Photo Roadmap Update (Jan 2023)

Topaz Photo AI Roadmap
63

@eric @adam.mains et. al. (Anthony, Yazi, etc.)

Another desired Wishlist feature (my personal priority pref would be sooner than later - right after the Manual Masking Brush wishlist items ) would be to ensure that us Ps users (CC-subscrip, not Elements for me) can make full use of the upscaling component of the triad of products that comprise PAI.

I am aware (through the many years of beta testing) of the challenge Adobe presents of not supporting upsizing via filters in its Filter menu & that Automate seems to be the only option they allow to support image size changes.

But, if something can be developed to allow those of us working pretty much exclusively in the Ps PAI plugin to use all the essential features (ie, upsizing - I can handle cropping in Ps) of PAI that would be great.

I can’t speak for others, but I wouldn’t mind if the entire PAI plugin product was accessible via File > Automate vs via the Ps Filter menu. As long as the ‘hooks’ to it would be installed to any Adobe Common Files that would carry the product forward during future Ps annual updates.

Thx!

1 Like
64

To be fully useful to me for RAW images it needs to have a levelling tool in the crop. If I have to level in another app I may as well crop there and the crop in PAI is redundant. The other thing is a curves tool or a shadows slider. At the moment PAI blurs darker areas (amongst others) but if I lighten these in another app and send a tiff to PAI all is good. Without someway of lightening shadows before applying de noise, the RAW abilities of PAI are pretty much useless for a lot of my images.

65

This is minor, but I’d like a before/after indicator on the split screen Look at how Affinity Photo does it, just some small vertical text at the bottom of the bar. While you’re there, look at how they allow rotation as part of the crop window- just move the cursor off to the side and drag to rotate. Super easy and is the scheme I like best. Cropping without that ability isn’t very useful. Overall, having decent results from the program, though more adjustment options are needed, as I mentioned above.

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66

I would love the possibility to keep the meta data in the .tiff output file, i.e. camera details and original creation date i.e. time when the photo was taken. Loosing all this info in the output file makes it very hard to manage your photo library in an efficient way.
Thanks, Yngve

67

Sorry, you can disregard this request. I found out that activating “Use Unicode UTF-8” in Windows Regional settings solved this issue.
Thanks!

68

Dear folks,
image quality is also important on old photographs, so I would like to suggest automatic image colorization for b/w and grayscale images. In 2016 the usage of AI was suggested by using Self-Attention Generative Adversarial Network and Convolutional Neural Networks; in 2018 a tool named DeOldify was released which was good and open source. Since then, nothing new came out (unless you buy a mothly subscription of MyHeritage). I do believe that, if you decide to make an AI Colorizer, it would be way better. And I would buy it.

Also, the automatic removal of scratches would be nice. There may be programs out there for this, but they are not perfect and I am sure you can do better.

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69

I think colorisation is not something that comes within PAI’s remit. But then I am not a fan. I always thinks the results look horrible. Why can’t B&W stay B&W? Some of the greatest photographers and film makers have used it to great artistic effect!
Apart from MyHeritage, I believe PS has both colorisation and restoration features.

3 Likes
70

I would like to see some sort of blur feature. When sharpening an image where focus has been missed, it’s often the case that other areas of the photo are in focus and therefore need to be toned down. Perhaps a slider that would also take sharpen in to negative mode?

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71

I don’t agree. Photos are photos, and if you don’t want the long way with PS, you can do it with Photo AI in seconds. And also think of all those photos scanned in - colorizing and color correction is an interesting addition for those who want to use it

72

Yes, agree.

I have suggested this several times during the past 3 quarters also.

What I’d suggested those times were:

1- Sharpen & Denoise sliders whose slider pulls’ zero (0) position are in the center of each PAI slider, so users can either increase or decrease sharpening or denoising, respectively.
.
2- Manual, user-controllable Masking facility (“Brush” tip with accurate edge awareness - when needed) to allow PAI users to selectively place desired sharpening/softening or denoising/adding noise in an image. My proposed initial wishlist features are spelled out in the 4th Q (Dec.) 2022 Roadmap Discussion thread.

3- Accurate, single digit, incremental value increases/decreases for each of those sliders. Not, orders of magnitude increases.

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73

I’m doing a lot of old photo restorations of monochrome originals. I would like a checkbox added to indicate that I want a monochrome result. Right now I’m getting a monochrome image with light pink fleshtones and colored eyes which are out of place.

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74

Hi - thanks for the recent update to v 1.1.9. It looks like something has changed the way the noise removal tool works now - the strength slider seems to have a slight effect.
For me, RAW handling may be interesting technically – but I prefer doing the necessary adjustments in Capture One first and use Photo AI on edited TIFFs. Therefore I still suffer from sharpening artifacts in border areas (mountains against sky etc.). I would really like to see an improvement there since it is quite tedious retouching this. Maybe you could introduce an additional border mask tool?

75

Is there a more detailed ops manual for Photo AI than the Quick Start Guide?
Many Thanks

76

It’s on the right track, there’re still a few functions I’d like it to have.

  • Manual face selection. Right now it can be only done with the face detection model, sometimes it’s unable to detect the face and if we can have this function, we can fix the photos with a better face.
  • mask for denoise. Some low quality images will show a very bad output if denoise is enabled on the main object, but denoise does do a great job for the backgrounds, so if we can only enable denoise with a mask, it’ll be excellent
  • Pricision set by user, some time whe I do color grading, I see color bands on the output of TPAI, I believe the models are running in float16 right now, it would be great if we can set the export pricision to high with a toggle in the preference.
    Thanks
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77

Could you please consider a straighten tool inside the Upscale tool.

78

I would like the option to close files after save is complete. Right now there is only close window selection.

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79

Photo AI standalone when processing a batch of photos does not show the time used for each photo. Denoise AI and Sharpen AI do. Please add that to Photo AI.

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I’m so impressed with what this app does, I can’t complain. It’s basically magic. I’ve recommended it to many people.

However, I warn them about the interface. It is crazy irritating. Features come, features go. Controls and methods differ from one product to another. (Saving files, for example.)

Blockquote Our vision is to build a tool that you trust to produce outstanding image quality with zero clicks, so you can focus on more creative parts of your work.

This gives me a hint. I appreciate the effort but it sounds like you’re trying to build a consumer product, and that explains why the product is getting more and more difficult to use professionally.

A few thoughts.

Do consumers really have any interest in a program like this? I have no research to prove they don’t, but 25 years in marketing makes me doubt it, seat of the pants style.

Zero clicks does not allow me to focus on the creative parts of my work. Such a philosophy inhibits my creativity. Would Topaz limit an artist to one paint brush?

A one click solution sounds like a journey to find the holly grail. I would like to perhaps begin with an AutoPilot solution but it’s rarely (if ever) the final. If there’s no “Advanced” mode for tweaking, I fear there will be little love from professionals, or even the pro-am market.

Seriously, how are you going to decide what the correct “one click” solution is? How will you know what I am trying to accomplish? You can’t.

In my work, I often save multiple versions of an image because one is more appropriate than another. Sometimes I composite different versions together. Which version is the correct “one-click” option? At some point I’m going scream “stop trying to help!” at my computer.

Maybe Photo AI is intended to be a separate app for TikTok and housewives and I’m supposed to continue with Sharpen and Gigapixel. I suppose there’d an announcement to that effect and I missed it. If so, please disregard. I haven’t checked the website or the forums in a while. I only did today because I was utterly dumbfounded to realize that it is impossible to change the name of the file I am saving.

Please take these comments in the spirit they are intended. I love these apps and I’m just trying to help.

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81

Yes.

But, to your target mkt assessment in the 2nd to last paragraph, it would be appropriate to add “househusbands” (&, perhaps, some of the pets ppl post videos of on Twitter who seem to possess atypical cleverness) too …

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82

In regard to the aim of making Topaz Photo AI a “zero click” autopilot software: I think that if Photo AI is to take over from DeNoise AI, Sharpen AI, and Gigapixel, it would simply have to offer the same level of user control. Otherwise we are talking about a loss, not a gain; and a steering the product away from the serious user/professional, and toward the undiscerning hobbyist. Surely the aim should be to have the AI option, but to also have the ultimate in user control? Why introduce limitations? Why not have an Autopilot mode for ‘dummies’, and an advanced mode for the experts? Problem solved; everybody happy.

I’ve been reading these Topaz Photo AI forums for a while now, and it seems that everyone is screaming for the same level of image quality and user control as the individual Topaz programs, with hardly anyone saying how great the AI autopilot is and how wonderful it is that it does everything for you. Yes, if autopilot works as a starting point, and in some cases does the job, that is great; but any kind of limitation introduced to user control will always create frustration and customer dissatisfaction, and will lower the class of the program.

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