Judge detail at the right scale
Use Detail: all four tools for the complete detail panel, or Prepare: all six tools for noise reduction and RAW cleanup.
Fit is useful for composition, but downscaling can hide noise, halos and lost texture. Use 100% on a sharp textured region and a smooth shadow, compare with the tool bypassed, then check the image again at normal viewing size. More edge contrast is not the same as recovering missing focus.
Prepare holds denoise and capture sharpening. Detail holds texture, clarity, dehaze and ordinary sharpening. Sensor-level corrections require a supported RAW; a JPEG has already been developed. The full reference below explains each tool and the separate DNG produced by AI denoise.
The AI and automatic tools do different jobs
| Tool | Input and purpose | Result | Separate model download? |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI object mask | Points, a box or AI brush suggest an object | An accepted selection becomes editable local paths | No, included in the package |
| AI object removal | A selection defines a distraction to replace | Generated pixels saved as an editable repair on the same photo | No, included in the package |
| AI denoise | A supported Bayer or X-Trans RAW and strength | A separate linear DNG with editable colour/crop/mask settings copied | No, included in the package |
| Automatic subject tags | Photo content is checked against supported classes | Catalog labels and automatic collections, with manual corrections | Uses the app's local subject detector |
| Image Match | A reference and target are statistically compared | One editable exposure/colour/tone/grain match | No object/denoise model download |
| Auto exposure | Linear-light brightness is measured with a highlight limit | A new exposure setting, not another stacked correction | No |
| Auto level / perspective | Image lines are analysed | An undoable geometry correction if reliable lines exist | No |
Selection does not remove an object. Removal does not denoise a RAW. A subject tag does not make a mask. Image Match does not generate new objects or smooth a noisy photo automatically. Use the tool whose result matches the job, then review its output.
Prepare
Start with the camera rendering and cleanup before colour and tonal work. The tools appear in this order:
- Camera profile: camera/input calibration and the starting camera look.
- Negative conversion: optional film-negative processing; show it with Customise tools.
- AI denoise: optional RAW denoising with an editable DNG result.
- Noise reduction: Everything or Colour only, Amount, Keep fine detail and Hot pixels.
- Capture sharpening: corrects capture softness at the RAW demosaic stage. This switch appears only for RAW photos; moving it here has not changed its processing.
- AI object removal: select or brush distractions, preview and Apply. Each repair stays editable on the same photo. Apply prepares the next selection, including overlapping repairs.
Use AI denoise before object removal when using both. All tools remain optional; you can return here after changing other adjustments. Creative profiles are under Colour & Look, and ordinary output sharpening is under Detail.
For full controls, see the Colour & look, Detail and Retouch pages in Help.
Detail
Judge fine detail at 100% zoom. Detail contains Texture, clarity & dehaze, optional Contrast & texture and Contrast equalizer, then ordinary Sharpening. Prepare contains AI denoise, manual Noise reduction and the RAW-only Capture sharpening switch. Chromatic aberration is in Lens & Geometry.
Sharpening
- Amount: how strongly edges are emphasised. The handle rests at zero while sharpening is off; double-click returns its amount to zero.
- Radius (px): how wide the halo is. Under 1 px for fine detail.
Capture sharpening
Every lens and sensor softens the picture slightly. Capture sharpening undoes that at the very start, before any other edit, with a strength it measures from the photo itself, so there is nothing to set. Leave it on for most pictures and judge it at 100%.
The raw conversion itself (turning the sensor's mosaic of red, green and blue into pixels) is not a choice here: OmaRAW picks the best method for the sensor. Tested side by side at 100% on Fujifilm X-Trans and ordinary (Bayer) files, with and without noise reduction, the ones it uses gave the least false colour along fine edges and the calmest skies, for the same detail.
AI denoise
The models and tools are included and work offline. Start around 60% Strength. Preview denoise shows a selected area with your current colour and exposure adjustments, including Auto. Fit centres the whole area; 100% lets you judge fine texture at one image pixel per screen pixel. Drag directly on the preview to move through the photo; it refreshes automatically when you stop. Scroll to zoom under the pointer, or double-click to switch Fit / 100%. Ctrl+scroll steps through zoom presets. Before / After keeps the same position and zoom. Crop, masks and other detail effects are excluded from this comparison. Lower Strength retains more grain. Use GPU when faster checks Vulkan against CPU and falls back automatically; untick it to force CPU.
Apply AI denoise creates a new, full-size DNG beside the original, keeps your current edits, stacks the pair and opens the copy for continued editing. An unused filename is chosen automatically. Save copy as… lets you choose its name and folder. The original stays untouched; edits to the copy are independent. White balance, colour, crop and masks remain editable. Demosaicing and chosen denoise strength are baked in; return to the original to change those. Float32 DNGs are large (about 12 MB per megapixel).
Bayer and X-Trans RAW photographs are detected automatically on preview or save. X-Trans uses Restormer; Bayer uses RawForge Heavy. The detected sensor appears in the panel. X-Trans does not need an ISO override. Restormer can take several minutes on a GPU or much longer on CPU; you can cancel while it works. Already-developed linear DNGs and DNGs with unsupported calibration maps are refused. Photos stay on this computer. If a Bayer photo’s ISO metadata is missing, enter the capture ISO in the override box; otherwise leave it blank. You can cancel during processing.
Noise reduction
The standard Noise reduction tool adjusts the current develop recipe. For supported cameras it uses noise measurements matched to the capture ISO; otherwise it uses a generic profile, so the same amount may have a different effect. Turn it on with its status dot, or just move a slider. A denoised DNG usually needs little or none of this additional smoothing.
- Everything reduces brightness grain and coloured blotches together. It compares small patches across the picture and averages the ones that match.
- Colour only takes out the coloured blotches and leaves the grain, for a filmic look.
- Amount: rests at zero while noise reduction is off. Zero or a slider reset switches it off without discarding the saved amount. Start at 50, then adjust at 100% zoom. Lower values leave more noise; higher values can soften texture. The two modes use different methods, so equal amounts do not promise identical colour smoothing.
- Keep fine detail (Everything only): preserves texture such as skin, hair and fabric by reducing grain smoothing. Start at 0 to assess noise removal, then raise it as needed. High values leave more grain and can make Everything look similar to Colour only.
- Remove hot pixels: replaces single bright pixels stuck on, common in long exposures.
Judge it at 100%: the fitted view hides both the noise and the smoothing.
Clarity
Local contrast in the midtones: + for punch, − for a softer, dreamier look.
Texture
Fine detail: + brings it out, − smooths it (skin). Slow on big files.
Chromatic aberration
Corrects the colour fringes of the raw data. Avoid colour shift keeps the overall colour balance while doing so.
More tools
- Contrast & texture enhances or softens a chosen detail size. Amount 0% is neutral. Edge protection limits halos; noise protection limits amplification of shadow noise. More filter passes cost more processing time.
- Contrast equalizer adjusts luminance contrast, colour contrast and edges at six detail sizes. Select a channel, then shape its bands. 0.5 is neutral. (Noise reduction lives in its own block.)