Nikon D90 High ISO NR off		Nikon D90 High ISO NR Low		Nikon D90 High ISO NR Norm (default)		Nikon D90 High ISO NR High
800 ISO		800 ISO		800 ISO		800 ISO
1600 ISO		1600 ISO		1600 ISO		1600 ISO
3200 ISO		3200 ISO		3200 ISO		3200 ISO
H1.0 (6400 ISO)		H1.0 (6400 ISO)		H1.0 (6400 ISO)		H1.0 (6400 ISO)

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The Nikon D90 offers High ISO Noise Reduction with four different settings: Off, Low, Normal (the default) and High. At Low, Normal and High, NR is applied at 800 ISO and above. When set to Off, NR is only applied at H0.3 (4000 ISO) and above, although the amount is less than the Low option. To compare the effect of Noise Reduction, we photographed our High ISO Noise composition with each of the NR options at 800 ISO and above.

The entire composition can be seen in the image above, and the crops are taken from an area in the very middle of the image.

The image was taken with the Nikon D90 at a sensitivity of 800 ISO, using the DX 18-105mm VR kit lens at 18mm f8; the original Large Fine JPEG file measured 5.26MB.

As you’d expect, the steadily higher noise reduction settings smooth out the grainy textures, but also take some fine detail with them. Judging from the crops below, we’d say Nikon has made the right choice for its default setting on in-camera JPEGs, but some may prefer the Low option at 800 and 1600 ISO. If you’re intending to apply more sophisticated noise reduction in software later, you’d be better off using the Low or Off setting.

At the other end of the scale, the High setting is applying quite heavy-handed processing, and while it’s certainly delivering a smooth result, there’s loss of detail – some may however prefer it, especially at 800 ISO where it’s not yet having too detrimental an effect.

Now let’s have a look at some more real-life examples including several low-light indoor compositions in our Nikon D90 sample images gallery.