Lightroom Detail vs AI Clear

In my current workflow, I do most of my image enhancement in Lightroom and then exit into Photoshop where I open Topaz Studio in a layer for finishing adjustments.
I have not yet purchased AI Clear and am wondering how I would adjust my workflow to include AI Clear. I currently use Detail (Sharpening and Noise Reduction) in Lightroom. With AI clear would I omit the Detail adjustments in Lightroom and apply AI Clear after exiting to Photoshop.

In theory Topaz recommends using AI Clear as the first step before adjustments, but if your adjustments don’t involve noise reduction or sharpening using it after shouldn’t be a problem (or even with them from my experience).

Testing the workflow on a single image is probably a good idea - apply first, apply last, apply last without noise reduction and sharpening in LR and see which works best.

It definitely squeezes that bit of extra detail that I can’t do with LR and I’m pretty well versed with the Detail window.

I had the 1st version and updated to the 2nd. Also I now use LR8. Topaz instructs to remove previous NR adjustments before editing in AI Clear. I was using version 1 when needed so I can’t really say if I seen this in that version.

If I remove NR, send to Topaz and apply AI Clear it looks smooth. When I “Save” the TIFF in LR actually is showing a lot of artifacts. A few others have noticed this using Save As and outputting as a Jpeg.

If I retain LR’s NR edits it looks pretty good. Is there something I’m missing or doing incorrectly?

Thanks in advance.

I posted in another thread

I had the 1st version and updated to the 2nd. Also I now use LR8. Topaz instructs to remove previous NR adjustments before editing in AI Clear. I was using version 1 when needed so I can’t really say if I seen this in that version.

If I remove NR, send to Topaz and apply AI Clear it looks smooth. When I “Save” the TIFF in LR actually is showing a lot of artifacts. A few others have noticed this using Save As and outputting as a Jpeg.

If I retain LR’s NR edits it looks pretty good. Is there something I’m missing or doing incorrectly? AI Clear format is TIFF in LR.

1st image = before AI clear
2nd image = after
3rd = TIFF back in LR

Keep Enhance Sharpness to LOW and I would say set the Remove Noise to Med in this image and that should be OK. Remember that if you enhance sharpness it will enhance the edges of any left-over noise.

I’ll try a few things. Thanks

I’m not sure about this. Anything you normally work on you see what you get. I can’t see trying to guess what it may look like back at LR or at what ISO it stops being usable. It is supposed to be AI. I have it set to medium and sharpness low. The upper part is back at LR and AI Clear is below. It should look like it did in when in Topaz Studio. This can’t be right. Unless AI Clear is a light noise correction and sharpening enhancement plug-in.

That’s the bug again - you can see a sort-of super rough pixelated mask to the noise in LR. It’s been mentioned here a couple of times. Happens when invoking AI Clear in Studio from LR. Hopefully fixed soon.

Thanks for the update. At another site people said it was also happening when using Save As. I just tried it and saved as a Jpeg to my desktop. Same thing. Yes. Hopefully they correct it soon.

I tried just dragging a file directly into Topaz and it was fine.

Actually that previous post was a 6,400 ISO file. I tried dragging the 32,000 ISO file I have been posting directly into Topaz and saved as a Jpeg to the desktop. Pattern is still there.

Here is another 6,400 ISO file dragged directly into Topaz. It always looks silky smooth. Exported as a Jpeg. I think it looks a little better than going through LR but still not as smooth as what you see in Topaz. It appears to be more than just an invoke from LR.

top image AI Clear

Original in Topaz

Surely you mean ISO 3200, for ISO 25,600 you are pushing it.

No 32,000. I’d rather not but sometimes I have to push it because I have no choice. Still happens at 6,400 which is nothing for modern cameras. Regardless of ISO if AI clear shows a silky smooth finish after applying it should look like that after saving it, otherwise it is a guessing game.

I’m not trolling. I have been using Topaz products for yeas. I want it to work. DXO Prime can handle it. I’m trying to stop using DXO and I got Version 1 but it was just too slow for me. I was excited about version 2 but the artifacts are pretty visible.

Prime

I’ve seen artifacts like this too. I’d would be almost willing to bet money that if you take a 2000 pixel width crop of part of the image into Studio, and process that with AI Clear, you won’t get the artifacts you’re seeing.

How much VRAM does your GPU have?

512MB I’ll try a crop

That is the answer. I found the specs at Topaz. Not good news for me. Guess I’ll bury AI clear for now until I get a new iMac next year which I need to replace. Pays to read the requirements. Thanks for everyones help.

Actually I decided to try my MacBook Air with 1.5GB and 4GB of RAM. Still seeing it unless I crop to 2000 on the long side. It was the least expensive one I could find just for travel. I guess still not enough to handle it.

Even if you meet the recommended requirements I think it would still happen.

When working on larger images with the HD preview enabled Studio still needs to create a sampled (lower resolution) version of the starting image in VRAM to calculate the output for the display preview. This is why the HD preview image appears softer than the actual image.

With AI Clear it appears that the actual final saved output image has had part of its calculations based upon an analysis of the sampled image in VRAM. This could be problematic since the sampled image will show less pixel level noise. The 2000 pixel crop image doesn’t have this issue because it isn’t sampled.