Details

The Details section covers sharpness, local contrast, noise and a few corrections. It contains five tools: Sharpening, Presence, Noise Reduction, Chromatic Aberration (hidden by default) and Negative Conversion.

Judge everything on this page at 100% zoom (Ctrl+1). At "fit" size the preview is scaled down and hides fine detail.

Sharpening

Slider	Range	Default	What it does
Sharpness	−100 to +100	0	Positive sharpens edges and fine detail. Negative softens the image.
Threshold	0 to 80	15	Ignores very small differences, so flat areas such as sky and skin are not sharpened and noise is not boosted. Raise it on noisy photos.

The sharpener works on brightness only (so it does not create color fringes), limits overshoot around edges to avoid bright or dark halos, and protects deep shadows and near-white areas.

Typical values: +20 to +40 for landscapes and architecture, +10 to +25 for portraits. If you see grain getting crunchy, raise Threshold to 25 to 40.

RapidRAW also applies a little base sharpening while decoding RAW files. You can change it under Settings → Base Pre-Sharpening.

Presence

Four tools for local contrast. They all work "edge-aware": they look at the area around each pixel and avoid halos along strong edges.

Slider	Range	What it does
Clarity	−100 to +100	Contrast of small to medium details: texture in rocks, bark, fabric, hair. Negative values smooth, which is useful for skin.
Dehaze	−100 to +100	Removes atmospheric haze. RapidRAW estimates the color of the haze in your photo and how much of it is in front of each area, then removes it and brings back color. Negative values add a mist that matches the scene.
Structure	−100 to +100	Contrast of larger shapes: hills, clouds, building facades. Adds depth.
Centré	−100 to +100	Draws attention to the center. Positive values brighten the center and add clarity and color there, and soften and slightly desaturate the edges.

Centré has a movable center. When you use the slider, a marker appears on the image. Drag it onto your subject if it is not in the middle of the frame.

When to use which:

Clarity for texture: foliage, stone, clothing, old faces. Try +15 to +30.
Dehaze for distant mountains, fog, smog and flat, washed-out skies. Try +15 to +40.
Structure for landscapes and architecture. Try +10 to +25. Use little or none on faces.
Centré when the subject is in one spot and you want the eye to go there. Try +15 to +30.

Noise Reduction

These sliders work live on the GPU while you edit.

Slider	Range	What it does
Luminance	0 to 100	Smooths grainy brightness noise. Too much makes surfaces look waxy.
Color	0 to 100	Removes colored speckles. You can use high values without losing detail.

RapidRAW already removes some color noise while decoding RAW files (Settings → Base Color Noise Reduction), so many photos need little or no extra Color noise reduction.

AI Denoise

For high-ISO photos, turn on AI Denoise below the sliders. It uses a neural network trained on real camera noise and gives much cleaner results than the sliders, especially in dark areas.

Control	Range	Default	What it does
AI Denoise (switch)		Off	Turns it on.
Amount	0 to 100	100	How much of the denoised image is used. Lower it to keep some natural grain.
Detail	0 to 100	0	Brings back fine detail from the original. Raise it if the result looks too smooth.

How it works:

It is non-destructive: it is just a setting, no new file is created. Turn it off at any time.
The first time, the model downloads and the photo is processed in the background. You can keep editing; progress shows in the Jobs list. The result is cached on disk, so opening the photo again is fast.
Turn it on for many photos at once: select them in the library, right-click and choose Productivity → Denoise → Enable.
Pasting settings or applying a preset that includes AI Denoise starts processing automatically.

In AI-Free mode (Settings → Generative AI), the switch is called Classic Denoise and uses the BM3D algorithm instead of a neural network.

Example: ISO 6400 night street photo. Turn on AI Denoise with Amount 100 and Detail 20. Leave the Luminance slider at 0 and raise Sharpness a little afterwards.

Chromatic Aberration

Hidden by default. Show it by right-clicking a section header and choosing Customize Panels.

Slider	Range	What it does
Red/Cyan	−100 to +100	Shifts the red channel inward or outward from the center to remove red or cyan fringes.
Blue/Yellow	−100 to +100	Does the same for the blue channel, for blue or yellow fringes.

Zoom to 100% on a high-contrast edge near a corner (a branch against a bright sky) and move each slider until the colored edge disappears. Usually Lens Correction does this automatically if your lens is in the Lensfun database.

Negative Conversion

Turns a photographed or scanned film negative into a positive image. Switch on Convert Negative, then fine-tune:

Slider	Range	Default	What it does
Red	0.5 to 2	1	Balances the red/cyan of the result.
Green	0.5 to 2	1	Balances green/magenta.
Blue	0.5 to 2	1	Balances blue/yellow.
Print Exposure	−2 to +2	0	Brightness of the positive.
Print Grade	0.5 to 2.5	1	Contrast of the positive, like the paper grade in a darkroom.

RapidRAW removes the orange film base automatically, measuring the center part of the frame. For the best result, crop out the film holder and sprocket holes first.

Like AI Denoise, it is a non-destructive setting. Select several scans in the library, right-click and choose Productivity → Convert Negative → Enable to convert a whole roll. All other adjustments (white balance, curves, grading) then work on the positive image as usual.

Tip: shoot your negatives as RAW with a camera and an even, bright backlight.

In masks

Tool	In masks
Sharpness	Yes
Threshold	No
Clarity, Dehaze, Structure	Yes
Centré	No
Noise Reduction (Luminance, Color)	Yes, from −100 to +100
AI Denoise	No
Chromatic Aberration	No
Negative Conversion	No

In masks, a negative Noise Reduction value reduces the global noise reduction in that area (for example to keep detail in the eyes), but cannot go below zero.