Topaz Labs products - Gigapixel, Sharpen, & Denoise

[Maviac]

First of all I know there have been a couple threads about these (Clear and Sharpen anyway), but it’s been a while and there wasn’t much of a response. They seem to be doing a sales push now and I’ve downloaded the Sharpen trial program (well, full version for 30 days). I’m honestly not seeing much improvement. My drone pics are usually pretty sharp anyway(I’ve been trying them more on pics of my kids, who have the energy of a recently-fed hummingbird leading to slightly blurry pics even with a very fast shutter speed). Thinking maybe Denoise would be more helpful given that while I do a lot of exposure bracketing/stacking, I still get a fair amount of noise on the Mavic Air due to the small sensor in anything but the brightest light. Gigapixel also looks like it would be good at sharpening/upscaling but I haven’t seen as many reviews on it.

Admittedly, my relatively unimpressive results with Sharpen are probably largely due to to my own lack of skill. Anyway, I’d appreciate any opinions and experience

 

[sar104]

I mostly just use the AI Clear adjustment in Topaz Studio, and I generally find the results to be very impressive.

 

[PAW]

Big fan of AI Clear but I have moved to the combo of DeNoise AI and Sharpen AI as a replacement.
As for Gigapixel AI, it is incredible the upscaling results I get from older photos (like cell phone pix from the '90s). They have corrected a problem with eyes in their new version. I usually just use 2x or 4x and while it doesn't create studio-quality results, they are very good for monitor or TV display.
Free to try Topaz Gigapixel AI

 

[BadRad]

First of all I know there have been a couple threads about these (Clear and Sharpen anyway), but it’s been a while and there wasn’t much of a response. They seem to be doing a sales push now and I’ve downloaded the Sharpen trial program (well, full version for 30 days). I’m honestly not seeing much improvement. My drone pics are usually pretty sharp anyway(I’ve been trying them more on pics of my kids, who have the energy of a recently-fed hummingbird leading to slightly blurry pics even with a very fast shutter speed). Thinking maybe Denoise would be more helpful given that while I do a lot of exposure bracketing/stacking, I still get a fair amount of noise on the Mavic Air due to the small sensor in anything but the brightest light. Gigapixel also looks like it would be good at sharpening/upscaling but I haven’t seen as many reviews on it.

Admittedly, my relatively unimpressive results with Sharpen are probably largely due to to my own lack of skill. Anyway, I’d appreciate any opinions and experience
[

 

[BadRad]

Try using STABILIZE in the Topaz Sharpen app. Works fine while holding down noise.

 

[Deleted member 114292]

For what it’s worth sharpening isn’t to improve focus per se it just makes the edges more edgy if you will.
Not much you can do about blurry pictures Except don’t show them.

 

[sar104]

For what it’s worth sharpening isn’t to improve focus per se it just makes the edges more edgy if you will.
Not much you can do about blurry pictures Except don’t show them.

That's certainly true with simple mathematical sharpening algorithms, but some of the newer AI methods are starting to change that.

 

[rhberg]

I use Denoise AI for noisy images and carefully compare the previews (zoomed to 400 %) using "Denoise AI" vs. "AI Clear". This gives excellent results, especially compared to traditional noise reduction software.

 

[Deleted member 114292]

That's certainly true with simple mathematical sharpening algorithms, but some of the newer AI methods are starting to change that.

Hopefully a new moniker will be used for focus correct as that is not sharpening.

 

[sar104]

Hopefully a new moniker will be used for focus correct as that is not sharpening.

That might be a good idea, although it is a form of sharpening, since softness is either due to motion blur, focus error or the diffraction limit.

 

[Deleted member 114292]

Sharpening is increasing contrast at boundaries. I would image focus correction is way more complicated than that.
Early digital cameras had slower frequency response in the electronics which made for unsharp edge transitions, that is the pulse you would see at an edge got rounded or stretched if you will.

 

[AlbertJH]

I personally Removing blurriness from photos with the help of a photo editing applications like Photoshop requires adequate knowledge of the platform. An easier and quick alternative is Stellar Repair for Photo software – a photo repair tool that automatically fixes blurry, pixelated, and grainy photos.

 

[Deleted member 94047]

Thanks for this thread, I have downloaded Gigapixel AI and am giving it a test run. One question though, should I apply Gigapixel AI before or after I processing/editing my photos in Lightroom/Photoshop or does that not matter? I am currently working under the assumption that Gigapixel AI is simply a resizing utility and applying it to my photos once I am finished editing them but would like to hear from people who have more experience in this matter. Thanks!

 

[sar104]

Thanks for this thread, I have downloaded Gigapixel AI and am giving it a test run. One question though, should I apply Gigapixel AI before or after I processing/editing my photos in Lightroom/Photoshop or does that not matter? I am currently working under the assumption that Gigapixel AI is simply a resizing utility and applying it to my photos once I am finished editing them but would like to hear from people who have more experience in this matter. Thanks!

It depends somewhat on what you are trying to achieve. If you are simply upsizing for resolution then you should do that on the unedited originals. It's not the best Topaz program for reducing noise or improving sharpness.

 

[LivinLarge]

It is amazing that our images come out as good as they do considering that are captured on such a tiny sensor, with a tiny lens, blurred by an AA filter and more than half the data is thrown away by the Bayer filter. Then the image is compressed and stored in a lossy format. The camera is on a moving platform in the air, with lots of vibrations, tossed around by the wind.
I did download and test the Gigapixel AI and tested it with some very good images to get an idea of how well it can work. I found it to be far superior to conventional means of increasing image resolution. As an ultimate test, I downsized an image 400% then upsized it using Gigapixel AI and compared it to the original full size image. It does an excellent job of "guessing" how to create the lost data. Of course it can't guess perfectly. I tried restoring text that was skewed, out of focus and in shadow. It did not do a good job. I was more able to read it by just enlarging and brightening in photoshop.