Lightroom/Camera Raw: Artifacts on edges caused by clarity

Please supply a sample raw file that can be used to test the issue. Upload to somewhere like www.dropbox.com and post a public share link to it, here.

I uploaded an example raw file here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5U6...

I've notified Adobe of this issue and included your example file along with a link to this discussion. We'll have to see if they can do anything about it in a subsequent release.

You can mitigate the issue to some degree at least in this example photo by using a large, very-feathered adjustment brush that has a large amount of negative clarity applied, thus reversing the clarity along the edge. The large feather and large brush are needed so the edge of the reversed Clarity area isn't obvious.

I can duplicate the same edge-artifacts with Clarity set to 0. This appears to be edge-aliasing at the raw data sensor pixel level. Other than using settings that don't exacerbate the aliasing there isn't much else that can be done. RawDigger DCRAW demosaic shows the same aliasing.

I think you are seeing Chromatic aberration.
Even the image without clarity shows a yellow fringe. Clarity is just making it more obvious.
Before Clarity, open Lens Correctons Panel > Basic and check 'on' Remove chromatic aberration.

Before-


After-

Turning off and on CA doesn't affect what I see for edge artifacts:

@Todd Shaner: You are right. It also happens in connection with the Shadows and Highlights settings. So it is not just a Clarity problem. Maybe it has something to do with the demosaicing.

However, I still think that this is not working as it's supposed to and Adobe should do something about it. I tried Capture One and set Shadows, Highlights, Clarity and Structure to the maximum. The result looks much better. There are some halos and also a bit of aliasing is introduced, but I think it is not more than you would expect from such exaggerated settings:


(Capture One output)

Although the edge becomes a bit jaggy, there is no trace of the strange artifacts ACR produces.

@Robert Cullen: I think you are referring to something else. I don't think it has anything to do with Chromatic Aberration.

The RawDigger TIFF does show slight CA in that area with Remove Chromatic Aberration unchecked, but not in the ARW. Looking further from the image center the CA is more pronounced. It's very obvious that the LR demosaic process is performing CA removal. It may in fact be causing the aliasing jaggies.
(Click on image to see full-size.)

Well, it might indeed be connected to that, but I suppose only the devs can find out for sure.

If you look at the top, this discussion is marked with an In Progress status by Adobe so they've seen something and appear to be working on it.

Another thing that I would like to add: If I change the process version from 2012 to 2010, the artifacts disappear.

But with 2010 there is a line along the edge, instead:



This thread is still marked as In Progress.

Yes, indeed. However, that looks different than the aforementioned artifacts. But that's probably also not how it should be.

Of course it looks different--the toning model changed in PV2012 with attention to how edges are handled with Clarity and other toning adjustments that affect some areas more than others.  The point is that the demosaicking problem may still be there, just manifesting differently.  For one thing switching to PV2010 from PV2012 starts with Clarity = 0 because the two Clarity settings aren't interchangeable so maybe the problem "went away" because Clarity2010 was zero.

PV2010 is adding its own "flavor" of edge-artifacting, which is clearly different than PV2012 Clarity. Whether Adobe Engineering can "modify" the ARW demoasicing routine to "fix this issue is still listed as "In Progress." Many of the newer camera models are being offered with low-pass filters (LPFs) removed or cancelled. I downloaded some Canon 5Ds CR2 files and can see the same artifacting with Clarity 35 and higher. Some of my Canon 5D MKII CR2 files exhibit similar artifacting above 50 Clarity, which I never use!

To be honest I prefer the PV2010 Clarity behavior over PV2012. With the switch to PV2012 I rarely use higher than Clarity 25. When I do it's because of low contrast in the image due to fog, etc. The new Effect> Dehaze slider does a much better job for this purpose. Try using the Dehaze slider with a lower Clarity setting to achieve the look you want.