Adding realism to faces (Iris or Bloom)?

Topaz Video General
1

I’ve done a 4x upscale with SLM, and it looks OK. I’m using version 1.1.0.

However, there are a few scenes with fairly up-close faces, which look plastic.
I gather that Iris might be good at bringing back some realism, but Bloom Realism might be good too.

Has anyone tried Iris or Bloom on faces (or other things that are too smooth and plastic)?

Here’s what I do so far:

  • deinterlace with Hybrid NTSC 720x480 to 640x480, 59.94fps
  • Starlight Mini on that to 1920p
  • TBD: Iris or Bloom or Davinci subtle film grain add (I have Davinci Studio)

Any workflow tips for Iris/Bloom would be appreciated. (Anyone else do Davinci?)

2

Adding grain alone already defeats that plastic look quite well, so you might try that first. It’s the fastest and least invasive option.

Only if that isn’t sufficient I’d try Astra. Iris likely will even pronounce the plastic look.

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I’m looking at a recent email from Topaz about “Starlight Precise 2” Astra, which is supposed to be a solution for plastic.

I can’t find this in 1.1.0, I can see Starlight Mini and Sharp, but no mention of Precise or Astra. Have you used that?

Did you try Davinci film grain? I heard it was good and potentially better than Topaz in this area. I’m getting a Studio license very soon for Davinci.

4

No, I don’t use cloud services if I can avoid them. So no experience with those cloud only models.

And for the grain: up to now I’ve also only used the built-in one and even that already diminishes the annoying plastic look.

Of course there are more natural grain solutions - some applying real film grain which will be better - but I’m not going to pay extra for this as the built in one is good enough for me.

5

Starlight Precise 2 is only available via the Astra tool in the cloud/web tool. That is not available in the Desktop app Topaz Video.

Bloom is meant for still images and can utilize generative AI to help bring in detail to images generated by other AI apps.

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Is Precise going to eventually be added to desktop as a “pro only” model that processes locally? Still wondering when Pro is going to start looking like something with substantially more functionality than standard.

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