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Is Adobe’s Super Resolution tool any good?

March 24, 2022 by Life after Photoshop

Adobe Super Resolution
Adobe’s Super Resolution image is on the left, the original RAW file on the right (at a higher magnification to make the size the same). Click the image to see a full size version.

Super Resolution is a new feature in Lightroom, Lightroom Classic and Adobe Camera Raw. It uses Adobe Sensei, the company’s in-house AI technology, to up-size images to twice their previous width and height.

There have been lots of upsizing tools in the past, of course, and it’s hard to take them too seriously. They can be good at maintaining the appearance of sharp edges in blow-ups, but they can hardly create new detail that’s simply not present in the original.

Or can they? Topaz Labs AI Gigapixel seems to do a remarkable job of guessing what textures like grass and animal fur should look like when blown up, so perhaps AI tools can fill in the gaps after all. They can’t extract details that simply aren’t there, but they can use AI to guess what those details might have been.

How to use Super Resolution in Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw

  1. Use the Enhance option

    Right-click an image thumbnail and choose Enhance… to display the Enhance Preview window

  2. Enhance options

    The Enhance Preview dialog has two options: RAW Details and Super Resolution. If you check the Super Resolution box, RAW Details is checked by default

  3. Preview the effect

    Drag the preview image around to see the effect on different parts of the image. The magnification is pretty high, so the ‘before’ image looks pretty pixellated and the ‘after’ version looks none too special either

  4. Click the Enhance button

    Now just click the Enhance button and wait for the processing to finish. There’s nothing else to adjust or inspect and no parameters to alter

Is Super Resolution any good?

Well, actually, it is. The results are good enough to perhaps challenge your perceptions about what upsizing software can do.

Here’s another side-by-side comparison of a small area of my sample image. Click the image to see a larger version.

There are some limitations and drawbacks, though.

  • This is a process for RAW files only. It doesn’t work on JPEGs because it depends on the RAW Details process, which can only be applied to Bayer or X-Trans RAW files.
  • Super Resolution can really exaggerate any chromatic aberration. I found I got much better results by correcting chromatic aberration first.
  • It may also exaggerate noise, an Adobe RAW processing weak point already, so you may need to juggle some noise reduction and sharpening afterwards
  • The key drawback, however, is file size. The Super Resolution process outputs a DNG file up to 10x larger than the original RAW file. I applied it to a 19.6MB RAF file from my Fujifilm X30 and it produced a 182.9MB Enhanced DNG

The detail in the Enhanced DNG is truly impressive, and I’m going to have to eat my past words about upsizing software and what’s possible. It turned my 12MP X30 effectively into a 48-megapixel camera.

Here’s my 12-megapixel sample image after the Super Resolution process. It now has 48 million pixels, though not the same quality as a 48-megapixel camera. I’d say it’s half way there, though. Click the image to see a full size version.

True, it didn’t really offer 48MP camera quality, but I’d say it was half way there. Maybe there is something in this AI business after all.

HOWEVER, the Enhanced DNGs created by this process have such huge file sizes as to make them impractical for anything but occasional or emergency use. If you need 48MP images as a matter of course, then you’re probably going to be better off getting a 50MP camera. The quality will be a lot better and the files will be a lot smaller.

So while Adobe’s Super Resolution tool is pretty remarkable, I really can’t see myself using it – EXCEPT, maybe, to create a Super Resolution DNG, edit it, export it as a JPEG and then delete it.

Adobe Photography Plans

• 20GB Photography Plan: now $14.99/month, no longer available to new users
• 1TB Photography Plan: $19.99/month
• 1TB Lightroom Plan: $11.99/month

* A trial version lasting just a few days is available but requires card details and must be cancelled before the trial expires to avoid automatic subscription
** Note that these are annual plans paid monthly. You may have to pay a cancellation charge if you want to end your subscription before the end of the current year

Choose a Photography Plan

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Filed Under: Tutorials

Life after Photoshop is owned and run by photographer and journalist Rod Lawton. Rod has been a photography journalist for nearly 40 years, starting out in film (obviously) but then migrating to digital. He has worked as a freelance journalist, technique editor and channel editor, and is now Group Reviews Editor on Digital Camera World. Life after Photoshop is a personal project started in 2013.

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