“Try .tif” isn’t an answer. DNG is a valid, listed output. If you read the original post, I state that I ran both .dng and .tif files. And on a normal RAW image with only the most basic exposure adjustments, both the .tif files and the DNG files suffered similar problems with exposure and loss of tonal range.
If the tool is going to have DNG as an output format, it seems like it should create output that doesn’t deviate significantly from the input, and that is recognized as a DNG by a program that opens it?
It is NOT a DNG in the sense of converting a RAW file and, just so you will understand the theory behind DNG files from Topaz AI products they are Linear DNG.
The Linear DNG format is scene-referred which means that it will show the colors directly in the image, rather than how your display chooses to show them. A scene-referred image is an image where the image data is an encoding of the colors of a scene (relative to each other), as opposed to a picture of a scene. In a picture, the colors are typically altered to make them more pleasing to viewers when viewed using some target medium. Linear DNG will look washed out , due to this! Please, understand that Linear DNG conversion is meant to provide more control over your image editing, rather than make the image more pleasing.
The “linear” part refers to the fact that these R,G and B values have no tonal manipulation applied and hold RGB image data, but it isn’t constrained, and 4 or more colors are allowed.
OK. Sounds like generating DNG files from Topaz may not be useful with Lightroom. I’m not sure why the .tif files look so bad in this particular case - they match the DNG files. But, generally when called from Lightroom the tif output looks OK, so it isn’t a big problem.
This is a known conflict with some raw files that aren’t technically
supported by our raw processing library. Occassionally you will see
magenta behavior as well. For any errant raw conflicts like this, it’s
almost always a result of the camera model not being supported yet. We
are adding over 1000 models in coming updates to our software, but
that is still being worked on. For now, for any image that has this
type of behavior, your best solution is to convert it to a TIFF prior
to importing, this should still give you a data rich raw-like photo to
edit, but it will play nicer from software to software (not just ours)
to help avoid conflicts like this.
Look for a permanent solution to this for most camera models in the
coming months.
So, it’s a known problem. It appears the 4-year-old Nikon D500 is not yet “technically
supported by the Topaz raw processing library”. As apparently is not the 6-year-old Nikon D810. I don’t even want to TRY this with the only 3 1/2-year-old Nikon D850…
It seems odd that the D500, which is sold with an emphasis on sports and wildlife photography, both styles that rely heavily on high-ISO imaging, wouldn’t be supported, but maybe at some point in the future.
So what is the issue, you posted the answer you received from support 2 days ago saying your camera isn’t supported but they are working on a solution but in the meantime they have provided you with a workaround.
The library used is LibRAW 0.17 … and is in the process of being upgraded.
I’m trying the Denoise AI trial and I get very different color shift from input and DNG output.
The preview in Denoise seems similar, very clean and sharp, but the generated DNG in Lightroom and Capture ONE are very different.
I attach 2 screenshot from Lightroom and C1. In C1 the color shift is severe, a little better in Lightroom.
It’s a problem from the trial or is a normal behavior?
Yes, I’m directly opening the camera NEF files taken with an old nikon d3000/3100.
I’ve imaginated that first I denoise/sharp the original unedited files and then I do the final edit in Capture One without denoising and sharpening that Topaz Denoise do pretty well.
Is there a way I can get the same output without the intermediate TIF?
In Denoise AI preview there is no color shift.
I’ve tested one of your recent competitor and it produce perfect readable RAW format without color shift (but it’s too aggressive for the sharpness and I prefer Denoise AI denoising).
Exported as DNG and opened in Capture One 20 (greenish color shift), Lightroom (less color shift), Affinity Photo (same shift as Capture One), Photoshop (same color shift as Lightroom).
I suspect there are people that want to stay in .dng format if possible, rather than TIF or other. Since Topaz (in theory) supports creating a .dng output, it would be good if the output wasn’t altered in any way other than having the noise reduced or whatever the Topaz product was supposed to do.
A DNG created by any application as output is not a RAW file and does not contain original sensor data… The problems with any DNG is that it has its own profile which may or may not be interpreted by other applications.
I had the same problem with my Canon 80d’s .cr2 files.
The best solution I found was:
Import all original .cr2 files into Lightroom
Turn off all Lightroom adjustments, for the best Topaz AI results
Select all imported files and with the settings disabled, right-click and select the Edit In>Topaz AI option, in this way Topaz will receive the files in the .tiff extension and keep all the metadata
Make adjustments in Topaz AI to your liking and save, Topaz AI will duplicate all Lightroom files with noiseless copies
Delete the original files with noise from Lightroom, and follow the workflow normally with the files created by Topaz that keep the metadata and have no problems with colors, the generated files are exactly identical to the originals but with the noise correction
I don’t recall seeing the problem in current versions of the software. But, your approach is interesting, though drastically different than what I typically do with RAW images.
