Participant

Question

Super resolution creates weird artifacts

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
March 21, 2021
4 replies
3049 views

Hi there,

I just tried out the enhance and super resolution feature on an HDR image and was really impressed, until I found these strange artifacts that can be seen everywhere.

I combined 3 images into an HDR image in Lightroom, then edited the photo in Lightroom and exported it as a DNG raw file to then open in ACR and use the enhance feature. When I zoomed in, I noticed the artifacts that are all over the place.

I also tried stripping the image of the edits and enhance the original combined HDR, but it still presented those artifacts and lines.

Can anyone help me with this?

Thank you and best regards,

Max

I am using a MacBook Pro 16 inch with an AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8Gb GPU and 32Gb of RAM.

This topic has been closed for replies.

D

diglloyd2

Participant

This has nothing to do with HDR. The technology of Super Resolution and Enhance Details are fundamentally flawed, leading to artifacts.

See my blog post and dozens of posts/articles on both.

https://diglloyd.com/blog/2022/20220112_1200-ReaderComment-AdobeCameraRawSuperRes-AdobeCameraRawEnhanceDetails.html

D Fosse

Community Expert

While I agree that super resolution is basically a solution in search of a problem, all of the complaints I have seen concern either HDR files, which, significantly, have already been demosaiced, or some other intermediate step that probably also involves demosaicing. The process is intended for un-demosaiced raw files directly from camera.

I've only tried it on a few files, but it seems to me to be working as advertised. That is, if you absolutely have to upsample, this is probably the best of the available options, and the one that inflicts the least damage.

People tend to jump on this uncritically, on the assumption that 16 000 pixels is twice as good as 8000. That's IMO the main problem with it.

P

Philipp.Strobel

Participant

I do see the same issue. But not related to HDR.
I get this artifacts, when I run super resolution on a DNG file that was modified by DxO PureRAW before.

When I go directly from the oroginal DNG, I dont have these artifacts.

Original RAW => DxO PureRAW => super resolution (Back in lightroom CC)

When I change the workflow to this:
Original RAW => super resolution => DxO PureRAW
I loose the super resolution. The DxO only see the original resolution...

This means, its also not a solution / workaround to change the order of steps...

Chuck Uebele

Community Expert

Moved to the Camera Raw forum, from the Photoshop forum. Do these artifacts show up in the HDR before it's enhanced?

D Fosse

Community Expert

I asked that and it doesn't. My guess is that this has to do with mosaic/demosaic, and so perhaps it doesn't work well with "derivative" DNGs like HDR (or god forbid, pano...)

But we'll need to hear from more people who actually use HDR.

Per Berntsen

Community Expert

I'm seeing the same thing in in HDR images. The artifacts are not easy to spot in an unsharpened image, but they really pop out when sharpened.

@Max Fo

Please report this bug at the feedback site -

https://feedback.photoshop.com/topics/camera-raw-and-dng/5f5f2093785c1f1e6cc40876

and include a link to this post.

@D Fosse

HDR can be a very useful tool in some situations, like the one below, where the lighting looks natural, although the scene had extremely high contrast.

But I agree that the HDR look that a lot of people like to apply to their photos (particularly landscapes), looks terrible.

D Fosse

Community Expert

Are you sure the artifacts aren't in the original hdr? I notice there is water here, which by definition will be different from frame to frame and so can't really be merged.

Also I'm not sure a hdr is a "true" raw file, even if it's in a dng wrapper. It will have to be demosaiced, but super resolution is designed to work on mosaic data.

All in all I'd try to take the hdr out of the equation first.

Max FoAuthor

Participant

Hi @D Fosse,

Thank you for your reply! The artifacts appear in the water, but also everywhere else in the image, for example the cliffs and the ground.

When I zoom in on the original HDR, the artifacts do not show and it looks like it's supposed to. I will have to try enhance on a normal photo and see if it creates the same artifacts.

So, overall do you suggest not using 'super resolution' on HDR images?

D Fosse

Community Expert

I haven't used hdr much, to be honest I've never been a fan of the "hdr look". So I really wouldn't know. I've always preferred to use other methods. Maybe someone else can be of more help -

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