Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

FWIW: I have pretty much all the Topaz programs and use most of them at different times, my most used are Denoise 6 & Denoise A.I. several of the others are more specialized effects, like Glow OR STAR EFFECTS, and when you need them they are great, but you may not make use of them all the time.

FWIW II: With Denoise A.I. I set the auto update off, and magnification at 200%, when you then change the settings it does not redraw the screen after each change, I can then manually update if I want to check and it only applies to the magnified section, when you hit apply it then applies the setting to the entire image, and saves the file. It seems to speed up my use of it.

yssirk123 Loc: New Jersey

I'm trialing Sharpen AI and the jury's still out. It does run pretty slowly on my desktop (Intel i7, Radeon Graphics card, 32GB RAM). I think it may be useful, although I don't think it will replace AI Clear in my workflow.

tommystrat Loc: Bigfork, Montana

Sharpen AI is, IMHO, marginally useful in certain situations, but overall the results are inferior to much of what can be done in PS and other PP editors. And it takes a long time to process, even on a reasonably fast machine. Now, I do use AI Clear and AI Precision Contrast on many of my images. The fact that the opacity of these effects can be varied to suit the individual image and message is a clear winner in my book - makes the application of these effects virtually unlimited.

ecobin Loc: Paoli, PA

Downloading the trial now - thanks for the info.

Curmudgeon Loc: SE Arizona

I think if you are an advanced to expert post processer, regardless of what program you use, Topaz will probably be a disappointment. You probably can do it better and faster in your PP program. If you are a beginner to intermediate PP'er, you will probably like that they do for you that you don't know how to do--yet. The object of post processing is twofold: First, RAW files must be processed, second is to create the best finished photo your skill level allows. Programs like Topaz can help you do that.

Bob Locher Loc: Southwest Oregon

I urge people to watch this YouTube video showing what Topaz Sharpen AI can do:
https://youtu.be/Tr8eGOXPv7I
It is a little slow getting started - stay with it and you will see what Sharpen AI and Gigapixel AI can do.
And it compares what the Topaz programs can do versus what Photoshop can do. Which brings me to another point - smug PS users who have NOT tried Topaz Sharpen should not be posting comments denigrating Topaz products...

Cheers

ecobin Loc: Paoli, PA

Absolutely correct. While I don't consider myself a pp expert I know my way around CS6 and Affinity Photo. I processed and sharpened an image to the best of my ability & then took it into my new trial version of Sharpen AI and I couldn't believe the difference. It sharpened the subject much better than I could without changing the background and didn't add noise. Even those it runs slowly on my old computer, it will save me time in my workflow for some images - it's a keeper for me.

bluezzzzz Loc: Stamping Ground, KY

Well, it's been a couple of days now and I'm just about ready to give Topaz a try. lol! It wasn't loading, and then started crashing Photoshop. Eric, at Topaz Labs, very capably solved my problem; I needed an OS upgrade from El Capitan. Spent many hours going around in circles online and on apple support websites. Ultimately found a link to a Sierra 10.12.6 download and now all is good, at least until the next time. Let the tests begin!

I went back to that TOP blog and there are over 50 comments so far to the article. Ctein personally answers some of them. Here is his reply to Joe that I found interesting, and the workflow I intend to try:

"Dear Joe,

That's the way I use the various Topaz AI tools, and I should've explained my workflow in the review. I pull the raw file into Photoshop, making whatever conversion adjustments I find appropriate for the photograph. I save the photograph as a flat TIF, pull it into the Topaz tool, generate a resultant TIF and layer that on top of the photograph in Photoshop.

Now I can pixel peep at my leisure. If the resultant TIF is free of problems and better overall than the starting one, I flatten the result and move forward from there. If not, I add a layer mask and paint out the bits that are a problem and then flatten and save.

Important note — As a rule, don't do significant noise reduction or sharpening before applying the AI tools. For the most part, it appears they've been trained on un-manipulated images, so they can be confused by artificialities introduced by other software.

That doesn't mean they couldn't be trained on manipulated and artifact-laden images — in a future column I will review Topaz JPEG To RAW AI, which is just plain spooky. But so far as I can tell, Sharpen AI isn't one of those programs.

At least, not yet.

~~~~ Ctein"


Marshall

bluezzzzz Loc: Stamping Ground, KY

Here is a first try, using AI DeNoise and AI Sharpen, of a hummingbird in our yard, picking a meal out of a spider web in an oak tree.

I need to go back and redo this just doing it like before, to see where the differences are.

Hummingbird22Sep2019_007web by Marshall Smith, on Flickr


Here is an overlay of the crop over full frame.

ecobin Loc: Paoli, PA

I did some testing yesterday. My iMac with High Sierra os and 16gb ram grinds to almost a halt when trying to save a file in either DNG or TIFF format after applying AI Sharpen - I closed most other apps before applying. Saving to highest quality JPG runs much faster but still takes close to a minute. My computer is old and that is likely a key factor.
There are three sharpen modes: sharpen, stabilize, and focus. I tried all on both moving and stationary subjects and prefer the results using “stabilize” for all images. Note that the tested images were all taken using a very sturdy tripod (Induro 404XL) so shake was not an issue.
My conclusion is that it’s too slow for me to build into my workflow even though I like the results. I’ll revisit after upgrading my iMac - whenever the new models are released.

Bob Locher Loc: Southwest Oregon

The processing is slow - it is very computer intensive. Sharpen AI is a tool I use only for my best shots, and not all of them, since many would simply not benefit. But when I do use it the improvement can be spectacular. And it is almost always the last processing I do to a photo before I consider it finished.
Cheers

ClarkJohnson Loc: Fort Myers, FL and Cohasset, MA

I gave Sharpen AI a try on some of my worst shots, and was impressed enough to pull the trigger and buy the software. For those considering purchase, the price is $59 until September 30 (“regular price” is $79), and the coupon code SHARPEN15 brings it down to about $51.

ClarkJohnson Loc: Fort Myers, FL and Cohasset, MA

I gave Sharpen AI a try on some of my worst shots, and was impressed enough to pull the trigger and buy the software. For those considering purchase, the price is $59 until September 30 (“regular price” is $79), and the coupon code SHARPEN15 brings it down to about $51.

ecobin Loc: Paoli, PA

👍