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.

[Manfred M]

I'd like to update my comments here.

As Topaz Labs have depreciated both their AI noise reduction and AI sharpening software. This functionality has now being incorporated into Photo AI and can be accessed without some of the "baggage" found in some of the earlier versions of Photo AI, which was mentioned in my previous posting. As before this is "rental software" that has to be renewed annually.

GigaPixel AI continues to be a standalone program that has to be purchased and renewed separately.

[DanK]

Thanks. I went back and looked over their updated website last night after seeing your note. It's very glitzy but confusing and not very informative. As far as I can tell, there is a function on Photo AI called "upsize" that is a stripped down version of Gigpixel, but it wasn't entirely clear to me at a quick glance what the limitations are. I'll have to return to it.

I'm primarily interested in upsizing, with whichever app. I don't have a lot of problems with noise and generally find their noise reduction tools adequate. I prefer having control over sharpening rather than just handing it to a machine-learning algorithm, but perhaps experience would teach me differently. So I suspect Gigpixel might be worth the $$ for me.

[Manfred M]

Thanks. I went back and looked over their updated website last night after seeing your note. It's very glitzy but confusing and not very informative. As far as I can tell, there is a function on Photo AI called "upsize" that is a stripped down version of Gigpixel, but it wasn't entirely clear to me at a quick glance what the limitations are. I'll have to return to it.

I'm primarily interested in upsizing, with whichever app. I don't have a lot of problems with noise and generally find their noise reduction tools adequate. I prefer having control over sharpening rather than just handing it to a machine-learning algorithm, but perhaps experience would teach me differently. So I suspect Gigpixel might be worth the $$ for me.

I find that Gigapixel and Adobe Superresolution give similar results, but the Adobe product seems to be targeted at raw data, while the Topaz product can handle other formats as well. The Adobe product only does a 2x increase in size while the Topaz product goes up to 4x and has some intermediate steps as well. Quality wise, I find little difference between the two. Now that I shoot a 100MP camera, resizing is not something I do all that often.

Sharpen AI can rescue slightly blurry image (focus or motion), rather than replacing manual sharpening. I find it is the one product I use the most. The AI Noise seems to do a fast and relatively automated job on some of my older shots from my Panasonic GX7, when I had to push the ISO to the limit.