You shoot a night football game and push the ISO to keep your shutter speed fast. Then you open the files and the grain is everywhere. Every sports photographer who shoots under the lights runs into this, so I took one Nikon Z9 file shot at ISO 10,000 and ran it through DxO PureRAW 5 and PureRAW 6. Version 5 already does a good job. The question is whether version 6 is worth the money, so I judged both at full size and timed them on a big batch.

Watch it here, then keep reading for the short version.

What ISO Really Does

Two settings decide how much light reaches the sensor. Aperture is how wide the lens opens. Shutter speed is how long it stays open. ISO lets in no light at all. After the sensor collects the light, the camera amplifies that signal, and a higher ISO is more amplification.

The noise is part of that signal too. Boost a strong signal a little and it stays clean. Boost a weak one a lot and the grain comes up with it.

At a night game I want 1/1000 or faster to stop the action, unless I'm blurring on purpose. A fast shutter lets in less light, so the camera needs more boost. ISO doesn't add light. It turns up the volume on what the sensor already caught, noise included.

Four Ways to Deal With It

• Get more light. A faster lens or better lighting helps when you have the option. At most night games you don't.
• Use in-camera noise reduction. It works well on newer cameras at ISOs in the low thousands. Around five digits, even the best cameras run out of room.
• Use your editing program. Lightroom's noise reduction has improved a lot. I use it on an isolated image or a photo headed for social media, never anything going to print.
• Use software built for the job. PureRAW works on your raw file before you edit it and hands you a new file. It's my go-to, and I run it on every image from a night game. Batching a couple hundred files is far faster than fixing each one in Lightroom.

One Limit: Raw Only

A raw file is the unprocessed data from your sensor, with far more information than a JPEG. PureRAW only works on raw. It won't touch a JPEG, and I wish it did. Sometimes I start a game on JPEG and forget to switch. Those frames are stuck.

So I set a rule. On the Z9, once I'm above about 5,000 ISO, I shoot raw for the rest of the night. On the D5 I wait a little longer, up to about 8,000, because its in-camera noise reduction does a solid job there. At 12,800 to 16,000 I run PureRAW.

Version 5 or Version 6

Version 5 isn't sold anymore, so new buyers get version 6. Check DxO's site for current pricing. I picked a Z9 file for the test because the Z9 is noisier than the D5 at high ISO. That makes it a harder test.

Speed is where version 6 won. In a short, unscientific test it was at least a third faster than version 5. That's not a lab number, but it matters when I'm processing hundreds of photos from one game.

Quality is a different story. I'm still working on that part, and I'd rather look at more frames before I call it.

If you're buying new, you're buying version 6 anyway. If you own version 5, speed is the case for upgrading, and quality is still the open question.

What It Can't Fix

One player in my test frame was out of focus when I shot him, and he's still out of focus after processing. The software cleaned up his grain. Software can clean up grain. It can't invent detail the camera never captured.

With the Gear You Have

You don't need a Z9 for this. Any camera makes noise at a high ISO, and software can help files from older or cheaper bodies. If you shoot a kit lens at night, you'll hit high ISO sooner, so this may matter even more for you.

Gear I Used

Some of these are affiliate links. If you buy through them I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only list gear I actually use. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

• Nikon Z9: the body for the test frame
• 300mm f/2.8 VR: my night game lens
• DxO PureRAW: the software in the test
• Benfei CFexpress Type-B Card Reader: how I get Z9 files onto the computer

What Would You Do Differently?

Would you use noise reduction software at a night game, or fix it another way? What's the highest ISO you're comfortable with? Leave it in the comments on the video. I read all of them, and no judgment either way.

Get out there and make beautiful images.