Topaz Photo AI v0.2

[Louis_R]

The RAW images being displayed darker is simply a design flaw / coding issue that has to be fixed.

Standard formats are in 8 bit (256 number of tones).
Let’s say your RAW format is in 12 bit (4096 number of tones).
Most monitors are 8 bit (professional ones are 10 bit, which is still much lower than a RAW image).

Now, when the software reads the RAW file, it has to convert it to 8 bit data so it can fit the monitor bit depth.
Normally, it would transpose the full RAW range (12 bit) to 8 bit values, for example, if a pixel has a value of 1500, it would divide it by 16 and the result would be 94 (rounded).
So, 94/256 is roughly the same color as 1500/4096.

But, Photo AI is doing it wrong here.
Instead, it only seems to keep a much smaller range of the RAW values (1 to 256, or maybe higher I don’t know), which results in a much darker and washed out image ! All the values above that are simply ignored, while it must transpose the whole range instead, as I have explained above.
I suspect that Photo AI is not yet compatible with all RAW formats and bit-depth.

For comparison, PhotoLab displays RAW files properly, since it transposes the full range.

[Ulrich_Pohl]

Hello Thomas,

I don’t want to advertise tools from other vendors here. However, my tip: The best tool for culling RAW files is FastRawViewer. Fast, many ways to evaluate the images, easy manual exposure correction, warning indicators for underexposure and overexposure and much more!

[Ulrich_Pohl]

When using my Cr3 files from my Canon EOS R5 I have the following problems:
In some images the color reproduction is not correct. And portrait photos are displayed horizontally. This photo is normally quite colorful and not solid purple.See screenshot 1:

As soon as I turn on “RAW Remove Noise”, whether with automatic setting or manually at 0, 100 and any other arbitrary value, whether other functions are turned on or not, everything is completely white both in the preview and in the saved photo. (In the split screen, of course, only in the preview area. When moving the splitscreen slider, the white area moves with it). See screenshot 2:

For comparison I loaded the same RAW in Denoise AI 3.7.0. See screenshot 3:

By the way, that problem with the white preview image exists also with my .cr2 files from my EOS 5D IV !

I submiited the Logfile and the cr3 to Dropbox as well. Cr3 starts with UP_

(Windows 10 Version 21H1 (Build 19043.1826), Intel I9-9900K, Asus RTX 2060 with the latest NVIDIA Studio-Driver 516.59)

Addendum
The problem with the white preview image only occures using the NVIDIA GPU! Using CPU the preview works fine, while still having the problem with the wrong colors and image orientation!

There is an interesting line in the logfile which referes to a user ADAM @ my PC which doesn´t exit on my machine:
[2022-07-21 16:44:46.301, 962.37 ms] [34a8] Info | AI engine exception: OpenCV(4.5.3) C:\Users\Adam.conan\data\opencv\4.5.

And an other one:
[2022-07-21 16:44:53.178, 4.07 ms] [34a8] Info | Applying camera profile: “Canon” “Canon EOS R5” “C:/ProgramData\Adobe/CameraRaw/CameraProfiles/Adobe Standard/\Canon EOS R5 Adobe Standard.dcp”

I´m not a programmer but it looks strange to me having / and \ in the same Link! Could this be right?

[PaulM (Paul)]

@Louis_R

Standard formats are in 8 bit (128 number of tones).

8 bit has 256 tones, not 128.

[yazi.saradest (Yazan Saradest)]

Hi Don. Yes, please. You can send it here or through Dropbox. Thank you!

[thosch]

Hi Ulrich,
I also use FastRawViewer for first level culling. But here I want to select those pictures which are worth to edit with the Topaz AI tools (DeNoise, Sharpen and Gigapixel). For this I want to use batch processing with the default AUTO adjustments and then select those ones for manual adjustment.
Greetings
Thomas

[Ulrich_Pohl]

Hello Thomas, thanks for your explanation.
Best regards,
Ulrich

[Louis_R]

@PaulM

8 bit has 256 tones, not 128.

That’s right, just edited it.

[richard_m_h]

You misunderstand. Images with high dynamic range often end up with quite dark areas in the RAW if one exposes to protect highlights. I’d like to be able to lighten those in Photo AI rather than lighten them in an editor then send a file to Photo AI.

[Louis_R]

I don’t know where you found such information, but nowhere on the internet it is told that having a RAW image that displays much darker is something normal… Every single time it is said that it is an issue due to color profile conflict, or programs not being compatible with certain RAW formats.

Even if you had a slider to adjust the exposure and match the jpeg, you would end up losing so much details anyway, simply because your screen cannot display all of the RAW data.
In any case the final image is exported as a 8 bit JPEG which is at least 16 times less detailed than a RAW, so why bother ? PhotoAI is an enhancer/restoration program, not a photo editor – that said, having sliders for contrast and brightness (as post fx and for small adjustments) would be great.

It simply makes it impossible to work, and it doesn’t protect anything at all.
A RAW image should always be displayed at the same exposure than other formats. Sometimes it can appear slightly darker/watched out than standard formats because it is unprocessed (a good example are RAW videos), but never that dark.
In your case this is clearly a design flaw.

Examples :

This one shows a bit depth issue that many people are experiencing.

And another one quoted from here :

I don’t know the camera, but does it have a “protect highlights” setting?
This is usually achieved by under-exposing the file by a stop or two, then the camera/Panny’s Raw converter applying a curve to bring it back a nominal correct exposure.
In Raw converters that don’t recognise this setting, you simply present a very under-exposed file to the software.
I imagine that Capture One would be in that category, in which case you need to turn the setting off in camera.

Conclusion :
This proves the issue comes from the Photo AI software itself, it is either working in a different bit depth, or it fails to recover the exposure from the EXIF data.

[hiroaki.honshuku (madflute)]

Sorry if someone already asked this. I tried to do a text search on this thread but didn’t find any info.

It seems this app is a single install. I have 2 Macs, iMacPro5k in my studio and MBP16" for mobile work. Do I just need to log one out when I need one on the other mathine? The reason I have not tried it yet is that I don’t want to get locked out – Would I be able to switch between the two at will without any restrictions?

[AiDon]

@Louis_R

This proves the issue comes from the Photo AI software itself, it is either working in a different bit depth, or it fails to recover the exposure from the EXIF data.

FYI … I don’t know of any software, other than camera specific, that can interpret the DRO and Protect Highlights settings in camera as they are used to produce in camera JPEGs and you can use those by shooting RAW/JPEG rather than just RAW.

Your comments about JPEG output is correct but that is only an interim solution because it is a early example of the software. Eventually you will be able to export PNG, DNG and TIFF, as well as JPEG, as all other Topaz products do.