Adobe just released a new update for Lightroom today. It’s one of the smaller “dot” updates which typically includes performance changes and camera updates. But they also snuck in the Super Resolution feature that we saw in Photoshop a few months ago. I did a quick video to show you how to use it, where to use it and how it compares with other upsizing technologies out there. Enjoy
About Me
I love teaching and photography... In that order. I feel that enjoying photography, and photo editing can get WAY too complicated. So my personal mission (and favorite thing to do), is to create education that simplifies the process of taking great photos, and how to edit them to get the results you’ve always wanted.
The comparison you made and the conclusion you arrived at remind me of buying stereo equipment many years ago. People would buy equipment based on lab tests. But to the average listener could not hear the difference. Thanks for your pragmatic input, because I was going to but the Topaz bundle of Denoise, Sharpening and Gigapixel. If you can’t tell the difference, I surely can’t.
Exceptionally good video. Now, I have DXO Pure RAW which I am using for my old images and for very noisy old images.
How does this work with the overall workflow and the new updates of Lightroom?
I like DXO Pure RAW a lot!
Hi. Thanks so much. Glad you like it. You’d have to visit the dxo website for info on using their software.
Yes, Gigapixel is better but it’s also adding some sharpening that I believe enhance does not. I think all Topaz products sharpen as part of the process.
So would you only use this if you were upsizing? And that’s for printing, correct? Thank you!
Hi Cindy. Yes, that’s what it’s designed for. As I said in the video, it’s not something I would ever use though.
Really great thinking on “good enough”! So appreciate your common sense presentation.
I’m a Large format printer for many years. Don’t sweat the pixel view, go with the common view in the real world.
Thanks Matt
Yes! All the hand-wringing pixel peeping is meaningless when the ink hits the paper or an image is reduced for the web. Pixel peep an iPhone image and you would never use it. But on a tiny screen the image is superb.
Matt, I think you are a little too supportive of Topaz when Photoshop has, as you demonstrate, adequate tools that do the same thing without additional cost. Certainly Topaz has a place for photographers who don’t use Adobe. And, I appreciate your “good enough” approach; it’s practical and real-world. Photographers need to understand it’s the final result that’s important. And a gazillion megapixel camera isn’t usually necessary for an 8×10 print or a 1200 pixel web image. Though the extreme crop of the eagles is a great example of the benefit of a high megapixel censor; I’m not sure my Olympus would have produced as good a result.
Hi Jim. I disagree with your thoughts… on my thoughts… on Topaz 🙂 My support comes from what I use and for my wildlife photography. As I mentioned in the video, while Gigapixel is always better, I don’t personally use it. But I do use DeNoise on almost every one of my wildlife photos. But it’s all good. We can disagree and still be friends. Best!
I can’t find the Mac update in Lightroom Classic for Creative Cloud. Even when opened LrC and clicked on updates, it said that 10.2 was the latest.
Hi Bill. I mentioned a little about updating in the beginning of the video. If that doesn’t help I (and nobody here) can’t troubleshoot Adobe install issues so you’d have to contact them.
I didn’t think the video would be helpful until after I updated, so I was trying to do that first. When that didn’t work, I started watching the video and saw your suggestion to restart the computer. After a restart, Creative Cloud revealed updates in several of the programs I use that weren’t visible prior to the restart and the LrC update was one of them. Not too helpful on Adobe’s part. I’ll now watch the whole video and be able to play along. Thanks for all your great videos and FREE tutorials.
I did the update, and restarted my computer. The new enhance feature is there, but I still show that I have LR Version 10 Weird…maybe it will change. Thanks for the tutorial. I save most of them, but hardly ever remember to use the things I learn. Old brain, I guess. Lol
Hi Karen. If you watch the beginning of the video it will show you exactly what LR version I’m on. 10 is the current version.
Matt, I really liked your video and tried the LR upsize out with DeNoise afterwards and the quality is great. However, the Enhance feature does not double the size of the image, it quadruples it.
Hi Marcia. It doubles the dimensions of the photo. It quadruples the resolution which is the same thing as doubling the dimensions. Just depends on how you want to word it 🙂
I tried this new feature and have a problem. I cannot undo the super res. It allowed me to do it to an uncropped dng image while I was in the library module. Now, it doesn’t show the action in the history field, and a CTRL + Z doesn’t undo it. Yikes!
When I played with super res in ACR, it kept the RAW file, and then made a new high res DNG file so you have two distinct files. Hence there is no undo command, it is a separate file. Just reopen the original.
Hi. There is no undo as it creates an entirely new file. So you’d just delete if you don’t want it anymore.
I think a big difference between Super Res and Gigapixel is that with Super Res you have only one sizing option, which is to double the size. With Gigapixel you can choose how much to upsize.
Yes. When I only want to upsize to the 2048px on the long side that makes it work for Facebook, I don’t want to upsize any more than necessary and then scale it down again.
Same with when I need exactly 3000X2400 to print an 8X10 at 300DPI.
And there are times that having a 6X increase is really quite handy.
I export images for Facebook in Lightroom via export preset that does just that. up or down without a thought. Works fine for Facebook.
Great tut Matt, as usual. I love how you explain things.
Thanks, Matt,
It looks to me that Super Resolution (which I get as part of the subscription) with Topaz Sharpen (which I already have) – should give me a terrific option.
As always a great training Matt.
So if you want to crank out image from LR with the enhance added and then later if you are going to print much much larger could you then use topaz on top of the already done enhance? I was thinking about this specifically with iPhone images being that I am shooting a Z7 I have large files to begin with . Thank you !
Odd I just went to check out enhance and even though my adobe updates say I am up to date I have 12.2 release .
Hey Matt, great video as usual. Say just wondering how this new enhance technology compares to upsizing using “Drizzle” technology developed my NASA for the Hubble scope. Many astrophotography amateurs using Drizzle (as long as images were captured using dithering}. Just wondering!
thx again
scott
Hi Scott. Never heard of it and as you saw in my video, it’s not something I would try out. But if you try it, feel free to reply and give us a report on how it works. Thanks!
Hey matt, for us Mac mini User with the M1 chip it’s now finally nativ Supporten and it work flawless fast … with version 10.2 it was not possible to work at all on a M1 chip system. So it’s not a small update for me and I guess most of M1 chip user it’s a huge gigantic update. Just wanted to say 😉
Thanks
I agree Michael as this was a major update for those of us who have the new Macs with the M1 chip. I have noticed a much better performance with this update with my Mac Mmi running with the M1 chip. Cheers!
Gotta agree here. LRC was a beast to use on my M1 MBA but it now launches on one bounce and is wayyyy snappier. This is a very big deal for M1 owners.
I agree. My bad and you are correct. This is a major update for those computers. Thanks.