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toby_95
Participant
October 12, 2018
Answered

Blurry image in "Develop" module

  • October 12, 2018
  • 13 replies
  • 35940 views

Hello everyone,

I am new to Lightroom and have encountered something that seems rather strange to me. When looking at images in the "Library" module, everything is crystal-clear and sharp. Whenever I change to the "Develop" module, however, the image I am looking at gets noticeably blurrier. It just looks like it is not rendered in the same quality. I do not have the issue when zooming in, but I'd of course like to look at the entire image at once and still get a sharp image. When I change back to "Library", it clears up (you can actually see it becoming sharper).

I am a bit at a loss as to what to do here. I did research the problem online, of course, and only found the suggestion to disable the graphics processor in settings and then restart Lightroom. Unfortunately, this did not solve my issue.

I am using...

- Lightroom Classic CC 7.5 (latest version), vanilla install (no plugins/extensions besides what came preinstalled)

- OS: Windows 10 (all latest updates installed)

- GPU: AMD Radeon RX 480 (6GB) with the latest drivers installed

- Processor: Intel i5 6500

- RAM: 16GB

- Screen resolution: 1920x1080, only this one monitor in use

When using Lightroom on my MacBook Pro, this issue is NOT present, so I suspect it has something to do with my other computer.

Thank you for your help and my apologies if this isn't the right place, I'd be happy to move this or ask somewhere else.

Correct answer Jao vdL

Yes the develop preview is unsharp with certain GPU processors. This has been reported before. The only fix in those cases is to disable the GPU if it bothers you. I vaguely remember that it turned out to have to do with some limitations of the video cards or in how they support the GPU acceleration that Lightroom uses but I am not 100% positive.

13 replies

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forest_haze
Participant
October 14, 2018

I actually noticed very similar issue with Develop. Note, I have Nvidia Ti750 and Windows 10.

Please take a look at her hand particularly and compare the quality with same capture with GPU disabled.

These are Fit and not 1 to 1.

(GPU enabled, Fit,  soft)

(GPU disabled, Fit , sharp)

This is very noticeable.

What I also discovered is when I go back to Library and generate 1 to 1 Preview there softness issue with GPU enabled disappears and image looks as it should (like the 2nd).

However, as soon as I make any change to the image e.g Exposure, the images becomes soft again! The image flicks for a fraction of a second and becomes bad. As it uses some kind of worse quality preview that is very fast to generate. Obviously disabling GPU resolves it. The softness for me is significant enough to sacrifice performance over quality and work with CPU rendering for the moment.

I wonder if other people can confirm the same

theslauterman
theslauterman
Participating Frequently
February 23, 2020

I'm having this same issue in 2020 with Lightroom mobile on my Android. It is frustrating to say the least. How do I know how to edit the image if I'm not seeing the actual image? 

    AxelMatt
    Community Expert
    AxelMattCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 12, 2018

    Without having seen examples it is difficult to say something. But it can be normal, because the pictures that shown in the library modul are the in the RAW files embedded jpegs. And these jpegs were "develop" by the camera settings. The pictures that are shown in the development module are the original RAW file without any changes. So i could be that i looks a little bit blurry.

    Can you please post screenshots so we can more details. Then we can try to say more.

    My System: Intel i7-8700K - 64GB RAM - NVidia Geforce RTX 3060 - Windows 11 Pro 25H2 -- LR-Classic 15 - Photoshop 27 - Nik Collection 8 - PureRAW 6 - Topaz Photo AI
    Akash Sharma
    Akash Sharma
    Legend
    October 12, 2018

    Hi toby_95,

    Sorry that your images are showing up blurry in Lightroom Classic CC 7.5 "develop" module.

    A difference in the appearance of the image in Library vs Develop module is expected as the Develop module uses GPU acceleration to render the image. Could you please provide us a screenshot of how the image looks like in both modules? The two modules use a different color space and the only accurate preview is within Develop module at 1:1(zoom) or greater.

    I'd suggest that you try going to Lightroom - Preferences > File Handling > Camera Raw Cache Settings and select [Purge Cache]

    Restart Lightroom and see if that helps.

    Thanks,

    Akash

    T
    toby_95Author
    Participant
    October 13, 2018

    Hi Akash Sharma & Axel Matt, thank you for your answer. I have attached screenshots of the library module as well as the develop module. I hope one can see the difference. I have also attached a (optically zoomed in) video of my screen that shows the transition. It starts in Develop mode (blurry), then an audible click changes to the Library and then another click changes back to Develop mode.

    Since you both mentioned RAWs, I should maybe mention that the image in question (as well as many other images of mine) are JPEGs, not RAWs.

    Library

    Develop

    Edit: I realized that Youtube somehow rendered the video and the quality was really bad. I hope this works better:

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