Sharpening introduces artifacts and removing noise is too aggressive

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Steps to reproduce issue:

Topaz Photo AI has worked magic with my images even rescuing sharpies when I missed focus slightly.
But since upgrading to the latest version 1.5.1 I am very disappointed with the result as the sharpening behaves more like the early versions, introducing artefacts rather than restoring out of focus details.
Denoise seems overly aggressive and even denoises to some degree even when NOT activated.
I regret the upgrade and would like to revert to the previous version that worked flawlessly for me.
/*Peter R

Topaz Photo AI v1.5.1 on MacBookPro 16" M1

1 Like

mh yes I noticed that too. :eyes:

And again:
You CAN easily go back to previous versions:

Just download the one you want and install…

After downloading an older version of Topaz PhotoAI (thank you for the link) I noticed that it did not solve the problem so I have reverted and upgraded to 1.5.2. The same issues persist so obviously it must be that PhotoAI has issues with the image.
The image is taken from a rooftop at midnight so it has been heavily preprocessed in CameraRaw to recover highlights and shadows and remove Chromatic aberration. It is taken with a full frame fisheye lens but I missed slightly on the focus.
Previously I have been very happy with the results of sharpening this kind of images and sometimes upscaling them in PhotoAI but this time I think the results are quite odd and not what I expect.

Here are 4 screen shots.
1- The first is at 100% with moderate Standard sharpening at 30 and no Denoise.
2- The second is with Extreme sharpening at 30. Although Denoise is still off, there is less noise than in the previous image.
3- The 3rd image has been scaled up 2x, otherwise with the same settings as 1-. There is a strong noise in the sky.
4- The last image is identical but with Denoise activated on the lowest setting of 1. It has completely removed the noise from the sky but also introduced artifacts as can be seen in the shape of the windows and balconies in the background building. It’s like looking through an uneven or bubbly sheet of glass




This type of processing is at the limits of what Topaz Photo AI can do especially if you are zoomed in at 800%.

I would try remove noise without upscaling. If that looks good, then upscale and try changing the AI model for upscaling to see which one gives the best result. I would expect High Fidelity to work well for this type of image.

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