More detail is lost but the image is generally better IMO. Where it runs into problems (like with the other images) is luminance noise.ĭarktable color and luminance noise reductionĪfter comparing the darker shots you can see where Lightroom pulls out in front with luminance smoothing. The first set to wavelets mode, blending uniformly for HSV color to remove the color noise. I've taken the approach advised by Robert Hutton and done two passes of the module. Darktable's profiled noise reduction takes a fair bit more tweaking to get satisfactory results. Next some rather dark photos from the Dark Sky Observatory. I'm not sure this is the noise reduction or just differences in RAW processing and camera profiles, the screen captures exaggerate it some as well.

Darktable seems to preserve more details but at the cost of some muddy colors and artifacts in places. There isn't a lot of noise at ISO 1000 so either program really does an OK job. Lightroom 5 noise reduction, settings in image

No I haven't bought Lightroom 6 yet, I barely use it as is so sinking more money into it seems like a poor decision.įirst, comparing a couple of well lit shots at ISO 1000 from the X100s.ĭarktable profiled noise reduction, settings in image I've been using Darktable over the last year and just wanted to do a quick comparison to Lightroom 5's NR features. Quite a few of my shots are done at ISO 1600 and above so noise reduction in post processing is something I pay attention to. Pixel Peeping: Lightroom vs Darktable Noise Reduction Thu 03 March 2016

Darktable vs lightroom