While you can’t apply Denoise on images created by Photomerge, you can apply Denoise on the individual images before using Photomerge to create Panoramas and HDR images. 

Currently, Denoise and Super Resolution can not be used together. However you first run Denoise on any Bayer/X-Trans raw file, export the results to an output-referred format (such as TIFF), then running Super Resolution on that TIFF file.

Updates to Masking — Camera raw has made several updates including people masking, presets, and previews. 

• Camera Raw now offers the ability to use AI/ML to automatically generate two new types of people masks based on facial hair (beard & mustache) and clothes. 
• There are three new presets in the Adaptive Portrait preset group: Darken Beard, Polished Portrait, and Enhance Clothes.
• The Eye icon (the Toggle Visibility button) was added to the Masking tool’s Light, Color, Curves, Effects, and Detail sections. 
• The Brush tool displays a preview when adjusting the size and feather sliders. Note: the Healing tools also displays previews when adjusting  sliders.

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