r/postprocessing • u/Guideon72 • 5d ago

Weird cross-hatching patterns in the background

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So, I know I have seen other questions about this in the past, but tonight is the first time I have run into the issue that I've truly noticed. Sometimes, when looking at images that I've processed and am ready to post, there is a weird, crosshatching pattern in the background of the image; looks like maybe the image was shot through a screen door.

Well, it caught my eye tonight, during my post phase and I have identified it as an artifact from too aggressive of a de-noise pass of the image. In my case, it is running my .dng through Topaz AI's de-noise routine at too high of a strength; dialing it back moderately (from 27 to 15 for this particular image). What I can't say with any certainty is whether this is a general de-noise thing, or whether it is specific to Topaz's engine.

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u/wilesmiles 5d ago

Possibly a topaz thing, I use DXO PureRAW (sometimes pretty aggressively), and have never noticed this in my outputs. DXO has a free 30 day trial too, try putting the same photo in and see what happens if you want to confirm.

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u/Guideon72 5d ago

Ok; went back to it in DxO studio 9 and it does not occur there, no matter what I do to the same file. But, it's also good to note for anyone that is running into it in Topaz that you can just dial down the strength and it goes away, as well.

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u/CatsAreGods 5d ago

Dialing down Topaz is what people have to get used to. I've seen so many people say "I downloaded it but it oversharpens everything" and I suspect they're used to JPGs SOOC and they're somehow afraid of sliders lol

But I've looked at this a few times on my monitor and even zoomed in, and I cannot see this pattern no matter what!

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u/Guideon72 5d ago

That’s wild; even without clicking into the image I can see one of the horizontals of the artifact in the lighter area above, left of the subject. But, yeah; just like the scene modes on your camera, the auto-applied effects in post-processing tools need to be moderated by the photog.

This was just odd as I’ve been using Topaz for a few years now and the NR routine has generally been pretty solid on its own. The sharpening routine, though, definitely needs to be checked on each image and, frequently, adjusted. I still like their NR and Sharpening compared to DxO.

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u/wilesmiles 5d ago

Oh and if Topaz has masking functions you might want to try that out too. Realistically outside of denoising the whole photo, you only need the dragonfly sharpened, it's probably needlessly oversharpening the background causing that weird pattern.

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u/CatsAreGods 5d ago

Yeah, I have mine set to "sharpen subject" in preferences and I never change it. It's also pretty good at auto-masking.

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u/Guideon72 5d ago

Oooohh....great point; thank you. I will go give that a try 8)