I have no idea if this is a Lightroom problem or a Photo AI problem. 'Course, Lightroom is Lightroom and weird “stuff” happens fairly regularly, so…
I have a RAW image that’s 5616 x 3744 px. I Lightroom I applied basic adjustments and added two masks. Then I exported the image (as a DNG) to Photo AI to process as a RAW image.
I have an export in Lightroom that generates the .DNG file and runs Photo AI with it. It’s a lot faster than messing directly with the plug-in, then having to re-import the Photo AI output, and it puts the suffix I want on the filename. The DNG image created/shown in Lightroom that’s SENT to Photo AI is also 5616x3744.
Photo AI does not show ANY of the adjustments I made, and appears to process the DNG file as a RAW image. Which is what I’d expect.
In Photo AI I can’t SEE the image dimensions (is there a way?), but if I go into Crop and enter 5616 and 3744 and stretch the crop it appears to conform to the original 3:2 image. Which HOPEFULLY means the image that Photo AI GOT was the same dimensions as what I sent.
I’M NOT DOING A CROP. None. No cropping, no resizing or upscaling or ANY OF THAT.
In Photo AI I adjust the noise and sharpening, and have Photo AI process the image and return it to Lightroom.
What I get BACK from Photo AI is an image that’s 5664x3768. This isn’t MUCH larger than the original but it’s no longer a 3:2 image and the masks no longer line up correctly.
I’m not using any command line parameters when running Photo AI from the export. Is there something I SHOULD add so the returned image remains the same size as what was sent to Photo AI? Or is there some other problem?
This is the mask sent TO Photo AI
This is what it looks like in what’s returned FROM Photo AI
Thanks for reaching out. This is likely because we do not have the lens correction for this file.
The lack of lens correction is stretching the image slightly. The simplest fix for this is to use the Photo > Edit in > Topaz Photo AI workflow which creates a TIF and preserves the image size.
Another option is to process the file in Topaz Photo AI before adding masks or making edits to the Raw. Make edits and add masks to the output file instead.
If you send me the file I can reproduce this. You can securely submit your image(s) to my Dropbox using the link below. Please be sure to send me a note to let me know you sent something. Dropbox File Request
Unfortunately, it appears that specific image didn’t make it through the culling. BUT, I grabbed another image that’s similar and I’ll send that one.
I don’t normally put masks on an image prior to sending it to Photo AI. But, like many people, I do the basic processing to be sure the image is a good one, which sometimes means using one or more masks, before sending it to Photo AI for processing as a RAW image so the Photo AI output isn’t degraded by Lightroom adjustments.
I’ve used the plug-in to open Photo AI. That method is clumsy and doesn’t provide the necessary file renaming on return. As far as using Edit In>Topaz Photo AI, that would require creating an external Editor, which cannot put a specific suffix on the image. This is exactly the problem I’m avoiding using an export.
That said, in the realm of problems with software, this one is pretty small and probably isn’t going to happen a lot. It’s more of an annoyance that some significant problem.
I’m not sure about the lens correction, but these weren’t shot with anything unusual. It’s a Sony Alpha 1, with a Sony 200-600 G lens, shooting in crop sensor mode. The image was shot at 600mm.
Like the shot of the anhinga, this image was sent to Photo AI at 5616x3744 and came back at 5664x3768. The black area is a mask over the eye.
I realized this morning I’m WRONG. It’s NOT only masks that are affected. ANY modification made to an image that isn’t global - not only masks but the clone tool, heal tool, content aware delete tool, and possibly other things in Lightroom are ALSO messed up by having the image come back a different size. I’ve attached two shots of the same image. The original shows an area outlined in red where a twig was removed with the Heal tool, and an area deleted with the content aware delete. The return from Topaz shows the twig is back to being visible and the deleted area has shifted.
Because images may go through several programs during post-processing, I use exports for the other programs like Helicon Focus for stacking, Photoshop, Topaz Photo AI, Nik Silver Efex Pro, etc. In the exports, each of the programs has a specific suffix it attaches to the program. So, an image that goes from Lightroom to Photo AI, then back to Lightroom would be named _TP.xxx. If it then goes to Photoshop, when it comes back the suffix _PS is automatically assigned so the image would now be _TP_PS.(TIF or PSD). And so on. When you have 3 or 4 programs doing things, it gets really hard to figure out which one has had which processing applied without some way to identify them. For me, it’s a unique suffix for each program.
Topaz Photo AI is TP
Topaz Denoise is DN
Topaz Sharpen is TS
and so one for all the programs I’m likely to touch during post processing.
As I said yesterday, in general, the size difference is a little odd, but not normally a problem - though I’d much prefer NOT to have my images resized by other software.
However, I was WRONG in saying it’s only masks that are affected. ANY modification made to an image that isn’t global - not only masks but the clone tool, heal tool, content aware delete tool, and possibly other things in Lightroom are ALSO messed up by having the image come back in a different size. I’ve attached two shots of the same image to this email. The original shows an area where a twig was removed with the Heal tool, and an area deleted with the content aware delete. The return from Topaz shows the twig is back to being visible and the deleted area has shifted.
It will be possible to change the file naming for Topaz Photo AI. It will not be possible to change the file naming for DeNoise AI, Sharpen AI, or Gigapixel AI.
Can you open your Lightroom Classic > Catalog Settings and check what you have enabled? I just tried to reproduce this issue by adding masks and healing brushes but did not get the same output. Below are my Catalog settings.
I have Offer suggestions, and Include Develop settings both checked.
I also have it automatically write changes into XMP.
I do NOT have it do ANY address lookups or export addresses, nor do I let it attempt to detect faces. Neither is useful.
I do have Write date or time changes checked.
But, all this sounds like the wrong place to expend the effort. It seems more productive to have Photo AI NOT CHANGE the dimensions of images it receives. Or, at a minimum, to treat all images being processed in Photo AI, regardless of how it receives them, the same, and resize the images back to the dimensions Photo AI received?
That way whether there’s an external editor defined, an export used, or Photo AI invoked from a plug-in, the output product would be kept the same dimensions as were sent. Though again, it seems like a better solution would be NOT to have software changing the dimensions of images…
To be clear, the settings I shared are to make sure that the masks and healing brush are sent back to Lightroom Classic without getting altered.
The image dimensions changing is a lens correction issue. If we don’t have the lens correction, then the image may have a slight distortion from the lens used to shoot the image.
We will be improving our lens corrections over time. This is a huge task as it basically requires testing a large number of camera lenses so I don’t have a timeline on when this will be done yet.
We will consider adding a setting to maintain the image dimensions, regardless if lens correction is used or not. Let me know if that seems like a decent alternative for now.
A setting that would ensure the returned image is the same dimensions as
when it was sent would be great.
I understand the resizing is for lens correction. Is the lens
correction you’re talking about the one that can be turned on and off in
the preferences? If so, I have it turned OFF since Lightroom does lens
correction. If the Lens Correction is turned off in the Photo AI
preferences, does it still do lens correction? If not, is there some
other reason the image would be resized and returned without being
resized back to the original dimensions?
If Lens Correction is Off then Topaz Photo AI does not apply it to the image.
This is the only reason I am aware of why image dimensions would change. For example, if you import any non-Raw such as TIF or JPG the image dimensions will not change.
This only happens with Raw files that need lens correction, where the lens correction is off or we do not have the correction for that lens.
