Lightroom tip: Lightroom’s Enhance feature just got a huge update – did you spot it?

Lightroom’s Enhance feature used to create a new (larger) DNG file alongside the original RAW file, but now it doesn’t! That’s huge news for anyone who uses Adobe’s AI denoising tool regularly. Here’s how the new setup works.

Adobe has done something I really hadn’t expected. I had assumed that Adobe’s Enhance denoising process had to create a new, processed DNG file, just like DxO PureRAW, and that was just the way it had to be. But in the latest Lightroom update, Adobe has merged the Enhance options into the Detail tab, so it’s no longer a separate process that creates a separate file. It now forms part of Lightroom’s regular non-destructive workflow and without any additional DNG files.

This means that if you decide an image needs AI denoising, you select the Denoise option in the Detail panel and Lightroom will then spend a few seconds processing the image – just as it would with the previous Enhance process. Now, though, there’s no separate DNG file (unless Adobe has hidden it somewhere in the catalog!), just the original RAW file with the denoising applied. You can even adjust the strength after it’s been applied, which you couldn’t do previously.

My sample image was shot in a museum at ISO 12800 on a Fujifilm X-T30 II and, as you would expect, it’s pretty noisy. Adobe’s AI Denoise process has cleaned it up nicely, just like the Enhance process would previously, but this time I’m still working on the original RAW file, not a new DNG.

It makes a huge difference. The process and the results are unchanged, but the way it’s now incorporated into the regular RAW workflow is a massive step forward. Even better, because Adobe has put this option in the Details panel, you can add some sharpening if you think the image needs it and balance this against the AI denoising.