I still would like to know if Topaz is good for taking an old picture like from the 70s that has that haze look, will it clean that all up and then make the pic look crystal clear? I have yet to see a video showing this being done with Topaz. I have used Photoshop to clean up a lot of old pics a few years back, but now with AI, can it make the pics look even better?
As a photographer, Topaz has saved myself a lot of times. Especially when I ask my friend to take a photo of me, I always expect them to be slightly out of focus or focusing on the wrong part of the body. They are not that knowledgeable so there is nothing I can do 😅
Outstanding comparative review, Richard, and your experiences match mine. Only with the current version 3 of Photo AI, in my opinion, have Topaz Labs finally caught up and surpassed the performance of their earlier standalone apps, Sharpen AI and DeNoise AI, that they discontinued developing 1-2 years ago to concentrate on Photo AI. So older Sharpen AI and DeNoise AI licensees might want to take another look and trial Photo AI 3.
Thanks for dropping by Sound. You should. I'm still not sure how much better Topaz Photo AI is over Sharpen, Denoise, and Gigapixel in terms of image quality, but having all these features under one roof is the reason why I never go back to them. Come to think of it, I remember the Automatic modes in the standalone apps were not that great. Manual adjustments were almost necessary.
@@silentpeakphoto1845 I have e-mailed support and obtained some help pretty fast. The main problem is that with this developing program, some UA-cam videos only a year old give instructions that no longer work.
Nice review. I think you may slightly mis-represent the purpose of face recovery - my understanding is that it is not meant to be used on most images, but rather, it is primarily intended for images where there are one or more faces that are out of focus/blurry. Used under those circumstances, I have found Photo AI can recover faces and make the image usable in a way that no other application can do. You just have to watch that it doesn't make a person unrecognisable - for example it uses AI generated eyes and teeth - I recently worked on a blurred image of a teen who was wearing braces - it did a great job BUT it changed blue eyes to brown (it often does this) and it removed their braces. Still, better than a totally blurred image. The face recovery is essentially replacing some super-blurry aspects of the face with AI generated content, hence why it can make the individual look a little different, but it can be, as I said, a lifesaver, especially used as a Photoshop plugin where you can then limit further what it does using history states etc.
Thanks Ding Bat. My most severe criticism of Face Recovery is that it seems redundant as the standard image-wide sharpening does such a good job. That being said, I'm sure there are scenarios that I've not explored where it can make a bigger difference.
Great video! Q: I've Topaz Denoise and Topaz Sharpen, most of the time using it for bird photography. Is it worth to go for Topaz AI, or is that "overdone"? Are the results better with Topaz AI?
Thanks for stopping by. Denoise AI and Sharpen AI are now discontinued and while very good, they've fallen behind a little (denoise in particular) and will continue to do so. But even when there was parity, I preferred Topaz Photo AI because of it's one-stop-shop interface which was particularly useful in its automatic mode as it would balance sharpening and noise reduction simultaneously - something Denoise and Sharpen could never do. Topaz Photo AI also offers upscaling and one of the better AI erase brushes. So right now, you'd find Topaz Photo AI much more convenient with marginal but meaningfully better image quality compared to bouncing between Denoise and Sharpen.
@@silentpeakphoto1845 Thanx for the nice reply. I bought Topaz AI :). But: When I in LR right click on a RAW-file foto to start processing in Topaz Photo AI, it exports it back to LR as a TIF.file. I checked it in "Preferences", and there it says: "Exports as DNG". But that doesn't do it. Do you know how to change that?
@@keeskraaijeveld4704 unfortunately, I don't use Lightroom Classic so I can't replicate your issue. I can certainly export to file in DNG but that's a longer route for you. My only thoughts are. 1. You accidentally edited a JPEG, thus forcing a TIFF export? 2. Are you using a more obscure camera model not fully Raw or DNG export compliant with Photo AI? Sorry I could not be more help. Note, Photo AI does have a 30-day return policy if it doesn't work out.
In most cases artifacts and the overall artificial look tells the AI-story with Photo AI. Try to use Upscale with a cityscape and its subtle geometry. Upscale works for images with large amorphous components. Even 2x upscaling will leave artifacts in most cases. Extreme AI recovery of not existing sharpness produces plasticky lifeless details. For sure - sometimes Photo AI is better than nothing and can save the day. But reliable and convincing results are years ahead, like it was years ago. Meanwhile everybody pays for an experimental AI-machine delivering minor improvements now and then. It's a great business model.
Hi Eigil. My experiences with Topaz Photo AI have been very good - though I have definitely pushed its limits. It mostly struggles with small sensor images, those soaked with diffraction and heavy baked-in noise reduction. But I agree that the AI hype-train is in full swing.
Video was really hard to listen to as by the 2 minute mark you mentioned "Topaz photo AI" like over 15 times. I get it, you've heard that repeating keywords over and over in a video will help it rank better. We'll, just for your information.. UA-cam caught onto that about 10 years ago. Theres no longer a need to annoy listeners with so much repetition. Saying it only when necessary, and adding it to title, description is more than enough and the Algo will still give you love if the video delivers for the viewers. I've built channels into hundreds of thousands of Subs without keyword stuffing.
Hi Babylon. I think this is down to the way I record and cut but it's definitely a bit of a bad habit. It's certainly not my intent to keyword stuff or irritate. Thanks for pointing it out and I'll be more aware on my next recording.
I still would like to know if Topaz is good for taking an old picture like from the 70s that has that
haze look, will it clean that all up and then make the pic look crystal clear?
I have yet to see a video showing this being done with Topaz.
I have used Photoshop to clean up a lot of old pics a few years back, but now with AI, can it make the pics
look even better?
As a photographer, Topaz has saved myself a lot of times. Especially when I ask my friend to take a photo of me, I always expect them to be slightly out of focus or focusing on the wrong part of the body. They are not that knowledgeable so there is nothing I can do 😅
Excellent information and explanations - thank you!
You are welcome!
Great review! Thanks! Love the images of New Zealand!
Thanks Henkvdven. New Zealand is very easy on the camera :)
Best review I've seen and I've seen a good amount. Good photos used for comparison.
Thanks Official! I hope it helped
Excellent video. I appreciate the discussion of the competitive products, especially DxO PureRaw.
Thanks for dropping by Steve!
Excellent overview 👍
Thanks Martin! 👍
Outstanding comparative review, Richard, and your experiences match mine. Only with the current version 3 of Photo AI, in my opinion, have Topaz Labs finally caught up and surpassed the performance of their earlier standalone apps, Sharpen AI and DeNoise AI, that they discontinued developing 1-2 years ago to concentrate on Photo AI. So older Sharpen AI and DeNoise AI licensees might want to take another look and trial Photo AI 3.
Thanks for dropping by Sound. You should. I'm still not sure how much better Topaz Photo AI is over Sharpen, Denoise, and Gigapixel in terms of image quality, but having all these features under one roof is the reason why I never go back to them. Come to think of it, I remember the Automatic modes in the standalone apps were not that great. Manual adjustments were almost necessary.
Thank you. Having seen your video I have just bought Topaz Photo AI 3 (so am struggling to learn it!!).
I hope you like it. It's an excellent piece of software once you get the hang of it
@@silentpeakphoto1845 I have e-mailed support and obtained some help pretty fast. The main problem is that with this developing program, some UA-cam videos only a year old give instructions that no longer work.
Great video!
Thanks for dropping by!
What are the min MacBook chip and ram requirements for upscaling?
Hi there. Check out docs.topazlabs.com/photo-ai/system-requirements
16GB
Nice review. I think you may slightly mis-represent the purpose of face recovery - my understanding is that it is not meant to be used on most images, but rather, it is primarily intended for images where there are one or more faces that are out of focus/blurry. Used under those circumstances, I have found Photo AI can recover faces and make the image usable in a way that no other application can do. You just have to watch that it doesn't make a person unrecognisable - for example it uses AI generated eyes and teeth - I recently worked on a blurred image of a teen who was wearing braces - it did a great job BUT it changed blue eyes to brown (it often does this) and it removed their braces. Still, better than a totally blurred image. The face recovery is essentially replacing some super-blurry aspects of the face with AI generated content, hence why it can make the individual look a little different, but it can be, as I said, a lifesaver, especially used as a Photoshop plugin where you can then limit further what it does using history states etc.
Thanks Ding Bat. My most severe criticism of Face Recovery is that it seems redundant as the standard image-wide sharpening does such a good job. That being said, I'm sure there are scenarios that I've not explored where it can make a bigger difference.
Great video! Q: I've Topaz Denoise and Topaz Sharpen, most of the time using it for bird photography. Is it worth to go for Topaz AI, or is that "overdone"? Are the results better with Topaz AI?
Thanks for stopping by. Denoise AI and Sharpen AI are now discontinued and while very good, they've fallen behind a little (denoise in particular) and will continue to do so. But even when there was parity, I preferred Topaz Photo AI because of it's one-stop-shop interface which was particularly useful in its automatic mode as it would balance sharpening and noise reduction simultaneously - something Denoise and Sharpen could never do. Topaz Photo AI also offers upscaling and one of the better AI erase brushes.
So right now, you'd find Topaz Photo AI much more convenient with marginal but meaningfully better image quality compared to bouncing between Denoise and Sharpen.
@@silentpeakphoto1845 Thanx for the nice reply. I bought Topaz AI :). But: When I in LR right click on a RAW-file foto to start processing in Topaz Photo AI, it exports it back to LR as a TIF.file. I checked it in "Preferences", and there it says: "Exports as DNG". But that doesn't do it. Do you know how to change that?
@@keeskraaijeveld4704 unfortunately, I don't use Lightroom Classic so I can't replicate your issue. I can certainly export to file in DNG but that's a longer route for you. My only thoughts are. 1. You accidentally edited a JPEG, thus forcing a TIFF export? 2. Are you using a more obscure camera model not fully Raw or DNG export compliant with Photo AI? Sorry I could not be more help. Note, Photo AI does have a 30-day return policy if it doesn't work out.
In most cases artifacts and the overall artificial look tells the AI-story with Photo AI. Try to use Upscale with a cityscape and its subtle geometry. Upscale works for images with large amorphous components. Even 2x upscaling will leave artifacts in most cases. Extreme AI recovery of not existing sharpness produces plasticky lifeless details. For sure - sometimes Photo AI is better than nothing and can save the day. But reliable and convincing results are years ahead, like it was years ago. Meanwhile everybody pays for an experimental AI-machine delivering minor improvements now and then. It's a great business model.
Hi Eigil. My experiences with Topaz Photo AI have been very good - though I have definitely pushed its limits. It mostly struggles with small sensor images, those soaked with diffraction and heavy baked-in noise reduction. But I agree that the AI hype-train is in full swing.
Video was really hard to listen to as by the 2 minute mark you mentioned "Topaz photo AI" like over 15 times. I get it, you've heard that repeating keywords over and over in a video will help it rank better. We'll, just for your information.. UA-cam caught onto that about 10 years ago. Theres no longer a need to annoy listeners with so much repetition. Saying it only when necessary, and adding it to title, description is more than enough and the Algo will still give you love if the video delivers for the viewers. I've built channels into hundreds of thousands of Subs without keyword stuffing.
Hi Babylon. I think this is down to the way I record and cut but it's definitely a bit of a bad habit. It's certainly not my intent to keyword stuff or irritate. Thanks for pointing it out and I'll be more aware on my next recording.
@silentpeakphoto1845 understandable. Well glad I was able to lend an opinion, and good to know you didnt take offense
I have MacBook Pro 16gb ram, 1m pro, 1tb and it’s take forever to use super focus even if I do mask just on face 😬
Dang. I got the same setup. So you need a dedicated GPU
My dedicated GPU only runs at about 19% during super focus. It seems to hit the CPU harder.
Top Az 🤣WTF... never heard topaz pronounced like that before, made me PMSL every time.🤣 It's "Tow-Paz" dude.
Well Dazz - stay tuned for my next few videos. You're gonna love 'em :)