Correct the lens and reduce noise
RAW Process is the first section in the left column. It corrects what the lens did to the photo and, if you ask, cleans up noise before any other edit.
Correct the lens
Section titled “Correct the lens”DarkRay finds the lens profile from the photo’s camera and lens, and applies it.
- Open RAW Process. The line under Apply Lens Profile names the profile in use, or reads “No profile found”.
- If the lens isn’t recognized, or you want another, click Choose…, find the lens (type in the search field) and pick it.
- Fine-tune with the sliders below. They apply live, with or without a profile.
| Control | What it does | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Distortion | Corrects barrel or pincushion distortion by hand, on top of the profile | -100 to +100 |
| Vignette Correct | How much of the profile’s correction for dark corners to apply | 0 to 100, default 100 |
| Cyan/Red | Removes red and cyan color fringes toward the edges of the frame | -100 to +100 |
| Yellow/Blue | The same for yellow and blue fringes | -100 to +100 |
| Purple Amount | Neutralizes purple fringes at out-of-focus edges | 0 to 100 |
| Green Amount | Neutralizes green fringes at out-of-focus edges | 0 to 100 |
Cyan/Red and Yellow/Blue sit under Lateral Chromatic Aberration, and Purple Amount and Green Amount under Defringe. While you drag Distortion, the viewer shows a grid so you can judge straight lines.
The switch Apply Lens Profile turns only the automatic profile off. The sliders keep working. The section’s power button turns every lens correction off at once.
Reduce noise with AI
Section titled “Reduce noise with AI”- Click Denoise…. The Raw Denoise window opens on a 1:1 crop with the original on the left and the denoised result on the right.
- Drag the divider to compare, and drag the picture to look somewhere else.
- Set Strength. Lower values keep more of the original detail. The default is 65.
- Click OK. This also turns denoise on.
The line under the button, such as “Denoise: default · 65%”, shows what is on. Use the switch beside it to turn denoise on or off without opening the window.
Denoise works on photos from a regular Bayer sensor. For other sensors, such as Fujifilm X-Trans, the switch and the Denoise… button are off, and their tooltips say why.
Wait while the photo is prepared
Section titled “Wait while the photo is prepared”Denoise is computed once for the whole photo. After you change it, the viewer shows a banner, Preparing image…, with a percentage and a Cancel button. If another AI job holds the graphics card, it says it is waiting for it.
While it prepares, only RAW Process responds, and Undo and Redo still work. When it finishes the photo is editable again, and the result is kept, so opening the photo later is immediate. Changing Strength or Amount afterward is quick, because the model doesn’t run again.
If it fails, a red banner reads “Couldn’t prepare this image” with the reason and a Retry button. If you cancel, it reads “Image not prepared” with Retry. Quitting while photos are being prepared asks whether to wait, keep working or quit now; photos that weren’t finished are prepared on their next visit to Edit.
Export and Compare prepare the photo first when it needs it.
Technical details: what is live and what is prepared
Lens corrections are a live stage of every render, so nothing waits when you move a lens slider. On the preview they cost under a millisecond. At full resolution they run once per lens setting on the graphics card, or on the processor without one, and the result is reused by every other edit.
Denoise is different: a neural network computes it, so it is baked once into the photo’s starting pixels, before the lens stage. It runs on the sensor data before demosaicing, with Strength blending between the plain and the denoised result.
[CHECK: whether the lens profile, trims and Defringe also apply to non-RAW photos (JPEG, TIFF)]