With the current version Sharpen AI the Focus sharpening did not give usable results.
I would say the quality is worse than before and the automatic suggestions a way to high, if you use Focus Sharpening.
Did you use DeNoise AI before applying Sharpen AI? Also I have found that using the Stabilize method does a bit better than “Focus”.
I tried v 1.3.0 on a landscape jpg file and a portrait RAW file and got good results on both without the artifacts shown. I think this result may only happen on certain types of scenes and I have run into it in the past.
I’ve found that on some portrait shots in Focus mode, the automatic settings can result in an unwanted speckle effect
This is a screen shot of the original of jpg portrait at 100% in Sharpen AI
After processing in Focus Mode with Auto setting
For comparison, after processing the original in Stabilize Mode with Auto setting.
Please raise a Support Request at the Topaz Labs website and you may need to allow them to look at this image as it should give acceptable results using AUTO.
Focus mode is probably not suitable for an image like this as it doesn’t seem out of focus, as Stabilize mode would not be suitable.
Please raise a Support Request at the Topaz Labs website and you may need to allow them to look at this image as it should give acceptable results using AUTO.
Unfortunately I can’t send that particular photo, however I have raised support request #183747 using a different photo with the speckle effect and attached both a screen shot showing the speckle and also the original photo.
I agree it is probably not appropriate to use Focus mode on an in focus image, and in most instances there is no benefit in doing so, but strangely with some images that don’t appear blurred, Auto determines they should be processed with a relatively high setting for Remove Blur. The issue for me is why is it coming up with that high setting for those images?
To be honest, I rarely use Sharpen AI in other than its Stabilize mode, which I have found to be of considerable value.
@AiDon just open a request like you suggested
Request 183811 has been received by Topaz Labs!
I agree that on many other pictures the Auto Setting works ok, but also found the Stabilize settings more useful and on this picture AI Denoise works best. But not everyone own both products.
The 1.3.1 Update did not give any quality improvements on my picture with Auto settings 
In my opinion even lower quality than before
@in_04-43582
As mentioned earlier in this thread, I had experienced the speckle effect in Focus mode that your bird is showing, but only on a very few images. With most images the results were good, but on these particular images, for some reason the Auto process had arrived at a relatively high setting for Remove Blur (typically 0.77). Suppress noise was typically lower than default, around 0.38
I did raise a support ticket, with a sample image. The response to that ticket was quote"Our auto settings aren’t necessarily intended to be the perfect level, but rather, a solid jumping off point for you.
They are by default going to typically be more on the aggressive side. The status has since been marked solved.
Using the current version 1.3.1 on the same sample image, Auto still arrives at the same Remove Blur = 0.77, and Suppress noise at 0.38, and that still results in the speckle effect. By manually reducing the Remove Blur setting to the default 0.50, the speckle is gone, and the results are good.
So I have two questions
What were Focus’s Auto settings for your bird image?
What happens if you run the process at the default Remove Bur 0.50 setting?
Hi @Greyfox,
just too answer your question here are the proof pictures
Bets quality give AI Denoise
For showing how good AI Denoise is in denoising AND sharping, here comes the original.
Your right sometime AI Sharpen Focus is great but too often it is not.
Should all remember Focus mode is to recover blurry out of focus images, Stabilize mode for hand shake and Sharpen for standard sharpening.
@AiDon yeah your right but in my view the original picture is slightly out of focus not much shaken.
Even usage of Stabilize didn’t gives a comparable result to the denoised with lot of sharping.
Your right and Focus should address that properly, also the Auto setting are an indicative starting point and I know I never process with the Auto setting as I always find I need to adjust a little.
One thing I would suggest here is to raise a Support request at the Topaz Labs main website and supply the image in order for the engineers to use it for training the models.
@AiDon ticket was already opened by my first post (Request #183811 07/24/2019) but no response from topaz team.
