ArcSoft Low Light NR Review

April 15, 2013 | Matt Grayson | Software Reviews | Rating star Rating star Rating star Rating star

Performance

ArcSoft have done a good job with the layout of Low Light NR. It has an intuitive work flow that doesn't need previous experience or, indeed, to read the manual to find out what to do. Everything is Alt tagged, so a yellow box will pop up with a brief description (and sometimes a short-cut) if you hover your mouse over it.

Low Light NR does the job it's meant to do and does it very well. MFNR isn't a technique used by a lot of people, but it's not a bad idea. Theoretically, noise shouldn't appear in the same place twice, so by taking multiple images, the program can use bits from each image to create one noiseless - or at least less noisy - photograph. It certainly worked on our pictures, though there seems to be a limit to its capabilities. Our high ISO shot that we took on an older Sony Alpha A100 DSLR were a lot noisier than the newer shots taken on a more recent camera.

When processing, Low Light NR has a lot to do - especially with large file sizes - but we can't help but feel as though it's still slower than it should, or could be. Making smaller adjustments (from the 9 setting, to 8) has little effect on the time taken to make the changes. This is despite the changes in appearance of the smaller changes being negligible to the naked eye.

The Editing page is good albeit sparse on features. There could've been more to put on there, but it got us thinking about who the program is aimed at and whether they'd need more editing features on it?

Portrait photographers working with ambient light could make use of it, as could wedding photographers although the burst shooting would only work on posed images and not candids.

Conclusion

As well as professional photographers making good use of Low Light NR, if you have a compact digital camera with a small sensor, or if you want to take a shot in low light and you've forgotten your tripod, then this is a great alternative - although you'd have to forget your tripod on a regular basis to justify paying for the program.

We're most impressed by the lack of JPEG artefacts which - for us - epitomises the presence of noise. Low Light NR works great at smoothing them out although there's still some edge breakdown. But you have to take it for what it is. It's not going to get rid of noise completely, we're a while off in the technology stakes for that to happen, but if you've tried the Noise Reduction facilities of other editing suites and they've not done it for you, then give Low Light NR a try on the free trial. You may be pleasantly surprised.

4 stars

Ratings (out of 5)
Features 3.5
Ease-of-use 4.5
Value for money 4

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