When processing Canon R5 Mark II RAW (.CR3) files with an in-camera aspect ratio set (e.g., 16:9), Topaz Photo AI treats the aspect ratio as a destructive physical boundary. If I view the raw file in lightroom it defaults the crop to the original (all metadata info), if I switch to “as shot” it would auto crop to the in camera setting. Topaz should always default to the original full frame aspect ratio, at least it should if the workflow is through plugin-extras/process in Topaz Studio.
Topaz loses all the extra metadata after processing, essentially discarding all image data outside the in camera crop settings. This is destructive and results in the permanent loss of sensor data outside the selected aspect ratio. Even when using a Linear DNG workflow from Lightroom, the output remains truncated, preventing the user from “un-cropping” the image to its full 3:2 resolution in post-processing.
Competitors such as DxO PhotoLab, interpret the aspect ratio as a non-destructive “soft crop” and process the whole image.
There should minimally be an option to prevent this. I realized this behavior when I incorrectly had in camera crop set on a shoot.
