Is Ricoh GR Extreme High ISO Night Photography with No Fear of Noise Possible?

Can you get noiseless photos at night from a Ricoh GR APS-C sensor camera? In a word ... YES, along with a little assistance from Lightroom's new Denoise feature.

The photos in this video can be further inspected individually here:
View the Before and After Lightroom's Denoise feature added to each Photo in Video

So, more 'fake, AI processing?' No more than the jpeg you get straight out of the camera. That's right, the jpeg straight out camera likely has been processed to death before you see it. Even if you're shooting in manual mode, and even if you dial in the parameters of the editing straight to camera, the brain of the camera is doing exactly the same thing you're brain is doing when you use photoshop or lightroom. It's taking the digital information it's allowed to absorb, and doing it's best to make it look like a finished photo should look like.

Keep in mind also, when you shoot in RAW, and load those files in an editing program, the program is generating a jpeg preview, based on the info it has as well. So just because you see it in a jpeg form, that doesn't mean that's how the image has to look in the end.

And while it would be a very valid statement to say that most photographers, especially in their early stages, tend to over-process their images. Everything from shooting crooked horizons on-purpose (explaining it as their 'creative style' - it's not, it's a crooked photo!) to over-saturation, eventually they come around and realize it looks like a 10-year-old girl that got into mom's makeup, instead of the proper, moderate amount necessary to enhance, not cover, the subject.

The bottom line is to come up with the desired image any way you choose, because your photography is an extention of you, not someone else. If you play in a symphony, you're expected to play the part written for you in exact form, because you are playing with other musicians that are relying on you to do your part, so they can do theirs, and together, music is created.

But with photography, it's just you! Every image you take is a reflection of your style, good or bad. To get better, you have to shoot, edit, inspect, repeat. No one can do it for you, and while others can offer suggestions, you still have to incorporate those suggestions, or choose not to. But the image you shoot is your image, and if you try to shoot based on what other photographers tell you, you won't stand out, and are only shooting for people who are not your target audience.

So when it comes to using Lightroom, Photoshop, or any other editing software, especially the newer DeNoise/Sharpening features, I say do what you need to do to make your photo look the way you want, and don't worry about what I think!