Different output in version 5.3 with pp3 from version 4.2

Hi all, I’ve recently opened with RawTherapee 5.3 a raw file with its pp3 sidecar created with version 4.2, after having processed the file in v5.3, I’ve noticed that the output is different compared to the one I processed times ago with v4.2. The old one for me is better, maybe I’ve missed something or I need to switch on/off something to have the same result.

I have attached three images: the -old is the one processed with v4.2, the -new-auto is the image processed in v5.3 without altering anything in the pp3 (RT automatically switch off manual color denoise), the -new-manual is the image processed in v5.3 re-enabling manual color denoise (with same parameters from v4.2 pp3 file).

The smooth light transition around the Moon is more delight in the -old image, the -new-auto is very similar to the old one the the light transitions are less visible, the -new-manual instead is very different, it looks like a wrong quality coding of the jpeg output, but I have the same results for tiff output.

Why these different outputs? Am I forgetting something?

Full resolution images and pp3 file from RT4.2 DSC_0116.zip (7,0 MB)

Thank you all :wink:

The code behind noise reduction changed and is not backwards-compatible.

It would help if you uploaded the raw file as well.

P.S. Your PP3 is from 4.2, not 4.1.

Hi Morgan, yes you are right, it’s my mistake, the old image if from RT 4.2. I’ll change my original post.

This is the raw file DSC_0116.NEF.zip (14,4 MB)

Since the noise reduction algorithm has changed, Is there a tool to achieve similar result smoothing the background?