dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Dynamic Auto-Painter, DAP, photo to art, is a bit dated... great tho. BUT!!!! Things in AI are rapidly changing... As in the production of automobiles they must go electric or parish.

The company that produced DAP has just introduced for $40 Ai Photo & Art Enhancer. Don't trash your old camera, "Create 100 Megapixel images from just an ordinary camera." "strong and effective Ai De-noising algorithm and can save even the most hopeless images" There is a free trial download.
https://www.mediachance.com/aienhancer/index.html

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

Topaz basically took Studio 2 and combined it with Denoise, Sharpen, Gigapixel and added another feature to help with faces. They appear to have used a newer processing engine as well. It is a stand a lone product just like Studio 2. The difference is that you don't have to buy Denoise, Sharpen and Gigapixel to do the same thing. Photo AI isn't meant to be a plug in for Studio 2. It appears to be the replacement for it which is the reason they won't be continuing development of Studio 2. Since the plugins in Studio 2 are incorporated into Photo AI there would be no reason to have them as plugin as well. Have you downloaded and tried Photo AI?

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I'll second that sentiment. Even if you use other, more specialized graphic tools, Lightroom Classic, Lightroom, Photoshop, Bridge, and the other goodies you get with the Adobe plan are highly refined, very stable, and kept up to date on at least a quarterly basis.

Photoshop has a lot of filters, including the new Neural Filters, that process images in bizarre and interesting ways.

I've used Adobe products since early versions of PostScript and PageMaker (after they bought Aldus). Although they're not always the easiest company for hobbyists to deal with, they are standards bearers, and they are ubiquitous in the professional graphic arts and photography industries.

Lightroom Classic is the hub of my digital still imaging workflow. Everything else "spokes out of that hub." Photoshop is my main finishing tool. But I also use other tools, such as Graphic Converter (Mac only) and Nik Collection. Images are imported into Lightroom, parametrically processed there, then sent to external applications for more work. When saved, they come back into Lightroom's Catalog.

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

I have used the Neural Filters a few times. Sometimes to good effect, but sometimes I do get bizarre results. Maybe it's just me, but sometimes I enjoy bizarre results.

There are times when Liquify does a better job with smiles and frowns then Neural. But they both do a better job than I used to do with cut and paste.

photoman43

I use NIK Collection 3. But I also use the tools in my RAW processor--Tone Curve (with dramatic adjustments) , Local adjustments, Color changes, etc. Exaggerate how you use them and you will be amazed and surprised by what you can get.

mrgarci Loc: Albuquerque, NM

Thanks for the input! I didn't know about Smart Photo Editor. It looks like it has some nice features. I'll add it to my list of options.

I agree that it's a shame that Studio 2 has been abandoned. I think there are still a lot of loyal Studio 2 users around.

mrgarci Loc: Albuquerque, NM

Nice photos! I too have used Simplify and BuzSim in many photos over the years.

ronichas Loc: Long Island

Thanks so much.

mrgarci Loc: Albuquerque, NM

Thanks for the input! It looks like On1 Raw 2023 is about to come out and has a lot of nice features and functionality. I'll definitely look at it more closely.

mrgarci Loc: Albuquerque, NM

Yes, I am aware that Photo AI is a standalone program. I'm not sure what you mean by choosing "edit in." When I open Photo AI, I can only select the photo to work with, and then Photo AI does its auto processing of noise and sharpening, with options to upscale.

mrgarci Loc: Albuquerque, NM

Haha, I'll be careful with what I say! I hear what you are saying. It's always a quandary to me whether to buy now or wait. There will always be something better down the line if you wait, but potential miss out on something to enjoy in the now.

yssirk123 Loc: New Jersey

Photo AI also works as a plugin to Photoshop.

mrgarci Loc: Albuquerque, NM

I'm not seeing that Photo AI is a replacement for Studio 2. From what I can tell, Photo AI basically combines Denoise AI, Sharpen AI, and Gigapixel AI into one app/plugin. I don't think there will ever be any creative processing included in the future like in Studio 2. Yes, I own Photo AI and you are correct that it is not recognized by Studio 2 as a plugin like Denoise AI, Sharpen AI, Adjust AI, and Mask AI are. According to Topaz Labs in a reply to me:

In 2020, we decided to end the development of all of our "creative" apps and focus solely on what we call our "image quality" apps (DeNoise AI, Sharpen AI, and Gigapixel AI).

The reason Photo AI does not work in Studio 2 is not because of lack of development to do so with Photo AI. It's because Studio 2 isn't capable of functioning as a host editor for Photo AI. It simply doesn't allow for any sort of integration with Photo AI because development on that program ended before we every started working on Topaz Photo AI. That program is technically still available to purchase if you can find it on our site, but it's not outwardly promoted. It's also still supported in it's current state, but will soon become a legacy program."

mrgarci Loc: Albuquerque, NM

Thanks for that input! I'm not a professional photographer but enjoy photography and post processing. Usually, I have more photos to process than I have time to spend on. I tend towards the 80/20 rule; that is, I'm okay with getting 80% of the results with 20% of the time, effort, equipment and expense. Usually, most people can't tell the difference between 80% and 100% unless they're pixel peepers. So, I allowed myself to become dependent upon being able to quickly process photos using personal custom and product provided presets/effects within Studio 2 for general or creative images. For more involved images I use Corel PaintShop Pro where I can better keep track of layers and fine edits. I've tended to think of Adobe as a more expensive and time intensive option, but perhaps my paradigm should be revised.

Ednsb Loc: Santa Barbara

It always a good idea to say what platform you run on : mac, pc, cobol, Fortran or what?