Today’s Question: I’ve been applying the chromatic aberration correction in Camera Raw and have been pleased by the results. I understand this to be a non-destructive process but wondered what unintended effects this might have elsewhere in the editing process. Your thoughts?
Tim’s Quick Answer: The primary risks in terms of image degradation caused by chromatic aberration removal are the introduction or exaggeration of contrast halos, and the slight reduction in edge contrast especially for fine textures.
More Detail: Overall, I consider the application of chromatic aberration removal to be safe in the context of overall image quality. However, there is some degree of risk that image quality can be degraded, primarily when chromatic aberration removal is applied with settings that are too aggressive. It is worth noting, however, that generally the benefits of removing chromatic aberration likely outweigh the risks of introducing new issues for an image.
If you only turn on the “Remove Chromatic Aberration” checkbox (in Camera Raw or Lightroom Classic) without adjusting the controls on the Manual tab, the risk of image degradation is minimal. The primary risk in this case is generally that halos in the image might be shifted around rather than be removed, but I wouldn’t consider that to be creating a new problem.
The real risk comes from using the Manual tab to increase the amount of chromatic aberration removal to the point that new artifacts are created in the image.
For example, with strong adjustments especially with an expanded hue range, there is a risk that the contrast edges where chromatic aberrations were visible will appear as relatively large gray halos in the same position. To avoid this type of artifact in the image, be careful not to expand the hue controls into too large a range of colors, and don’t increase the amount (strength) for the chromatic aberration removal.
With careful application of the Manual controls for chromatic aberration removal, there is some risk that the chromatic aberration won’t be completely removed, leaving behind a small halo with minimal color. This will almost always be better than leaving the color fringing from the original chromatic aberration, but those halos can still be somewhat problematic.
Note, by the way, that in the context of raw processing “non-destructive” just means that the original raw capture is not modified in any way. The new image you create via raw processing will still have the pixels altered based on the adjustments you apply when processing the raw capture.
