I’ll start by saying I get no compensation for mentioning any of the programs I use. The reason I mention something is to either trash it or praise it.
In the case of Topaz Labs programs and plugins, it’s usually praise
Take a look at this photo . . .

Those numbers might not mean anything to most people but here’s what they mean to me . . .

. . . it means lots of noise (graininess in the image).
Lightroom’s own sharpening and noise abatement functions are pretty good . . .

However, my normal noise reduction efforts are through DxO Nik Collection DFine 2 . . .

Both of those do a pretty good job . . . but here’s Topaz Labs DeNoise AI . . .

This is on the automatic setting and in this case, DeNoise and AI Clear (the two options in the DeNoise program) do about the same with the difference being a bit more sharpening with AI Clear.
The interesting thing is it appears they use similar core processing in the Sharpen AI module. Sharpen AI has sharpening with a noise reduction option whereas DeNoise has noise reduction with a sharpening option. Both modules give near-similar results.
Here are the DeNoise AI results for another photo . . .



Again, I’m sharing this because the results are — to my eyes — pretty durn good. Leagues ahead of what I could do even a few months ago.
Here’s the gallery of the above for quick comparison as you scroll through:
That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.
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