Adobe Camera Raw Enhance Details with AI Denoise Seems to Work Magic, for Single Frames or for Focus Stacking

Some readers might recall the various artificial problems generated by Adobe Camera Raw Enhance Details over the years eg Fujifilm GFX100: Crosshatching Artifacts using Adobe Camera Raw Enhance Details, which led to my abandoning Enhance Details technology back in 2020.

I’m not sure what changed or when (I saw no announcement), but things seem to be working very nicely now. That said, there could still be problem images that I have not noticed.

In recent months, I’ve been using Adobe Camera Raw Enhance Details along with its AI Denoise feature on most of my Fujifilm GFX100S images. I almost always shoot at ISO 100 and benefits are there right at base ISO because any typical scene always has something fairly noise eg the blue sky in the image below, shadowed areas, etc.

• Enhance Details improves fine detail rendition subtly and is generally always worth it, though it cannot undo the damage caused by stopping down too much eg f/11 instead of f/8 or f/9.
• AI Denoise = 10 along with Enhance Details improves fine detail rendition while greatly reducing noise in some areas, such as blue sky.
• AI Denoise = 10 applied to images for focus stacking seems to be a no-brainer winning strategy; it removes noise that might otherwise impair focus stacking results by confusing noise with image detail.

What I do not like is having to generate enormous images, work with them, then clean up the mess. Adobe is apparently working on some kind of improvement to that shitty workflow.

Below, Enhance Details + AI Denoise=10 drastically reduces noise in the sky, and subtly improves all of the fine rock detail—really excellent.

Conness Lake #2, view to Mt Conness Eastern Ridge

f9 @ 1/160 sec electronic shutter focus stack 2 frames, ISO 100; 2023-08-30 17:16:29
Fujifilm GFX100S + Fujifilm GF 35-70mm f/4.5-5.6 WR @ 28.8mm equiv (35mm)
ENV: Conness Lake 2, altitude 10600 ft / 3231 m, 65°F / 18°C
RAW: Camera ASTIA, Enhance Details, LACA corrected, vignetting corrected, WB 5250°K tint 21, +20 Whites, +15 Dehaze, +10 Clarity, AI Denoise 10, +10 Vibrance

[low-res image for bot]