I would like to see Topaz bring back their AI Sharpen and AI Denoise individual softwares. In my experience, they were superior to those features that are in Photo AI. It’s rare in today’s photo editing software to see programs decline in their performance, but that is the case, in my opinion. I wonder if others agree. The only advancement was adding subject detection. This is a useful timesaver, compared to brushing in local adjustments.
Whenever people on Facebook ask about Photo AI, I always let them know that the old programs worked better. So, it would be a good idea Topaz - Bring back AI Sharpen especially.
Hi.
I don’t necessary disagree I still use both DeNoise & Sharpen AI on occasion mainly for comparison with Photo AI and if others like you and myself, still have the older applications that’s great they still work why not use them if you feel the need.
As to say their in some way better than, Photo AI I would have to say for myself no because, for one thing it’s far better to keep all your eggs in one basket meaning, I would much rather hop between the individual enhancements within a single application then, hopping back and forth between three separate ones and another thing what about the ability to Mask different parts of the image and apply different levels of denoising for example, a lighter level of denoising for the Highlights, a medium level of denoising for the Midtones and a more aggressive denoising for the Shadows.
Plus you can have multiple instances for any Enhancements with masking and apply them anywhere within the image.
In light of that, take Sharpen AI for instance, there were only three sharpening options available with three levels for each.
Photo AI on the other hand, has severn sharpening options all with intensity Strength sliders and other options available
Super Focus as an Enhancement speaks for it self and not forgetting Upscaling, Adjust Lighting, Balance Colour, Remove Tool, Dust & Scratches and a whole lot more to come.
In my experience, even though you have 7 sharpen options, 5 of them are next to useless. Motion Blur, for example, worked very well in Sharpen Ai and give me very different and considerably worse results in Photo AI. The only options I have found useful are Standard and Strong.
While it is more convenient to have all your eggs in one basket, as you say, I can do the same as your example - Denoise or Sharpen different parts of my image with different levels with the individual modules. And quite frankly, in just as much time even though it means opening the program 3 times. Photo AI is unbelievably slow in my experience.
Apparently your use case may be different than mine, but Super Focus is absolutely useless and Dust and scratch removal does not work, and this is demonstrated in numerous YouTube videos. The lighting and color adjustments are always better to do in any other photo editor. The only thing that works reasonably well is upscaling, but, again, the individual Gigapixel AI does it just as well. Obviously, these are just my opinions and observations. It just seems that Topaz had really good products, but in their desire to make it an all-in-one product, they redesigned their modules and they became worse and the program in general is useless for anything but what they had in their individual softwares - sharpening, denoising and enlarging.
1 Like
@dketchek-4417 - checking your 2017 computer specifications, it does not meet the minimum requirements for Photo AI. This will cause very slow behavior, processing errors and artifacts as it’s not a computer fit for Photo AI. Seeing you are also using as a plugin from Photoshop, that will slow down the whole computer even more! The computer you have has 3GB of VRAM, minimum for Photo AI needed is 6GB of VRAM: System Requirements | Topaz Photo AI
Results on a underpowered machine cannot be trusted as many issues can occur. We have yet to see better results on the standalone apps compared to the ones in Photo AI, when using a machine that meets the requirements. If you send us to support@topazlabs.com your original and current Sharpen/Denoise AI results vs the Photo AI ones, we can send back the results that a correct computer can give.
Best to continue using your discontinued standalone apps for now on this underpowred machine. Then once you purchase a new computer in the future, you can use your owned Photo AI version on it!
Hi Ange.
Now, there’s a reply and a half, thanks for the clarification which certainly helps me as, I wandered if people using the older applications had some kind of secret sauce I was unaware of in getting better results then using Photo AI.
I’m currently working on a restoration project, for a friend who took some very blurry Stage Door Autograph pictures with a small compact in London from 2009 and had permission to post one as an example, with a step by step guide using the power of Photo AI.
You know, the sort of thing if, a picture paints a thousand words but, you put paid to that with excellent answer.
In light of that, I for one certainly appreciated and sympathise with the work you do when, you have people quick to blame Topaz when, there are just so many out side influences and variables that can effect the applications and final outcome.
Thank you once again, for all the hard work and dedication yourself and everyone else at Topaz puts in I know I’ve said that before but, in my opinion you can never thank you enough
Andy
1 Like
Oh wow, really appreciated Andy!
We like and invite the users to share their issues, as we can group and relay them to the development team, and yes, sometimes it’s hardware related like the original poster here on this thread.
Again - Appreciate the kind words and your help here as well. Feel free to send us any “hard” cases of recovery you come across in your restoration project, to support@topazlabs.com and we can help get the best possible results!
2 Likes
