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Charles_Farlow
Participating Frequently
February 20, 2022

P: Noise artifacts produced by enhance details

  • February 20, 2022
  • 13 replies
  • 2367 views

The enhance details feature appears to produce some rectangular and square noise artifacts in the processed image. My baseline is a daylight RAW landscape (call it X1) photograph taken at ISO 100. The artifacts appear in the upper half of the photo (a partly cloudy region above a mountain range).

 

Lightroom Version: 11.2

OS Version: Windows 10 Pro, Build 19044.1526

 

The steps outlined below are intended to illustrate the difference in images produced by Lightroom's baseline demosaicing algorithm with the "enhance details" demosaicing algorithm. Of course, the artifacts could be due to issues with the baseline algorithm ... but I doubt this is the case as it has been fielded for quite some time.

 

The TIFF comparison process (steps 11-19) has been successfully used to evaluate Lightroom sharpening and noise reduction combinations. Other than the "enhance details" DNG, I have not seen similar artifacts produced by Lightroom.

 

Steps to reproduce the are as follows:

1) Import X1 (RAW) into Lightroom

2) Reset all settings (note, the baseline profile is Adobe Color and WB is "as shot")

3) Disable "Detail" sharpening and noise reduction by moving all sliders to 0 (i.e., Amount, Luminance, Color; note, lens corrections are not selected - the goal is export an image processed by only the baseline demosaicing algorithm)

4) Export this file as "X1_Norm_NoSharpNoNR.tif" (300 ppi, sRGB, 16 bits/component)

5) Enhance details (Raw Details only)

6) Open the DNG produced by enhanced details

7) Reset all settings

😎 Disable "Detail" sharpening and noise reduction by moving all sliders to 0 (i.e., Amount, Luminance, Color)

9) Export this file as "X1_Enha_NoSharpNoNR.tif" (300 ppi, sRGB, 16 bits/component)

10) Exit Lightroom

11) Start Photoshop

12) Open files produced by steps 4 and 9 in Photoshop

13) Convert both images to grayscale using Image/Mode 

14) Convert both images to Smart Objects 

15) Duplicate one of the layers and place in other other image as Layer 1

16) Select both layers with the "Difference" option

17) Select Layer/New Adjustment Layer/Threshold

18) Set threshold to 1

19) Adjust view to actual size and 100% to see artifacts

 

I converted the TIFF file produced by steps 1-18 to a low-resolution JPEG and attached to this post. 

 

 

 

    13 replies

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    Rikk Flohr_Photography
    Community Manager
    Rikk Flohr_PhotographyCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    March 15, 2022

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    Rikk Flohr: Adobe Photography Org
    C
    Charles_FarlowAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    March 15, 2022

    The attached difference image further illustrates the "boundary artifacts issue" first described in my Feb. 20, 2022 post "Noise artifacts produced by enhance details" and subsequent replies (includes additional information requested by Adobe). However, I have not received any public acknowledgement that Adobe is investigating this issue.

     

    Lightroom Version: 11.2 (Camera Raw 14.2)

    OS Version: Windows 10 Pro, Build 19044.1526

     

    I attached a low-resolution jpeg of the color image. In the difference image, note the visible boundaries above and below the leaf (note, the leaf shown in the difference image is immediately above the main leaf, to the left of the stem). The visible boundaries could be associated with defined "patches" of pixels processed by the convolutional neural network algorithm.

     

    The steps used to generate the difference image are copied from my Feb. 20th post:

     

    1) Import X1 (RAW) into Lightroom

    2) Reset all settings (note, the baseline profile is Adobe Color and WB is "as shot")

    3) Disable "Detail" sharpening and noise reduction by moving all sliders to 0 (i.e., Amount, Luminance, Color; note, lens corrections are not selected - the goal is export an image processed by only the baseline demosaicing algorithm)

    4) Export this file as "X1_Norm_NoSharpNoNR.tif" (300 ppi, sRGB, 16 bits/component)

    5) Enhance details (Raw Details only)

    6) Open the DNG produced by enhanced details

    7) Reset all settings

    😎 Disable "Detail" sharpening and noise reduction by moving all sliders to 0 (i.e., Amount, Luminance, Color)

    9) Export this file as "X1_Enha_NoSharpNoNR.tif" (300 ppi, sRGB, 16 bits/component)

    10) Exit Lightroom

    11) Start Photoshop

    12) Open files produced by steps 4 and 9 in Photoshop

    13) Convert both images to grayscale using Image/Mode

    14) Convert both images to Smart Objects

    15) Duplicate one of the layers and place in other other image as Layer 1

    16) Select both layers with the "Difference" option

    17) Select Layer/New Adjustment Layer/Threshold

    18) Set threshold to 1

    19) Adjust view to actual size and 100% to see artifacts

    C
    Charles_FarlowAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    February 20, 2022

    Similar (if not identical) artifacts are produced when using enhance detail through Photoshop (Camera Raw). Upon closer inspection, the artifacts are better described as a boundary issue (perhaps the demosaicing algorithm is processing defined regions of the photograph without accounting for boundary issues?). I attached a cropped view of the TIFF file used to generate the  JPEG in my first post.

     

     

      C
      Charles_FarlowAuthor
      Participating Frequently
      March 6, 2022

      Adobe Support Community staff asked for a higher ISO example. This is a cropped version of enhance details artifacts for a night sky photograph taken at ISO 1250. 

       

       

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