Lr 8.2 adds "Enhance Details" feature

Enhance details of your raw images

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You can now quickly enhance fine details in your raw images with Enhance Details. By using Enhance Details, you get higher resolution, more accurate rendition of fine details, better preservation of small colors, and reduced moiré patterns and false colors.

To use this feature:

In the Library or Develop module, select a raw image that you want to enhance.
From the menu bar, choose Photo > Enhance Details.
In the Preview dialog that appears, hold down the hand cursor to view the original image and release it to view the effect of Enhanced Details.
Click Enhance to apply the effect on the image.
Lightroom Classic creates a new enhanced DNG image (with a suffix '-Enhanced' in the original filename) next to the original source file.

https://helpx.adobe.co​m …elp/whats-new/2019-2.html

It is pretty subtle. I'm on the road with a laptop so I'll give it a good test when I get home.

https://laurashoe.com …hcV-I963QL59V8K6EEbbmaY0I

Being a Fuji shooter Adobe is like a four letter word. Reading the Post Process sections in a Fuji forum is like reading an Adobe hate forum. I believe it's about three years ago Iridient created a program called xTransformer to demosaic xTrans files correctly. Most Fuji shooters either convert to DNG in Iridient xTransformer or have switched to Capture One. Adobe has lost most Fuji shooters to other post process software because it has never really handled Fuji xTrans images properly. Yes, LR (Camera Raw) can process the xTrans files and if you have played with sharpening enough there are ways to get LR to handle a Fuji .raf file. Adobe has been trying to improve the issue and it is not nearly as bad as it was in the past.

With this "Enhanced DNG" file all the issues with xTrans files have disappeared, but all the files need to be converted batch mode (tedious). My Macbook Pro (2017 2.9 GHz, 16 Gig Ram) is able to handle it at the same speed as Iridient xTransformer so Adobe is finally competitive with Iridient.

I did some comparisons last night. I took two pics and with each I made the conversion from Raw to the various formats. I compared the RAW file, an Iridient DNG, an Enhanced DNG, and a Tif converted in C1. I didn't have much time for comparisons but these were my observations:

The RAW file was as expected. It was under-exposed in LR and if not handled delicately produced what is known as the worm affect (UGLY!).
The Tiff file was excellent and processed as one would expect
The Enhanced DNG and Iridient DNG were very close to identical in image quality
The Enhanced DNG may have had a very slight edge on the color transformation but was nearly twice the size of the Iridient DNG.

I hope to get more time to play with this tonight after work.

There has been a lot of negative feedback as it does not jump out at you. It seems won't do much for files that don't need a lot of correction. Still need to evaluate it.

As a Fuji user, i got sick of Adobe promising a better return for my monthly contribution, I've had then log into my machine - complete waist of time - been given extended periods of time for free while they 'have an update soon to address the issues' with details and Fuji, never came. I've used C1 since 10 but fairly stuck into Lr for weddings and such late last year I decided to move fully to Capture One as I knew Fuji support was arriving finally.
I don't see myself ever going back to lightroom now. The files are just so much better. I still have Photoshop so I guess I'm stuck paying 12.99 for that a month but I do use it a lot so it's worth it. Even the free version of C1 Fuji is better than lightroom IMO.

One application I thought might benefit from the claimed technology in the Adobe press releases would be to create an enhanced raw (DNG) from DNG files created with the DualISO hack of the Magic Lantern firmware. These files suffered from moire and aliasing due to the nature of the pairs of RGGB lines alternating between the two selected ISO values. No dice. I have not shot with a Canon for a while but I have an archive of dual ISO images from my 5DIII that I tried and none of them became magically better.

The Enhanced Detail feature is supposed to address issues of moiré and aliased edges of diagonal lines, etc. All of these artifacts are present in Dual ISO images and none of them were reduced in the 4 or 5 test files I fed into ACR.

When you have to zoom into an image 200-400 percent and flip back and forth between the before and after images just to see if there is any change to the pixels on the display, chances are the new feature ain't doing squat. I know some folks have claimed an "improvement" in Fujifilm x-trans files - I have an X-H1 and I can verify that there are changes to the image data around edges, but it makes no substantive difference because, again, you have to zoom into 200-400 percent just see see whatever it is that you think is happening in the process.

I will try to shoot some moiré images (neutral nylon weave on my backpack shot at just the right distance to get the lens/sensor combo to freak out) and see if this is addressed by the new feature. This might be useful if it can be addressed at the time of raw conversion, versus performing a channel correction in Lab, for example, in post.

Kirk

I wouldn't say it isn't doing squat but it isn't doing a lot. I agree as it is a far too subtle to be really useful.

There are multiple posts on results.

https://photographylif​e.com/lightroom-enhance-details

As Matt puts sums it up - it is for pixel peepers. I like his presets, etc. I like Adobe products but this one is a bit of a lame duck - for me.

https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=LnHmiJc_b1w

As I understand it, it is in its nascent stages. I can imagine it doing more as the models get better and the computing gets more efficient.

Here is a test I did with moiré, as described above. It does reduce the moiré and it is apparently enhancing other areas in the image, but that is difficult to eyeball.

I made some false color plots in PS comparing the L, a and b channels of the original and enhanced images, and they reveal the extent and distribution of the enhancement.

kirk

"Effect" maps for the L and a channels...

... and the b channel.

I wish I could see anything at all after using enhance detail. On 2 different PCs, both running the latest 1809 release (build17763.316) with M$ updates as of this week, LR chugs away to "enhance detail" and gives me nowt but a totally black image. It shows all black in preview, and produces a totally black DNG about of about 30meg in size.
It doesn't matter what source RAW I use, 6D, 80D, 550D, EOS M50, Powershot S95, they all produce the same solid black image. It doesn't matter if the GPU enabled or disabled either. It does the same if processed via ACR in Photoshop too, so not unique to LR8.2. Anyone else have this?

I am going to guess your GPU is not supported or is not playing nice. Have you updated drivers? Can you tell I'm a Mac person trying to help a PC user?

https://helpx.adobe.co​m …help/enhance-details.html

Or, Adobe is trying to enhance your photographic style toward a very low-key interpretation of the original raw image.

kirk

kirkt wrote in post #18811489
I am going to guess your GPU is not supported or is not playing nice. Have you updated drivers? Can you tell I'm a Mac person trying to help a PC user?

https://helpx.adobe.co​m …help/enhance-details.html

Or, Adobe is trying to enhance your photographic style toward a very low-key interpretation of the original raw image.

kirk

As I mentioned, I can enable or disable GPU (then restart LR) and it makes no difference - performance options in LR. And on 2 different PCs, so nowt to do with which GPU I have

All I know is that the Enhance Details feature is heavily reliant on the GPU. I assume this means there is no CPU fallback equivalent. Which may mean that, if your GPU is not supported or not capable, flipping the switch back and forth enabling or disabling the GPU will have no effect.

What cards are you running in those machines - maybe a PC person can help you.

Contact Adobe support and see what they say.

kirk

Here's a quirky artifact that the Enhance algorithm created where none really existed. Image is from a Fujifilm X-H1 with the 60mm f/2.4 macro. Stunning scene, I know.

Take a look at the detail around the strands of hair (zooms are the area inside the white box), where specular hits next to shadow edges can sometimes cause a combination of noise and fringing - it did not in the original image, but the borg's algorithm must have expected it, because it added it for me. Both raw files are sync'ed and include no NR or CA correction. The Enhanced image appears a little bit "sharper" maybe - at 200% zoom.

I'm not bringing this up to harsh on this feature, but perhaps to demonstrate that blindly batching a bunch of images through the Enhanced Detail algorithm and expecting better images might not produce better images.

kirk

Also another quirky thing - when producing the Enhanced DNG from the Original, the Enhanced version shows up in the filmstrip view of the ACR window when the process is complete, but I cannot open it (the Open button is grayed out). I have to close the ACR window and reopen the Enhanced DNG in ACR to get the Open button to be active. Weird.