Updated Image Noise Reduction Software
Review by Dave Williams
When you open ON1 NoNoise AI 2023, you’ll see a splash screen with a photo by Erik Kuna so, with that in mind, I want to preface this review by saying that I am writing impartially and without prejudice. I have also tested Topaz DeNoise AI and Luminar Noiseless AI for comparison. Let’s do this!
ON1 markets itself as the professional plug-in option, and this is certainly something I don’t oppose. The company’s UI and UX are great, and the performance of their software is equally high.
The new version, NoNoise AI 2023, works as a standalone or as a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom Classic, among others. When you open the NoNoise AI plug-in, you get a small selection of sliders from which to choose. The two NoNoise AI Models that head up this stack of sliders are Original or High Detail, allowing you to tell the algorithm whether there are lots of details. You also have the option of Sharpening as well as, or instead of, removing noise: To the right of the option for NoNoise AI are options for Tack Sharp AI or Both, which lets you sharpen your photo in the same process. This sharpening is incredibly effective and worked great on the images I put through it.
As you move down to the sliders, there’s Luminance, Enhance Detail, Color, and Micro Sharpening, which are set automatically, or you have the option to take manual control. The effect of certain adjustments made globally can actually give you negative results, so ON1 has given you the option to apply a mask to affect only certain areas of the image.
The actual noise reduction was spot-on with all the images I ran through ON1 NoNoise AI 2023. The machine learning behind the AI has clearly been trained well and gives you a great output. Note: The live preview is faster than others, as is the final rendering time.
The field of AI image-retouching is constantly evolving as different models are trained, and the result varies by the type of noise as well as the camera and sensor that captured the photo; but ON1 NoNoise AI 2023 is leading the way in this area. I’m very impressed with what ON1 has achieved here: The application of various methods and technologies to reduce and remove noise, giving us incredible power as creatives. I can’t find anything wrong with this product, so I’ve given it a 5 out of 5!
