Topaz Photo AI?

[DanK]

I'd appreciate advice about whether Topaz Photo AI would be a sensible purchase for me. I am doing an increasing number of restorations of old photos (most going back only about 80 years, but some older). I'm currently doing them entirely in LR and Photoshop. Some of these are very small, and some are not quite in focus. The worst have both problems. The Topaz materials and some reviews suggest that the combination of the Topaz sharpening and upscaling routines would be a big help.

The major complaints I have read about the software is that you can't turn unwanted parts off. There seems to be two parts to this problem. First, you have to wait for it to suggest changes in all parts of the software, even if you only want one or two. Some have also complained that even if you turn off noise reduction, it still does a bit, costing detail.

Thanks

[Manfred M]

Dan - I agree with your assessment. I have the software (a "bonus" of owning Gigapixel AI, Sharpen AI and De-noise AI, so it cost me nothing).

I have tried it and concur with what you have written. Unexpected results and not enough control on the software. I would not recommend it, but am happy with the other three products. I rarely use the de-noise, but use Sharpen quite often. Resize, I use occasionally. I never use Photo AI and when I do try it, I abandon the work because the software is not doing what I want it to.

[DanK]

Manfred,

Thanks. Very helpful. I just looked, and it seems that they discontinued the separate sharpen and denoise programs and have incorporated them, apparently with reduced control, in Photo AI. They have for the time being continued Resize as a stand-alone, rebranded as Gigapixel. From what I've read on their website and on the user's forums, it seems that they are aiming to provide largely automatic editing, rather than specific tools that serious editors can use to their own ends.

So, I'll stick with what I've got. I'm largely content with the Adobe tools, but I thought it would be worth looking at more powerful sharpening programs to deal with the low quality of some of the images I'm restoring.

Dan

[Manfred M]

Manfred,

Thanks. Very helpful. I just looked, and it seems that they discontinued the separate sharpen and denoise programs and have incorporated them, apparently with reduced control, in Photo AI. They have for the time being continued Resize as a stand-alone, rebranded as Gigapixel. From what I've read on their website and on the user's forums, it seems that they are aiming to provide largely automatic editing, rather than specific tools that serious editors can use to their own ends.

So, I'll stick with what I've got. I'm largely content with the Adobe tools, but I thought it would be worth looking at more powerful sharpening programs to deal with the low quality of some of the images I'm restoring.

Dan

Agreed Dan - I is a bit strange when the "new and improved" is not as strong a product as what it replaces.

I suspect that their market research suggested the majority of their clients want a simple solution. I find I see the same thing with the add-on filters (Nik, Topaz, etc.). Most of the work I see uses the defaults, so I can recognize the software that was used just by looking at the images.