New Lightroom Enhance

Dangerspouse

Senior Member
The latest Lightroom update installed the "Enhance" option, which previously was only available in Camera Raw. I decided to try it for the first time today.

This is a picture I took last week while attempting BIF photography with my new D500. As I was lying just off the sandy beach, I noticed a bee gathering pollen from a group of clover just in front of me. It was right about the minimum focus distance of my 70-300 AF-P, so I squeezed off a couple of frames.

I have to say first that the resolution is so much better than my D5500. If I had cropped with that the way I did here, the bee would have looked like an amorphous blob.

Anyway, here's the full shot with just the "Auto" button hit in Lightroom:

Bee OOC-6.jpg

This is cropped in on the bee:

Bee Crop OOC-6.jpg

Now here is the full sized picture after using the "Enhance" feature:

Bee Enchanced OOC-6.jpg

And here is the same approximate crop as the first one, but from the above Enhanced image:

Bee Enchanced Crop OOC-6.jpg

Anybody see much of a difference? The few reviews I've seen online so far seem to be positive, with most noting that the Topaz Denoise/Gigapixel/Sharpen give you more options however. I don't have any experience with them though, so I can't make the comparison.

Oh, and if you were curious: I suck at BIF. Couldn't seem to get a lock on anything moving, even large, slow gliding vultures. Gotta learn more about the AF system in my new baby....
 

Dangerspouse

Senior Member
Hmm. I think it will be easier to compare if I put them in this order instead....

Out of camera:

View attachment 358397

Enhanced:

View attachment 358398

.

Crop, OOC:

View attachment 358399

Crop, Enhanced:

View attachment 358400

BTW, can anyone tell me how to make my photos post in a larger size? The differences are more apparent when I look at them in Lightroom full sized on my large monitor. These more thumbnail pics seem to compress the image to the point where a fair amount of distinctions are lost, at least to my eyes. Thanks!


edit: for some reason, even though I'm using the editor to insert my images (the same way I did in Post #1), the pictures wouldn't load unless I also inserted them as attachments. Sorry for the following duplication of images.
Bee OOC-6.jpgBee Enchanced OOC-6.jpgBee Crop OOC-6.jpgBee Enchanced Crop OOC-6.jpg
 
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TwistedThrottle

Senior Member
I notice a bit more saturation in the enhanced version. What's it supposed to do? My computers being dumb and wont allow me to update windows in order to be compatible with the new release:mad:
I wonder if you had to shoot at a higher ISO if it would help even out the noise. not needed in this shot. It bee good!
 

Dangerspouse

Senior Member
I notice a bit more saturation in the enhanced version. What's it supposed to do? My computers being dumb and wont allow me to update windows in order to be compatible with the new release:mad:
I wonder if you had to shoot at a higher ISO if it would help even out the noise. not needed in this shot. It bee good!

The Enhance function presents you with two options once click on it: "Raw Details", which has the description "Improves details and removes artifacts from most RAW files", and "Super Resolution" which doubles resolution. (From what I've read it doubles the number of pixels, and therefor quadruples the size of the file. That allows one to blow up pictures to larger sizes without losing resolution.) If you choose Super Resolution it automatically applies Raw Details. But you can choose Raw Details alone if you're not gonna blow the picture up, saving hard drive space.

Regarding the ISO, I see what you mean. But I was shooting in Manual with Auto ISO, and that's what it chose. Since I was only there to see if I could capture a bird in flight with my new toy, honestly I wasn't concerned with any other quality of the pictures themselves. Once I get to be a Jedi Master, I'll worry about noise and resolution :)

Thanks man!
 

Dangerspouse

Senior Member
A couple more examples, as I think I figured out how to make the pics bigger when I post. These might show the differences more. In each post, the OOC shot is first, the enhanced photo is second.

Vulture 2-6.jpg


.

Vulture 2 Enhanced-6.jpg
 

Dangerspouse

Senior Member
Is it just me? I'm not seeing a dramatic difference in the overall shots. It only becomes more noticible to me when looking at finer details - the mesh screen on the barn face is crisper, and you get sharper details on the rail the bluebirds are sitting on, particularly where the vertical posts join the horizontal rail. Oh, and the eye of the back bluebird definitely looks sharper. But you really do have to look close, it seems to me.

Anyway, that was my first foray into this new feature. Anyone else try it, or have other opinions about the comparisons I posted here?
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
I notice a bit more saturation in the enhanced version. What's it supposed to do? My computers being dumb and wont allow me to update windows in order to be compatible with the new release:mad:
I wonder if you had to shoot at a higher ISO if it would help even out the noise. not needed in this shot. It bee good!

The Enhance function presents you with two options once click on it: "Raw Details", which has the description "Improves details and removes artifacts from most RAW files", and "Super Resolution" which doubles resolution. (From what I've read it doubles the number of pixels, and therefor quadruples the size of the file. That allows one to blow up pictures to larger sizes without losing resolution.) If you choose Super Resolution it automatically applies Raw Details. But you can choose Raw Details alone if you're not gonna blow the picture up, saving hard drive space.

Regarding the ISO, I see what you mean. But I was shooting in Manual with Auto ISO, and that's what it chose. Since I was only there to see if I could capture a bird in flight with my new toy, honestly I wasn't concerned with any other quality of the pictures themselves. Once I get to be a Jedi Master, I'll worry about noise and resolution :)

Thanks man!

I'm using a Windows 7 laptop that only displays around 70% of the colors so I don't see much difference in saturation. What I'm seeing (which is negligible) are a very slight raising of some shadowed areas as well as some highlights although it doesn't appear the overall images are increased in exposure. It's just certain areas that seem to be affected. So any saturation changes I'm seeing are because some colors in the shadow and highlight areas are increased in exposure a tiny bit so those colors are slightly lighter in appearance.

I'm not seeing any difference specifically in improved details or any issues with artifacting in any of the images - but that might be due to this computer. And maybe because of lowering the image size for this forum, perhaps that cuts down on noticeable changes. DS, do you see differences in detail and artifacting when you're looking at the full size images in Lightroom?
 

Dangerspouse

Senior Member
DS, do you see differences in detail and artifacting when you're looking at the full size images in Lightroom?

Yes I do, particularly in larger even colored areas like sky. In a way it reminds me a little of the effect you get if you drop both the sharpness and texture sliders in LR. It's less noticeable in busier, high contrast areas - at least to my eyes. But if you look closely you can indeed spot improvements.
 

TwistedThrottle

Senior Member
Interesting. So I wonder if my gripe about crop lenses being forced to shoot in crop on the z6, only providing 10.6mp would be fixed with this new update. It’s a day late and about a thousand bucks short if it does. Never mind. I don’t wanna know.
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
Interesting. So I wonder if my gripe about crop lenses being forced to shoot in crop on the z6, only providing 10.6mp would be fixed with this new update. It’s a day late and about a thousand bucks short if it does. Never mind. I don’t wanna know.

Cropping automatically for a DX lens wouldn't be good so I can understand your frustration. Looking at your list of lenses, what DX lens are you using because it appears you have the focal range pretty much covered with FX lenses. Is it the Sigma with the f/1.8 aperture?
 

TwistedThrottle

Senior Member
Cropping automatically for a DX lens wouldn't be good so I can understand your frustration. Looking at your list of lenses, what DX lens are you using because it appears you have the focal range pretty much covered with FX lenses. Is it the Sigma with the f/1.8 aperture?

I love that lens, but no. The Tokina 11-16 f2.8 is my favorite astro lens and that's the lens I am referring to. It's light, compact and sharp on the D7500, and when placed on the D800, is a perfect 16mm f2.8 prime lens when shot in FX, just no stabilization. It feels just right when it's on the Z6, it'd be my wide lens of choice if I had the Z50. It's really a disappointment the Z6 forces the crop. For FX, I have the Tamron 15-30 f2.8 but it's the V1 and doesn't play well with the Z6, plus it's too heavy and that dang front cap that doesn't clip into place is a real drag. I only carry it if I know I will need it, which is not often enough, (a perfect companion to the D800). I got the 14-30 and have really been enjoying that, but I still wish I could use the Tokina with the Z6.
 

Woodyg3

Senior Member
Contributor
The main purpose of the Enhance feature is to increase the size of the picture 2x. so a picture that was say 3000x2000 pixels would now be 6000x4000 pixels. You really shouldn't see much of a difference until the picture is on a big screen or made into a big print. The RAW details feature is, as I understand it, really mostly for Fuji cameras to avoid a sort of wormy appearance of the pixels which was unique to their RAW files on Adobe software.
 
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