Workflow for AI Clear, Sharpen AI, Denoise AI and AI Gigapixel

Topaz Products
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I now own all 4 of these wonderful products.

I was wondering if there is a suggested workflow, especially since they overlap somewhat. For example, Denoise AI also enhances sharpness, and Sharpen AI also suppresses noise, so could I get by with just one or two of these products?

Or should I turn off these additional features, eg so I only denoise in Denoise AI and I leave the sharpening to Sharpen AI?

Thanks and Cheers, Rex

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Hi Wm,

It may depend on the image you’re working with re: which workflow to use.

Here’s what works for me in order of workflow use:

  1. Start with a denoise process. DeNoise AI can be tuned (using sliders) to reduce different amts of noise, plus recover details that could get softened or smoothed in the denoise process. If you don’t need much sharpening, and will be happy with a consistent global edge sharpening, the slider in the program may be all you need. This product is taking over for AI Clear,

  2. If you don’t want to accentuate noise (I don’t…) than I’d suggest Sharpen AI after your DeNoise step. Sharpen AI can ‘magically’ (I think) fill in some content gaps as well as enhance edges to improve the perception of sharpness from motion blur, focus points during capture being slightly off where you might have liked them to be and adding a slightly more robust level of edge sharpness than the DeNoise program offers. I see the 2 as complementary and building on each other.

  3. If you want even more detail granularity another next step could be Precision Detail & also Contrast in Studio,

  4. After you get your images in great shape using 1-3 then you can upsize or downsize with Gigapixel AI. At least that’s the typical workflow I’d use. One of the only reasons I might flip the flow is if I wanted to work with an old cellphone photo. Then I’d likely start with #4 to build enough ‘body’ to work with, then hop up to #1 and proceed as noted.

Try different approaches with diff types of images & then compare to see what you prefer. But they’re all impressive products, so having a bit of redundancy let’s you decide which functions to pick & choose from which ones.

Especially with sharpening sometimes too much is not a good thing. So don’t feel compelled to use every sharpening slider in every program. You won’t hurt their feelings.

Good luck.

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Thanks Fotomaker, excellent advice. Much appreciated.
Cheers, Rex