With the new release of Lightroom 3 beta 2 there are a number of new and enhanced features available and I will be trying to dig into them and show you the things that I have found to be the most impressive. First off, is noise reduction. One of the big complaints about Lightroom 2 was it’s poor noise reduction and although new cameras can shoot at huge ISO ranges, many of those ranges have been virtually useless due to the extra noise. With Lightroom 3 beta 2, we now have an all-new noise reduction system that allows you to keep otherwise completely worthless images.

The following image was taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II at ISO 25,600,  f/4.0, 1/250th with a Canon 50mm 1.8 lens. As you can see in the first image, there is simply too much noise.

Canon 5D Mk II ISO 25,600 No Noise Reduction

In the next image we have cranked up the color and luminance noise reduction which certainly softened the image somewhat and then we added back in some sharpness to help compensate as best we could. As you can see, this makes the image much more usable.

Canon 5D Mk II ISO 25,600 Lightroom 3 Noise Reduction

This represents a significant improvement over the previous noise reduction method and really makes the super ISO ranges a lot more usable. Stay tuned for more small snippets about more of the new features in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Beta 2.

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