Lightroom 2

LRussoPhoto

Does Lightroom 2 have noise reduction?

pathfinder

Not really.

The noise reduction in LR3 is pretty good.

There are several noise reduction plug ins, some of which will also run as stand alone programs that are very good. Noise ware would be my first recommendation.

There may be plug ins that work with LR2 that I am unaware of.

MarkR

That's probably a little unfair-- the noise reduction in LR2 is decent, but it is blown away by the NR in LR3. In general to be effective, NR should be done as close to the beginning of the raw pipeline as possible. Topazlabs, for example, recommends doing it before exposure adjustment.

The nice thing about raw in general, and LR in particular, is that it will apply NR at the appropriate part of the rendering pipeline, regardless of when you actually start moving the sliders.

pathfinder

Marc, I knew I would upset some with my comment, but really, how does it compare to LR3 or NoiseWare? Would you use the noise reduction in LR2 in preference to NoiseWare or LR3??? I no longer even use LR2 at all, as LR3 is just that much, much better. Especially in Raw conversion, only a small part of which is noise reduction. Lightroom3 has so much better camera profiles and Raw conversion engine, that there is no comparison in the programs. I still find CS4 quite useful ( even though I have CS5, but LR2 I find no reason to use, if you have access to LR3. If LR2 is your only software, then yes, it can be serviceable, but it is not compelling in noise reduction.

The ability to use noise reduction early is valid, but not always a real deal maker, either. While I agree with the principal, I find it less than compelling at times.

I tend to question categorical absolutes, usually. :deadhorse

Marc is correct that there is a box for Noise Correction with Sliders for Luminanace Noise and Color Noise in the Develop Panel for LR2. I don't think I ever used them, Maybe some folks have a better opinion of them than I do. I doubt it though.... I never heard of anyone expressing high regard for them, but I have slept since they were released, so.....

MarkR

No, of course not. And I'm not upset by your comment-- I thought I was just adding a little bit of exposition to your original post. But for mild noise reduction LR2 did quite fine-- a bit smeary if applied heavily.

And certainly applying NR late in the game is not a deal breaker, and the NR police won't come after you (I hope!)-- but it's not "ideal", and again, the advantage of raw is that you don't have to worry about when to apply it, it gets to the right point in the pipeline automagically.

pathfinder

To be frank, I had to look at the Develop Panel to remember the Noise sliders in LR2, I don't think I ever used them.

The RAW engine in LR3 is just so much better than earlier versions, that I would not use LR2 except under duress. That is not meant to be snide or elitist. It it just that when you have seen the improvements in the Raw engine in LR3, I would be reluctant to give them up.

I always preferred to use NoiseWare via a walk through Photoshop with LR2. Not early in the image processing chain, but on an adjustment layer, much more effective and much more controllable, and able to be limited to specific areas of the image.