ACR AI Denoise created these cheek artifacts -- WHY??

[Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg]

ACR AI Denoise created these cheek artifacts -- WHY??

 

upper right cheek streaks, vertical edge outside right eye;

happened twice; at Amount 70 & 50;

of (27) images, this was only one AFAICT with issue;

I assume, as is, it would NOT pass QC;

 

https://www.photosphotos.net/MX231221166-crop.JPG

(pre-Denoise)

 

https://www.photosphotos.net/MX231221166-crop-Enhanced-NR.JPG

(post-Denoise Amount 50)

 

using Blur & Smudge tool, I somewhat reduced artifacts...

(I don't know how to use layers-masks)

 

PS. yes, woman's head slightly OOF, but what she's looking at is in focus...

Edited May 4 by Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg

[IKuzmin]

Unlike some folks here suggested, there is no miracles in the AI denoise.

The original image was too noisy and too blurry so that the AI could not make any better guess to enhance detail and reduce the noise.

The result is still what I call soft and lacking definition.

...But if she is not the main subject, and "what she's looking at is in focus", who cares?

You may want to try the AI remove tool to eliminate artifacts ;=)

Edited May 4 by IKuzmin
addition

[MDM]

Deleted

Edited May 4 by MDM

[Cal]

In my opinion the NR photo looks worse in various ways than the original (not just the cheek artefacts) - it's waxy and for some reason the denoiser has actually failed to do its job in the plainer parts of the image.

 

These days I tend to stay away from NR unless I think the image won't pass without it AND it's potentially saleable enough to do it. The fact that I've taken up shooting film again has probably desensitised me a bit to noise, but I find NR unless very gently applied just ruins how photos look.

 

I bet you'd get away with the untreated original you posted here just perhaps downsized a bit. Alamy isn't excessively picky on luminance noise, it's chroma noise they seem to come down hard on.