To put it bluntly, you are under-informed.
Quote (from link below)
The brightness information in a raw file is recorded very differently than the way it is stored in a standard digital image. If you were to display the raw file as a standard image, it would be very dark and low contrast.
This link does a decent job of explaining the Raw transformation.
You are saying that is what you see on your computer?
What is that…
Here is a comparison between original RAW on the left and TPAI on the right.
800% crop
In any case, as can be seen in the images above, the TPAI image looks blurry and washed out, the details have been lost.
There is a lot of work to be done here with the stored AI models of the application.
And one more thing: Please Topaz, just bring an ordinary brush without AI to TPAI. The AI brush is partially unusable and extremely slow when touching up. I can do that faster with a simple brush.
I have used many kinds of software on many computers (Windows PCs, Macs) over many years. Currently I have both a PC and M1 Mac. Lightroom Classic, Photoshop, Vuescan, Faststone, XnviewMP, Neat Image, darktable, Firefox, Edge, Chrome, Safari, and lots of other programs. Photo AI is the only one that when it is not doing anything (or should not be doing anything) is using up lots of CPU and ramping up the speed and making the fan turn on and get loud. During the initial startup that would not seem unusual or strange, but it continues and does not stop until I stop the program.
Photo AI is executing some pretty heavy duty code and using the CPU while it is just sitting there with no photo open. What code is being executed? What is it doing? There is either a serious bug or something nefarious is going on. Using my computer for crypto mining or something else? That seems very unlikely, but something wrong and bad is happening. The same thing was happening with earlier versions of Photo AI also. I assume it is just a serious bug, but after months it is strange it has not been fixed.
Denoise AI and Gigapixel AI do not have this problem. I just discovered that Sharpen AI 4.1.0 does have this problem also though.
I’m NOT discussing the intricacies of camera RAW files. I’m simply focusing on the direction Topaz has stated they are going with THIS product.
I think we need to stop here as you don’t seem to understand that a RAW file must be processed to get an image where noise reduction and sharpening can be applied. They CANNOT be applied to the RAW file.
The profile that Topaz applies is different to all other RAW converters and then you can adjust that result in the app of your choice.
And I removed “son” from your reply, DON’T use that terminology to address any forum users unless, of course, you are talking to your son.
As well the “direction” Topaz is taking is clearly outlined here:
Hi! I’m new here and just starting to learn how to use the software. My main concern with Photo AI is how often it crashes on my Mac Studio. When it does crash, there’s no crashing reporting window. It just blinks out of existence. How is Topaz collecting data on why it’s crashing if nothing is being reported?
yes, I had a look into the msi afterburner tool.
The 1.1 update is a disaster from a technical point of view. (Using a MacBook Pro with an M1 processor). It takes forever to load and to be able to import images. Then, when trying to save the images, the software crashes. On Friday I was able to save about 4 or 5 out of a batch of 20 before a crash; today I couldn’t even save 2! I’ve reached out to tech support twice and so far have not received a reply.
I even uninstalled and re installed the program; no difference. For me, the update rendered Photo AI 100% unusable.
I am inclined to attempt to go into Time Machine and restore version 1.0.10 but will give it a couple of days to see if anybody from Topaz is paying attention!
From this chat, it sounds like I’m not the only person experiencing this problem.
The initial (ie default) profile is applied by AFP without any user intervention.
PAI has recent coding updates to raw file processing that apply the RAW profile much closer to what AFP does (seen from the very similarly exposed end-result images as examples).
AFAIK, DeNoise does not have those updates, yet, but probably will eventually (TBH, I haven’t tracked the change log that closely). That’s why the DeNoise end result looks dark and low contrast; in this case a happy accident according to the OP.
No need to repeat post in other threads the devs will pick it up here and reply if they have an answer.
What the hell? Are you on a power trip or something? I DID NOT repeat my post. I reported a problem with Photo AI in this forum and a problem with a completely different program, Sharpen AI, in that forum. You often jump the gun, do not read, and then use some power you have been given to censor stuff that maybe you do not like. Get over yourself and take a chill pill. I have seen you do this sort of thing to many people on these forums over many months. Maybe time you take a break from these forums?
Let me quote you above…
“Denoise AI and Gigapixel AI do not have this problem. I just discovered that Sharpen AI 4.1.0 does have this problem also though.”
Apparently I remember better than you, make a post like this again and you should take a rest with a “chill pill”.
Thee are two potential profiles in Affinity Photo. The “Take no action” one and “Apply tone curve”. Which one did you use?
You did great work!
But since the last update to 1.1.0 you won’t find a face automatically anymore.
Most of the time when I want to select a face, the face frame is somewhere but not over the face itself.
At the moment, “Topaz Sharpen AI” is the better choice to enhance your images.
The brush in Topaz Sharpen AI works also better than “Photo AI v.1.1.0”
getting jagged edges on curved objects even with the detail off and the sharpening off
And here is a new example of how poorly TPAI handles dark landscape images or architecture.
Canon CR2-RAW, 100% crop, no sharpening, only standard denoising. To be able to judge the dark areas better, the shadows were pulled up completely.
First denoising with Luminar NEO Noiseless AI lowest level.
No colorshift. Relatively natural denoising. Residual noise still present, well seen in the water reflection. but the details all preserved. Overall quite natural result.
Here is the result with TPAI 1.1.0.
Not much to say here, the image has become completely unusable. In the dark areas all details are completely gone. Only gray area.
And here the result of Denois AI.
As you can see very well, there is a colorshift. That’s not nice, you have to compensate it in the RAW converter. In the water surface partly complete loss of detail. Overall very unnatural and artificial looking. Result better than TPAI, but clearly worse than Noiseless AI from Luminar NEO.
So Topaz programmers…there is much to do.
Here is another addendum:
The same image, first processed as TIFF and then pass to TPAI. See the difference to the RAW file above.
TPAI apparently has (at least partially, does not occur with all images) a problem with RAW images.
I found that using De-noise with Sharpen in Photo AI 1.1.0 sometimes gave weird pink blotches around the object whether I selected Sharpen manually or if the AI decided it needed sharpening. To overcome that, I now send the RAW image to “plug-in extension” editing and when it returns to Lightroom Classic, I choose “photo” then “edit in” then “Sharpen AI” which seems to be a work-round until a real fix happens. I must say that the De-noise operation seems better than in any of teh previous version.
There is no progress indicator when processing multiple images. Also, the batch processing seems to be very slow (on existing DNG raw files). Switching to “Apple M1 Max” instead of “Auto” does seem to have a marginal improvement, but, the average CPU utilization is around 100% instead of something like 800-900% as I get with Lightroom when I build previews or convert my NEF files to DNG.
Basically, the app is not utilizing the Apple M1 Max and the “Auto” selection for processing is selecting the wrong mode.
Hi Nitinchandra,
How did you find out that TPAI is selecting the wrong mode when “Auto” is selected? How fast is your processing when you set “M1Max” compared to “Auto”?
