Detail Tab

This tab covers ACR 6’s best feature - Noise Reduction, or NR - and sharpening. Two absolutely crucial adjustments.

Although the color noise reduction is set to 25 which is fine at mid to high ISOs the Luminance NR is turned off by default, whatever the ISO of the file. Adobe Camera RAW 6 is great, partly because it has the best noise reduction  around.  So remember to use it.

With most Canon DSLRs I find I start using NR at 400 ISO and up. Settings seems to be the same as for the ACR 6 module in Lightroom 3, so the recommended settings below should be a good starting point.

Canon 30D          Canon 40D          Canon 50D

Canon 7D

Results at high ISOs with Photoshop CS5 and ACR6 are superb at high ISOs, because the RAW conversion and noise reduction have been redone, so these comments only apply to Photoshop CS5, not earlier versions. More