Sometimes the preview shows no change, sometimes it shows too much change.
Trying to sharpen an out-of-focus subject (distant surfer on wave), it’s hard to get the sharpening level right because the amount seems to jump around, sometimes too much, sometimes not enough. I get that extreme sharpening is going to produce artifacts; the challenge is to get the level at the right balance when the results is inconsistent and the saved image might not even be what I saw while editing.
I haven’t decided if I like the new UI or not. It has its points, but it can be confusing. But I don’t think this preview problem is a UI issue. It seems too consistently unpredictable.
I don’t know if this is any help (Regarding sharpening level, too much, too little) but if you place your mouse cursor within the sharpness level box (The amount number) you can then use the cursor keys on your keyboard to increase, decrease by large or small amounts to adjust and fine tune the level. Topaz will process the image each time you stop making adjustments and as long as you keep the cursor within that little box you can continue to adjust the level. This goes the same for all the other AI dialogue boxes.
I hope his helps. Regards.
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Thanks, and I appreciate the suggestion, but my impression is more that the sharpness (or other) setting is taken and used, but not displayed. It’s hard to replicate reliably, because it doesn’t always behave that way. No doubt that makes it hard to diagnose and correct too.
That’s why it’s funky.
And sometimes it sems the change isn’t save in the output file either. I don’t know how that works.
Is it possible I’m mistaken? Sure, it’s possible. That’s how it is with intermittent issues, they’ll drive you around the bend.
Anyway, I’ll keep that in mind.
I’m assuming that your using 2.4.1. There is an issue with this version where it doesn’t fully implement changes made until until you close the Remove dialogue box. I didn’t try the Sharpness dialogue box and don’t know if it is affected in the same way but it might be behaving in the same way. I spent five days last week not getting much done and getting very frustrated using 2.4.1 I think I only got one decent picture during the whole time and didn’t realize until late on that it was because I was leaving the Remove dialogue box open. I most likely threw out good work because of this! I reinstalled 2.3.2 after that.
2.4.1. was very slow for me and crashed a lot and the only thing I liked about it was the ability to have two Remove noise models dealing with say the background and the subject. That is a good idea. Otherwise the UI is more time consuming and I’m not a fan.
I’ll leave the 2.4.2 iteration when its issued well alone until I’ve read comments in this forum about it.
Sorry for the length of this reply. I’m just naturally blabby! Regards
Thanks Robert. Yes, this is on 2.4.1, with a system I upgraded specifically to run PhotoAI. I don’t have performance issues, thankfully.
Thanks for the tip about the Remove dialog box. I think that reinforces my impression that the UI and the processing engine don’t quite seem to communicate well with each other — to know what each other are doing, perhaps. One zigs, the other zags, and we’re left wondering what is going on.
There definitely needs to be some work needing to be done on that. I’m not ready to drop 2.4.1 yet. We’ll see. I like some its functionality, when I can get it to do what I want, or at least to appear to, eh?
Yes I agree. Roll on 2.4.2. and better things. Its been nice talking.
Regards Bob.
