Adobe's new 'Enhance details' feature for X-trans

gavinlg

gavinlg

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A note to anyone using Fujifilm X-trans sensor cameras - adobe has a new demosaicing feature in Lightroom called 'enhance details' which applies a more thorough processing of raw files. It's fairly slow (about 30 seconds on my old MacBook Air per file) but seems to hugely improve detail rendering in my files.

To anyone who dislikes the 'wormy' or waxy output with greens or foliage details, this completely fixes it in Lightroom. Update your Lightroom and give it a whirl.
 
Enhanced Detail is a new, optional AI-based tool that improves perceived detail rendering for most raw file formats, not just XTrans raw.

Enhanced Details is not possible for images that were demosaicked outside of LR (JPEG, TIFF, etc).

It is not an image sharpening tool.

It is used during the demosaicking computations (link). It can not make an inherently blurry image sharper. It was designed to "produce crisp detail, improved color rendering, more accurate renditions of edges, and fewer artifacts".

Besides LR CC, it is also available in Adobe Camera Raw (Photoshop) 11.2.

Enhanced Details does take more CPU time so for some it may be practical only for keepers. Enhanced Details requires OS X High Sierra (version 10.13), Windows 10 October 2018 update (version 1809) or later.

For OS X, some video graphics cards are not supported.

I suspect there will be a wide variation in anecdotal reports about Enhanced Details. For some it will be extremely slow. Others will claim it does nothing whatsoever. And some will report significant improvements. I suspect the main advantages will be found when making large prints or smaller prints from cropped images.
 
It's interesting they point out X-Trans as particularly benefiting from this feature. I've never noticed less detail in my Fuji files, as compared to those of other cameras I've owned. But I don't look too closely at such things.

John
 
I installed the LR 8.2 update and Enhance Details made a significant improvement in the first Fuji file I tried. I am using a 2012 Mac Mini with a 2.5MHz i5. I don't know what the preview magnification is, but jaggies were clearly reduced. The time to render is 6 minutes. Perhaps it is finally time to upgrade.
 
johnwolf said:
It's interesting they point out X-Trans as particularly benefiting from this feature. I've never noticed less detail in my Fuji files, as compared to those of other cameras I've owned. But I don't look too closely at such things.

John
Click to expand...

X-trans ASPC sensors are non-Bayesian (not in a regular pattern), and this has been an issue. I went to ON1, but if I keep hearing good things, I might consider switching.
 
That's fascinating. I was wondering what the point was because on my Canon 6D files I can't see any difference for better or worse. I guess it's more useful on cameras with unusual filter arrays. Maybe also on cameras without a low pass filter, because I read somewhere it's also supposed to get rid of moire patterns and aliasing artefacts...
 
I'm using Lightroom 6.14, the final standalone edition. I've had really good luck using Iridient X-Transformer with my Fuji files and the processing is pretty darn speedy. I presume the new Lightroom enhance feature is for the Cloud version of Lightroom. I'll probably end up having to subscribe to that eventually but I'm not eager to do so since I'm happy with what I'm now using.
 
Dogman said:
I'm using Lightroom 6.14, the final standalone edition. I've had really good luck using Iridient X-Transformer with my Fuji files and the processing is pretty darn speedy. I presume the new Lightroom enhance feature is for the Cloud version of Lightroom. I'll probably end up having to subscribe to that eventually but I'm not eager to do so since I'm happy with what I'm now using.
Click to expand...

I have heard Iridient is good, and appears to be free (?). Is it destructive to the RAW file? Once this is done of course there is no need for the Lightroom Enhance feature.
 
markjwyatt said:
I have heard Iridient is good, and appears to be free (?). Is it destructive to the RAW file? Once this is done of course there is no need for the Lightroom Enhance feature.
Click to expand...

It's not free. Iridient X-Transformer is pretty cheap, however. I think it was $30 or $35 when I bought it. It's not destructive to the Raw, you just create a DNG file that you then finish processing in Lightroom. The full-power Iridient is more expensive...not sure how much.
 
SausalitoDog said:
seems like it might be useful if you are printing a very large print but not of much value if you are going 16x20 or smaller.
Click to expand...

It noticeably affects detail reproduction in my testing. I'd say if the print was a landscape print or something with repeated patterns of foliage in it there would be a very noticeable difference at 16x20.
 
johnwolf said:
It's interesting they point out X-Trans as particularly benefiting from this feature. I've never noticed less detail in my Fuji files, as compared to those of other cameras I've owned. But I don't look too closely at such things.

John
Click to expand...

Even for FUJIFILM X-Trans the improvements could depend greatly on the image. In some cases there will be an improvement. It's not necessarily just a matter of detail. Occasionally colors appeared smeared in extreme crops.

Like you, I never had an issue with X-Trans raw rendering. In my view most of the issue were due to improper sharpening. In early 2014 I did a comparison between a Nikon D700 and an X-T1 for commercial images related to photography for real estate. Using very different rendering parameters for raw files of the same scene with the cameras located in exactly the same place, I observed identical rendering for green foliage. Of course the raw rendering parameters used to optimize both images were rather different.
 
d__b said:
That's fascinating. I was wondering what the point was because on my Canon 6D files I can't see any difference for better or worse. I guess it's more useful on cameras with unusual filter arrays. Maybe also on cameras without a low pass filter, because I read somewhere it's also supposed to get rid of moire patterns and aliasing artefacts...
Click to expand...

The improvements are content and exposure dependent. Even differences in lens flare will affect how much Enhanced Details can improve an image.

I agree differences in anti-aliasing filters between cameras could make affect the utility of Enhanced Details. I wouldn't be surprised if differences in micro-lens assemblies and especially differences in color-filter array designs are factors as well. CFA cross-talk (photo-site color cross-contamination) is one of the primary variables in raw demosaicking algorithms.
 
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