Image quality deterioration after updating Noise Reduction

Report · Jun 06, 2025

Good morning everyone,
I have been using Camera Raw non-stop for 8 years now for my work as a photographer at film festivals and I have to complain about Camera Raw's new noise reduction process which I find simply poor and totally inappropriate by my standards.

I use Camera raw to perform HDR of projected movie photos during screenings and of course to replicate the effect with great results I use HDR with two exposures, and I used to take two photos (the one above and the one below-exposed), then reduce the noise via AI, and then create from the two new files a new HDR image that with little issues recreates the effect without compressing the quality of off-screen details. But this new method Introduced by the update, downloaded today, of version 17.4 of using the AI of Noise Reduction directly on the original image does not work at all and even deteriorates the quality of details beyond repair.

Let me give you a practical example: on the left is the image recreated with AI before denoise and on the right after AI denoise and as you can see on the bottom right corner the image loses quality considerably.

Report · Jun 06, 2025

Hi,
I've moved your post from the Photoshop forum to the separate Camera Raw forum where you are more likely to get a resonse relevant to your issue.

Dave

Report · Jun 06, 2025

Good morning everyone,
I have been using Camera Raw non-stop for 8 years now for my work as a photographer at film festivals and I have to complain about Camera Raw's new noise reduction process which I find simply poor and totally inappropriate by my standards.

I use Camera raw to perform HDR of projected movie photos during screenings and of course to replicate the effect with great results I use HDR with two exposures, and I used to take two photos (the one above and the one below-exposed), then reduce the noise via AI, and then create from the two new files a new HDR image that with little issues recreates the effect without compressing the quality of off-screen details. But this new method Introduced by the update, downloaded today, of version 17.4 of using the AI of Noise Reduction directly on the original image does not work at all and even deteriorates the quality of details beyond repair.

Let me give you a practical example: on the left is the image recreated with AI before denoise and on the right after AI denoise and as you can see on the bottom right corner the image loses quality considerably.

So, I implore you at Adobe to get rid on the next Camera RAW updates of this new single-image service because it simply doesn't work and it is also -- time-dependent because it takes too long compared to before to create a new clean version of the image -- and to keep the method that makes two new separate files when applying noise removal via AI.

Best

Report · Jun 06, 2025

Hello,

Can you please share an example of a photo file and settings, prior to apply AI denoise, so I can investigate further?

Thanks for your help,
David

Report · Jun 10, 2025

Hello David

I don't want to share all the lighting settings because otherwise everyone would copy them, but as I said, there are two pictures (one shot at ISO 800 for the screen and the other at ISO 5000 for the dark areas) jointed with HDR with in post-production improved exposure mainly thanks to the addition of masks.

In the previous post, I included the image created in version 17.4 with HDR before and after the subsequent denoising, which caused a huge drop in quality and detail and the resulting dirt.

The new update works on the same photo, which doesn't retain the same details as it would if a new DNG file were created. I'll show you an example to illustrate on version 17.4 the collapse that the new update causes: this is the same photo created with the previous method - I re-downloaded from Adobe website the version 17.3.1 - which uses the two photos method, both enhanced with AI denoise and then merged using HDR. As you can see, the noise and grime in the lower right corner has completely disappeared, and the image is much more organic and clean. I also included the two original photos, which were then combined using HDR.

I believe that this new use of AI denoise on a single image without creating a new DNG file is counterproductive and useless, so I urge you to leave the previous method as it was before the 17.4 update. I also believe that many users who use HDR for work would agree with me on the grounds of image quality.

Best and please, again, return to the previous system

Valerio Greco