Another Topaz Sharpen Ai - Before and After.

[nuclearjock]

Playing around with the trial version. The sparrow in the Topaz version was masked out in PS CC before calling the Topaz plugin so only the bird was sharpened.

1. Processed using traditional image filtering (sharpening).

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

2. Topaz Ai sharpening using the "stabilize" feature.

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

My 1/320 ss was not enough to tame this little critter. I'm liking Ai sharpening more with each use. Works well in many instances.

 

[Louis Champan]

Noticeable improvement Rick.

 

[nuclearjock]

Just a quick and dirty Louie. But pushing traditional sharpening further in the case of the first image did not yield acceptable results. I think Topaz is on to something here. I'll most likely buy the license once the trial expires.

 

[Palouse]

Impressive. But glacially and painfully slow on my MBP.

 

[nuclearjock]

Impressive. But glacially and painfully slow on my MBP.

I hear ya Nick. You need some ponies or you need some patience with this plugin. In the latter case, you can be opening wine bottles while the hour glass is turning.

 

[Retief]

I have been looking at the new Topaz AI bits myself, and am quite surprised, pleasantly so. As to the slowness, well, that is the price you pay for the kind of processing that is going on. I am guessing that you can speed things up, at least from what I have read, by turning off the automatic preview. That won't help with saving, but that's what dinner is for. Not something I would want to do on a batch of 10,000 images, but very nice when you need it.

 

[Palouse]

In the latter case, you can be opening wine bottles while the hour glass is turning .

Tried it

 

[Palouse]

I have been looking at the new Topaz AI bits myself, and am quite surprised, pleasantly so. As to the slowness, well, that is the price you pay for the kind of processing that is going on. I am guessing that you can speed things up, at least from what I have read, by turning off the automatic preview. That won't help with saving, but that's what dinner is for. Not something I would want to do on a batch of 10,000 images, but very nice when you need it.

Welcome back Bill

 

[Butlerkid]

Impressive.....but the results in this case seem over done - for me. I prefer the original version as it is more natural and is still plenty sharp.

 

[nuclearjock]

Impressive.....but the results in this case seem over done - for me. I prefer the original version as it is more natural and is still plenty sharp.

Still fine tuning things Karen.

 

[Ann_JS]

When I look at the sparrow's beak I see artefacts and edge-effects that seem to have been created by Topaz because they are not in your original (which was already perfectly sharp!).

 

[nuclearjock]

When I look at the sparrow's beak I see artefacts and edge-effects that seem to have been created by Topaz because they are not in your original (which was already perfectly sharp!).

You don't see any motion blur in the first image?

 

[Butlerkid]

Still fine tuning things Karen.

Your images are typically very sharp. I think that makes it hard to use Topaz AU Sharpen and not get details over sharpened. The best uses I've seen have been on images that were marginally OOF and AI Sharpen can sometimes "save" them.

 

[Ann_JS]

I find the first one to be preferable to the artificial edge-effects in the Topazzed version.

Perhaps try using Layers with the Topazzed one used at less than 100% with partial masking on the top layer?

 

[nuclearjock]

I find the first one to be preferable to the artificial edge-effects in the Topazzed version.

Perhaps try using Layers with the Topazzed one used at less than 100% with partial masking on the top layer?

Glad you like the first image. As far as the fate of the second, I think I can handle it from here .

 

[Growltiger]

Topaz warn against setting the level too high, as it creates an effect they call hyper-reality.
It doesn't create edge effects, and I can't see any here.
Perhaps try it again with a slightly lower setting.

Those complaining about the speed simply need to add a good modern video card to their computer. The program uses that to give much faster results than just with a CPU.

 

[Richard_M]

Viewing the images on a tablet, I like the results.
I wonder if the masking may have contributed to the artifacts others have observed?

 

[TonyW]

I have not tried the Topaz product yet but have heard good things and certainly you have demonstrated an improvement.

Hope you dont mind a couple of thoughts?

Looking at the original with 'traditional' ACR sharpening it seems to me that you could have gone a little further and used the deconvolution sharpening in ACR to bring back more feather detail without raising artifacts which may have narrowed the gap somewhat?

As to the degree of sharpening, well that is somewhat subjective as comments here have shown but the image is not oversharpened IMHO. In fact for print purposes it could probably take a tad more!

Rarely will you hear the comment that an image is too sharp (there are exceptions e.g. skin texture for ladies, etc.) which of course is different to being oversharpened! The light and dark halos that we create around edges with 'traditional' sharpening are the ones that everyone sees but no one notices - that is, when done correctly.

 

[Growltiger]

The light and dark halos that we create around edges with 'traditional' sharpening are the ones that everyone sees but no one notices - that is, when done correctly.

Topaz Sharpen AI doesn't add any halos at all itself. But if the image has already been sharpened conventionally, and even very slight halos added, then it sharpens and accentuates those halos. So it is best to start with a completely unsharpened image, which has no halos at all.

 

[nuclearjock]

Looking at the original with 'traditional' ACR sharpening it seems to me that you could have gone a little further and used the deconvolution sharpening in ACR to bring back more feather detail without raising artifacts which may have narrowed the gap somewhat?

I tried to go further but things started to look a bit "funky". I think my subject made a twitch that was faster than 1/320 ss hence the small amount of blur which AI sharpen's "stabilize" mode was able to clean up. I'm at a loss as well to see artifacts in the bird's beak.