magnetoman Loc: Purbeck, Dorset, UK

Ah, I understand - but I make good use of my Ps sub in other ways. Thanks for the link Don, much appreciated.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

I would say it is 'one of the ways' to do an A-B comparison. Personally, I prefer the blink test.

The side-by-side comparison involves moving your eyes from one spot to another to do the comparison. The blink test overlays the two images and shifts from one to the other. Your eyes do not move to do the comparison. I believe not moving your eyes helps you to see subtle differences.

I took your image, split it two in Photoshop and aligned the two images, then generated an animated gif. The original shows for one second and the AI version shows for 2 seconds so you can easily see which is which. Download to see the animation. You can enlarge the image to see details. The blink test is described at https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/user-page?upnum=3016

(Download)

magnetoman Loc: Purbeck, Dorset, UK

That’s a great way to do it, many thanks for taking the time to show and explain. The programme has certainly concentrated on the face. I think that’s my fault for not simply sharpening the whole image prior to doing a facial enhance. Thanks again DF.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

For a portrait the face is the important part. Very few people will be interested in the details of the design of the buttons.

terryMc Loc: Arizona's White Mountains

I would think that for a portrait that included most of the person's body, and particularly one dressed in specialized clothing like a uniform, that sharpness throughout would be desirable. If only the face was important, why include anything else?

magnetoman Loc: Purbeck, Dorset, UK

I think terry is correct in regard to an image like this as a lot of folk would be interested in the uniform detail (from an historic point of view). The thing is, it could have been improved if required, so one has a choice.

MCHUGH Loc: Jacksonville, Texas

Thanks for the info on using Topaz AI. Looked it over and I am looking forward to spending plenty time learning from it. What I have learned has been from YouTube and it was not nearly as complete as this. Thanks again

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Yes, DirtFarmer blink test is another way ... as often said "more than one way to skin a cat."

The blink discribed in the reference is effort intensive. In my PSPro, I can click "go-back... go forward" curved arrows in top row and do a blink. In the actual topaz plugins... better called programs... clicking on the image does a quick and easy blink comparison.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Yes, to paraphrase it, 'there is more than one way to blink a cat'.

I described making an animated gif using Photoshop because I use PS a lot and I'm familiar with it so it's easy for me. I believe it can be done in GIMP as well (but I don't use GIMP much and would have to figure out how to align the images properly). I'm sure there is other software that would produce an animated gif.

But it can be done manually. Instead of making an animated gif, you can just put the two images in IrfanView windows (if you're using Windows) and align them manually, then switch between them. That can be done by placing both window icons on the taskbar next to each other and moving the cursor back and forth. This works in Win10. Haven't tried it in Win11 and my Win7 and Win8 are long gone. And you have described your own way in PSPro. I don't use a lot of different editors so I don't have methods involving anything other than IrfanView or PS but I'm sure that any editor that uses layers could show the two images on adjacent layers, then turning the visibility of the top layer on and off manually.

Since you have a method in PSPro, I would encourage you to produce a tutorial showing others how to do it. Tutorials can be just an ordinary thread, but I think there is an advantage to using a user page. An ordinary thread could present your method, and you could polish it within the hour allowed for editing or it could be polished in a later post. But that spreads the tutorial out. If you want to change the tutorial a month later, your changes show up later in the thread. If there are comments from others I the thread, your changes might be a page or three away from the original method. A user page can be edited at any time, even years later. (I encourage a note at the top of the page showing the change history). The only drawback to using the user page is that others can't comment on it. That is not a big problem because user pages don't get shown in any particular section, so you have to start a thread introducing the existence of the user page and put it in the appropriate section. Then people can comment on the introduction. A user page is public, but you have to advertise it.

If you're not familiar with user pages, I believe you can have 100 of them. They are produced just like an ordinary thread. I have a user page describing how to produce a user page at https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/user-page?upnum=2923. It is also useful to know how to place images into the text rather than have them all appear at the end of the post. https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/user-page?upnum=2930. One limitation to a user page is that it has to be less than 15000 characters long. On one large study I exceeded that limit so I put the study into a PDF and attached it to a temporary thread on UHH. Then the PDF is stored on UHH and the URL can be used to refer to it.

Another note: if you have an image you want to use frequently, you can put it on the web somewhere that it will stay and have a distinct URL which you can use to place the image into the text of a post or a user page. I used to use my website but I'm getting old and at some point my website will disappear. So I post images I want to preserve on UHH, either on someone else's thread or on a thread of my own. The image will then be stored in UHH so it will be available as long as UHH is around. I can then use the URL of that image in a user page so I can easily find it.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Dirtfarmer suggested, "Since you have a method in PSPro, I would encourage you to produce a tutorial showing others how to do it." simple enough.... below

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

OK, that's a start. Need more details. You have to assume the reader doesn't know PSPro intimately so some screenshots of the process to get the images into the program and align them.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

It is a start OK... make a change and click go back left curved arrow then the right arrow to reinstate the change.

In Topaz clicking on the changed image in the subprogram [Plugin} gives the "original" letup on the left click and the modified returns. Also, the topaz gives a side-by-side if one wishes.

Your method is a great alternative.