Please Improve noise reduction to modern standards

I wish there were a roadmap where I could see if CO is planing to add features I care about. The latest updates are OK, but nothing I could not easily address with the AI brush. The iPad app is interesting, but too many left/right movements across the program for me to make useable as a travel photo processor. Upshot, don't care about it - I'll take my laptop. However, better noise reduction would make CO my sole photo processing program and I would continue my yearly license to get incremental improvements a'la DXO. Without this, the current CO capabilities fit my needs and obviates future upgrades. Too bad as I have been a customer for quite some time. I will not be upgrading next year unless the noise reduction roadmap changes.

Hi everyone, I see a few comments or questions as to why we cannot do this or what is holding us back, so I thought an answer was due: we have not prioritized this change.

Implementing AI noise reduction like it is done in other software is most probably possible from a technical standpoint, but at the moment it doesn't align with our strategy for many reasons, ranging from workflow choices to position compared to competition ... and to many more.

In short, we are not working on it for early 2025. Our priorities are constantly evolving, so this is absolutely not the end of this discussion, we still believe it is a consideration for the future, but I wanted to make sure you have the right expectations for the next few months.

This request is originally from 1,5 yrs ago, and not much has happened since.

I wonder what is holding the CO1 team back?

Is AI noise reduction that hard to implement? Perhaps, I don't know enough about it to have an informed opinion.

But I stopped upgrading CO1 because of just a thing like this: the noise reduction is hopelessly outdated, while it is, or can be, such a core element of image quality. All this effort being poured into group working, cloud features, etc., but not getting CO1 up to date regarding noise reduction seems hard to grasp. If you see what Adobe and DxO can do with high iso images, it is quite amazing, it would be a great practical addition to CO1 and would take away tedious roundtripping and additional DNG files etc.

Even if CO1 is geared more towards professionals in the fashion industry that use big medium format cameras and studio lighting, there are other users that don't even consider CO1 anymore solely due to the lack of 2024 level noise reduction.

When I left DXO for Capture One in the beginning of 2019, missing the power of DXO Noise Reduction was a set back. The only reason why I still keep DXO is for the noise reduction, especially for the night time images or other high ISO shots at 12,000 and above.

Once I finish culling in C1, I then send over DXO for noise reduction and any other tool that might help for that particular image(s). DXO then expots back as a DMG file, where I do my final edits. At least C1 has improved the DMG handling over the last couple of years. The negative and time consuming aspect is the file management. Which is why I always work in sessions and later import my raw files only into the catalog later.

In this day and age, I do not know why this can not be done in C1 instead of outside source.

Hi! I have to be Phase One since the P45+, IQ180, IQ3 100 and I upgraded to IQ4 150 as soon as was launched in 2019. What is one thing in common with all of them? Noise at high ISO, even with the difference between CCD and CMOS technology, those wonderful engineering marvels, lack noise control at high ISO. I´m aware that probably the system size has its limitations, however, to achieve excellence, Phase One should think primarily about their customers. I am a loyal user, however, I need to surpass my competitors in this crowded business and that is why I chose to upgrade to Phase One since 2009

Night photography or dark environments are an issue with high ISO because I can´t go further than 200, and sometimes, I would like to squeeze all the digital back potential.

If the R+D department finds a way to help me and other Phase One users eliminate noise through software or firmware, I am sure that we will be more than happy to achieve great results.

May be make aliance with DXO plugin’in ?

this is more or less the only thing keeping me from switching from adobe.

The denoise and sharpening features are out of date. I agree that the C1 versions can make your photos worse.

I am going to pay $200 for Topaz for features that are in Lightroom and should be in C1. I'm not ready to move back to Lightroom, but I am thinking about it.

@BeO

Yes, using bigger colorspaces did cause some problems with conversion into sRGB.

Deep Blue in ProPhotoRGB is replaced with purple in sRGB, so after the conversion the images did not look as nice (Blue of the sky, faces etc.)

When i work with the target colorspace it does make much less problems.

And since our customers are normal people, its not a problem.

Interesting, thanks.

Is there a reason why you convert to sRGB so early in your workflow?

I have an example video here that shows the extended process, i.e. there is still a correction in photoshop.

Otherwise it's always the same for me, no matter if its a nature image or a wedding.

Note that this is before the last update, i.e. now the style includes the AI masks (for background and object) and a luma mask (for the highlights).

The system used was a Ryzen 7950X, 64GB ECC, AMD Radeon PRO W6800 ECC (2020 GPU, Like AMD RX 6800, ECC = Memory Error Correction and makes the system more stable)

If you want to have fun with AI denoising you need about 20 teraflops.

And I advise you to buy a professional GPU, do yourself a favor and don't buy a gaming GPU.

No Talking - Just editing - YouTube

Thank you Thomas.

369260519517

Yes, Deep Prime XD is Xtreme Detail.

And yes, i use it in mass Processing since 2020 (DeepPrime), 2022 (Deep Prime XD).

I lower it to 30%, to avoid artifacts, i also use the lens correction (vignetting), i export to dng and use this files in Capture One with a special "Style" that does use a special color correction (i would call it natural colors).

After Capture One i do antother denoising, with Topaz PhotoAI for images above ISO 1600, to get them more perfect.

I use the autopilot, which I set in the preferences so that it really only filters out the roughest noise.

Can you please tell me what is "Xtreme detail"? Do you mean DeepPrime XD, and do you use DeepPrime XD in mass processing?

(I use DXO Photolab 6 on occasion, for select images, but mostly the old DeepPrime). 

Hi, 

Since DxO DeepPrime was released (2020 with PhotoLab), as an improvement in the Xtreme detail version (2022, with PhotoLab 6), there has not been a single photo that I have processed without it.

Xtreme detail in particular improves the demosaic and makes the output of my images finer, the colors are much better and not washed out.

My photography has changed since I started using AI denoising.

I can concentrate more on the photography and less on the camera.

That means I'm always in AV mode (-0.5 EV / -1EV, to avoid cutting the highlights) at weddings, always with Auto ISO (100 to 25600), the only thing I control is the aperture.

The camera is allowed to go up to ISO 25600 on its own (most are between ISO 400 and 3200), which it really only does late at night and I don't have to throw these pictures away.

When I see people on instagram being told to shoot in manual mode because they need to have control over the camera, I get annoyed.

I have the possibility to limit the behavior of the camera so that I can imagine what it will do and therefore it remains in my control.

If I had to set the camera for every situation, I would miss a lot of important situations.

Smartphones are catching up in terms of quality and have already overtaken around 40% of amateur to semi-professional photographers.

Why should I as a customer book someone who is slower than a smartphone, because he has to take care about the "right" settings? 

Move with the times or time will move with you.

____

Because Capture One has now, especially with the last update (16.3.4, 4 days ago), become a mass image processing weapon, I am now able to process 2000 images in 4 days, in single image Photoshop editing quality.

374108460437 So you're going to pop into a post that you've contributed nothing to and moan because someone hasn't considered your specific situation and, worse, call them out??? Dude.  Check yourself before you post. 

@Eugene Girshtel
We know that. NR needs to be applied to preview images. I constantly have to double check settings or zoom in to see if NR has been applied. It is ridiculous to have to do that. Editing 800 event photos at a time makes your solution a total non-starter. Think before you post.

If you zoom into 100% or even 66% you will see the noise reduction applied. I don't see an issue with this as you want to be zoomed in at 100% to accurately judge noise reduction and sharpness.

I would just like c1 noise reduction to actually appear in the photo preview, not just the tiny "focus" pane.  But I don't subscribe and am still on '22 so it's wishful thinking that I'll ever get that without coughing up $ for a new version :( 

Right now I'm batch processing C1 output through Topaz AI - It's not *too* bad a workflow thanks at least to the fact that the developers at Topaz implemented reasonable batch controls, but it's certainly a step I'd rather not have to take!