tomcat

I was getting ready to reply and then you answered your own concern. Sharpen AI is not for noise reduction, so you will see not-so-happy results if you use it on noisy images. And that's what you discovered. You need to run AI Clear first to rid the noise and then use Sharpen AI. I like AI Clear a lot. Sharpen AI is not a miracle clear and if the image is really OOF or has shake, then it probably will not work well.

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

Here is an example using Sharpen AI (Stabilize) to show what it is capable of doing. Of course, I had to search to find a suitable image to try this with. This is a 100% view and I have the before and after view in Lightroom turned on so you can see the difference. I also have the problem that the birds like to eat these tiny berries, and as a result, I find hundreds of little trees growing all over my yard.

I really like Topaz AI Clear as it works great with very little effort. But in careful comparisons, Sharpen AI seems to do a tiny bit better when carefully used. But with Sharpen AI, you do need to decide whether the image needs sharpening, or stabilization or focus help. According to topaz's web site, if you want to use 2 or 3 these choices, you need to call the application more using one at a time.

And yes, if there is a lot of noise, AI Clear takes care of noise better than Sharpen AI. But it also appears that DxO Photolab Elite Prime Noise Removal seems to do even better on noise. But I am still trying to convince myself.

But it does look like these tools are really becoming much more powerful than anything we have seen before. In the case of Sharpen AI, you do need to try all three, sharpen, stabilize and focus, to see which one does the best.

(Download)

tomcat

Great illustration. Thanks for sharing!!