Enhance without creating a DNG (Classic & Desktop)
If you’ve enjoyed using the Enhance tool to increase the size of your best photos using Super Resolution or to benefit from the AI-generated noise reduction (Denoise), you’ll be excited to find that these tools are now available directly in the Detail panel, without needing to generate a separate DNG file. This also means you can go back and change the amount of Denoise applied without having to generate another DNG file. Great news!!
Victoria Bampton
While this update introduces other tools for distraction removal, one of which being the Reflection Removal demoed late last year, the highlight is certainly the non-destructive Enhance, consisting of Denoise, Raw Details, and Super Resolution. Up until now, these features would create a new DNG file from the original RAW image, which also meant you could not adjust the amount of denoise later, so you had to start the editing process from scratch.
Because of this limitation – and the file duplication and increased storage space that comes with it – I have rarely used the new Denoise function in Lightroom, despite the positive impressions others have shared about it. And in the instances I have used it, I wasn’t terribly happy with the results; granted, I applied Denoise in an extreme situation, on pictures shot at very high ISO. The denoised images had an artificial quality to them that I disliked, as if people’s faces were redrawn by generative AI.
From the quick tests I did in the latest version, I haven’t seen the same effect yet, although these new images had more moderate amounts of noise. One thing to note though, as the article also explains further down, is that, although they don’t create additional files anymore, the new features still use considerable amounts of space. Lightroom saves the extra data either in its catalogue or in the XMP sidecar files – for Denoise each sidecar file grew to around three quarters the size of the compressed RAW file I applied Denoise to. I have noticed the same side effect when using the Lens Blur tool. For this reason, I think it’s best to use these Lightroom enhancements sparingly, only for images meant for printing or high-resolution displays, otherwise the added storage space doesn’t seem to be worth it.
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