NCMtnMan Loc: N. Fork New River, Ashe Co., NC

I was wondering if anyone had tried the new Topaz Studio A. I. Gigapixel resizing software? https://topazlabs.com/ai-gigapixel/ You can download a free trial. Looks interesting if it works as well as they proclaim.

rjaywallace Loc: Wisconsin

Why don’t you download the free trial, test it on several images (copy them first), and then tell UHH what you liked and what could be improved upon?

NCMtnMan Loc: N. Fork New River, Ashe Co., NC

I will try to do that as soon as I can catch some free time to do it. Thought I would ask in the meantime.

NCMtnMan Loc: N. Fork New River, Ashe Co., NC

I did what you suggested. I took a RAW image, zoomed in and cropped a section of the image and saved it as a jpg. Then I used the Topaz A.I Gigapixel software to resize it first to 300 percent, then 400 percent and finally 600 percent. The jpg of the RAW is attached as well as the cropped image and the 3 resized. I thought it did a very good job of increasing the size and also cleaned up noise as well. I'm not sure that I would use it very often since I don't normally print very large prints, but for those that do or who have shots that really need a good deal of cropping to get the image they need. it may be a very worthwhile purchase at $99.

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dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

There are classic alternatives ON1 and Benvista. Both run neck and neck, but both out pace the ones included with PS and other edit programs. Ashampoo sells "last years" Photozoom for $20, considering how rarely one uses significant upsizing, why spend more. Ai is the latest buzzword for advertising.
https://www.ashampoo.com/en/usd/pin/partner0106/partner-software/photozoom-6

rlv567 Loc: Baguio City, Philippines

I viewed the downloaded pictures in Irfanview:
AI-600 - @100x
AI-400 - @150x
AI-200 - @300x
Original - @550x
so that the resultant views were very nearly the same size. All three of the AI pictures were substantially sharper and with less noise than the original; interestingly, the AI-400 looked a slight bit the best to me!

I had tried the same thing yesterday, but with incomplete results. My desktop computer has a fast processor, but only 16 Gigs of RAM, and an (apparently unsupported) NVIDIA GeForce GT 730 card with 2 Gigs. Any attempt to process at 400 or 600 resulted in the program shutting down after about a minute of processing.

I compared results starting with scans (including Box Brownie B&W), an old nondescript cellphone, an iPhone (not mine), a Sony DSCF 717, Canon Elph 330, Canon Elph 170, Canon G16, Canon 70D and Canon 5D Mark II. Results were fairly similar across the board – sharper, and considerably less noise – but did appear to depend significantly on the starting picture. Subsequent processing in some other post processing program improved on those factors needing it, but additional sharpening hurt rather than helped.

One further note – don’t be in a hurry for results as the software processes calculations in the multi-trillions. My trials took the better part of a day, with the time for a process varying between one and thirty minutes.

In order to derive a meaningful evaluation, results from a computer with the recommended components should be compared with the best sharpening/enlarging software otherwise available.

Loren – Baguio City

rlv567 Loc: Baguio City, Philippines

I just tried something else -- I ran AI-200 (still won’t go above that) on your original and compared my result with your result. Both were substantially improved over the original, but – mine was a little brighter and a little more “yellow”, and slightly less sharp. I’m sure this was a result of the difference in our video cards. The processing took almost exactly one minute.

Loren – Baguio City

NCMtnMan Loc: N. Fork New River, Ashe Co., NC

Did you check the box about enhancing the image? What color profile did you use? They also say in the tutorial that not keeping the meta data will speed the process.

johnst1001a Loc: West Chester, Ohio

Just downloaded it, and ran on one picture. I enlarged it by 400%, and the results were quite good, much better picture at the enlarged size than enlarging the original. It did lose some of the colors though, less saturation, but I am sure I can bring those back to match the original. I have a Mac, a 2012, with I5 processor and 16gb ram. The process of resizing with Gigapixel took about 3 minutes for one picture, and pretty much used all the resources my computer had. I had my browser opened at the same time, and it moved at a snails pace, so beware that your computer speed will be a big bottleneck. Probably not a big deal with new computers. I am sure when i tell my wife I need a new computer, she will roll her eyes.

rlv567 Loc: Baguio City, Philippines

I didn't use enhance image, did use sRGB and keep metadata.

Loren

yssirk123 Loc: New Jersey

Here's a copy of my earlier post on this:

I've been using Photoshop Preserve Details 2.0 and On1 Perfect Resize to upsize images with pretty decent results. Topaz has introduced A.I. Gigapixel, a new standalone application purportedly using artificial intelligence to resize images up to 600%. Since it has a free 30 day trial version, I downloaded it to see what it can do.

The attached image was originally 22"x15" and has been downsized for the web from a Topaz AI enlargement which was over 7' on the long side and had a file size of 1.3GB. Not sure where you could even get something this large printed, but it also worked well on images enlarged to more reasonable sizes like 24x36. The initial app is still a little hinky, but nothing that prevents it from working on single images as long as you have the right graphics card.

I think it could come in handy for images from lower resolution cameras and smartphones, or where aggressive cropping limits enlargement size. In comparing the output quality to Photohop and ON1, IMHO it's a clear and decisive winner. Your mileage may vary.

If you're interested, there is an excellent review on it from Keith Cooper at Northlight Images and a shorter one from picturecorrect.com (with a discount code).

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rcdovala

I had the same results.

elent

I like it. I'm a street shooter and due to the really really short sight and shoot time (people are notorious for not standing still! !), composition can suffer. This usually means cropping ... where the ai excelled. I agree with the post on saturation loss. It's correctable, but you need to be aware of it. Too, most of my prints are A3+, so the need for quality upsizing is evident.

Ronny Loc: Netherlands

I am a fan of Topaz products and own TopazStudio including Clear AI, and the standalone Sharpen AI and Topaz Gigapixel AI. I am also a much older person (83) and own many older pictures, a lot of them from before World War Two. I had blurry pictures taken with an old Kodak box, many black and whites of family history. My computer is a powerhouse with a videocard of 8gig, 3 SSD drives, a lot of memory, and so on. I had one picture likes a stamp; 52 by 64 pixels, which I did 400 times the pixels. And the most important part is the very easy way to work with that software. Clear AI and sharpen AI are doing a fantastic job too.