Topaz Sharpening to do or not to do

[Larry Shuman]

I have and use Topaz Denoise AI but I was thinking about Topaz Sharpening AI. So I download a trial of Topaz Sharpening AI. Here are 2 images. Image A is processed thru Topaz Denoise AI sharpening slider. Image B is thru Topaz Sharpening AI. They look pretty darn close to me. Maybe I'll the 80 bucks Topaz Sharpening AI and stick with Topaz Denoise.

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[DRwyoming]

I have and use Topaz Denoise AI but I was thinking about Topaz Sharpening AI. So I download a trial of Topaz Sharpening AI. Here are 2 images. Image A is processed thru Topaz Denoise AI sharpening slider. Image B is thru Topaz Sharpening AI. They look pretty darn close to me. Maybe I'll the 80 bucks Topaz Sharpening AI and stick with Topaz Denoise.

Yeah, there's a lot of overlap with the Topaz products. DeNoise does a fair amount of sharpening and Sharpen does a pretty good job of noise reduction. I find I use DeNoise more than Sharpen with one exception and that's when I have a bit of motion blur in my images. For limited amounts of motion blur Topaz Sharpen is pretty amazing and restores critical sharpness in ways I can't with LR, PS or Topaz DeNoise.

 

[Udall1973]

Yeah, there's a lot of overlap with the Topaz products. DeNoise does a fair amount of sharpening and Sharpen does a pretty good job of noise reduction. I find I use DeNoise more than Sharpen with one exception and that's when I have a bit of motion blur in my images. For limited amounts of motion blur Topaz Sharpen is pretty amazing and restores critical sharpness in ways I can't do with LR, PS or Topaz DeNoise.

Exactly my thoughts. We'll said.

 

[FB101]

You might want to download the trial for DXO pure Raw. i don’t know what voodoo they have in their program but it’s quite impressive on noise and sharpness.

 

[Larry Shuman]

I think I might stay with Topaz Denoise AI. With trial with Topaz Sharpen Ai. They put a water mark on the image after you run it but when you try to save it. I don't like that at all.

 

[Marcus Slade]

Having both tools, I probably use DeNoise AI 2/3 of the time and Sharpen AI 1/3. Probably a bit of an oversimplification but very occasionally I'll use both on the same image. If I do, I always start with Sharpen, if I have a focus or blurriness issue I'm trying to fix. My general guideline on which tool to use is governed by whether the primary gremlin is a lack of sharpness in the image and motion blur too (Sharpen AI) or if it is otherwise sharp but a tad noisy (DeNoise AI). I find both these tools invaluable and well worth the cost.

 

[Turberticus]

Yeah, there's a lot of overlap with the Topaz products. DeNoise does a fair amount of sharpening and Sharpen does a pretty good job of noise reduction. I find I use DeNoise more than Sharpen with one exception and that's when I have a bit of motion blur in my images. For limited amounts of motion blur Topaz Sharpen is pretty amazing and restores critical sharpness in ways I can't do with LR, PS or Topaz DeNoise.

I've also found that Sharpen AI can restore focus to areas of your subject where focus was just missed, such as photos where the focus was slightly behind or in front of the eyes. It's not perfect though. And yes, it does work great with slight motion blur.

 

[KirstyM]

Funny, I was just thinking about this today - I have both, but have to say for 90% of images where I would go to an external plug-in, I find that Denoise does a more pleasing sharpen than sharpen AI does. Agree that sharpen can really make a difference with motion blur, but apart from that, my default is denoise.

 

[Larry Shuman]

I found today with sharpening AI that it is really slow. That was a surprise. Denoise AI is much faster.

 

[Woodyg3]

I found today with sharpening AI that it is really slow. That was a surprise. Denoise AI is much faster.

Yes, DeNoise is faster. Did you go to preferences in Sharpen AI and select graphics card under performance? That might greatly improve your speed.

I'll just add that I have found no better solution for subject blur and slightly out of focus images than Sharpen AI. This goes well beyond the sharpening that DeNoise is capable of.

 

[Larry Shuman]

I think I might just delete Sharpening AI and stay with denoise AI. I have no problems with subject blur because I'm always at high shutter speeds.

 

[Abinoone]

I have and use Topaz Denoise AI but I was thinking about Topaz Sharpening AI. So I download a trial of Topaz Sharpening AI. Here are 2 images. Image A is processed thru Topaz Denoise AI sharpening slider. Image B is thru Topaz Sharpening AI. They look pretty darn close to me. Maybe I'll the 80 bucks Topaz Sharpening AI and stick with Topaz Denoise.View attachment 26538View attachment 26539

I tried both and decided not to use AI Sharpen. DeNoise serves the purpose for me.

 

[NorthernFocus]

As others have pointed out Sharpen AI is hands down the best software available for recovering images that are slightly OOF or suffer from camera shake/motion blur. Unfortunately the algorithm in later releases of Sharpen AI doesn't work as well as older versions. I thought it was just me until I went on the Topaz user forums and found many people saying the same. I'm still using one of the 2.x versions for which Topaz still provides a download link.

 

[Woodyg3]

As others have pointed out Sharpen AI is hands down the best software available for recovering images that are slightly OOF or suffer from camera shake/motion blur. Unfortunately the algorithm in later releases of Sharpen AI doesn't work as well as older versions. I thought it was just me until I went on the Topaz user forums and found many people saying the same. I'm still using one of the 2.x versions for which Topaz still provides a download link.

I thought it was just me, as well. Good to know I'm not going crazy.

One thing that does bug me is the way they update so frequently. They fix one thing and make another worse. I wish they would take more time to evaluate their updates before putting them out.

 

[DRwyoming]

One thing that does bug me is the way they update so frequently. They fix one thing and make another worse. I wish they would take more time to evaluate their updates before putting them out.

Agreed, I don't use these products on every image or every day and sometimes it seems like every time I launch one of the Topaz tools I get the annoying update pop up. And when I do update it takes quite a while to download and install the files. I think they go a bit overboard on updating incremental releases.

 

[Woodyg3]

I read some complaints about updates slowing things down and have hit "close" on that dialog every time since then. One of these days I should probably allow it to update.

On Sharpen AI I found out that after I had made the update, it had changed my performance preferences, and I had to go back in and change the setting to use my graphics card again. That mage a significant difference and got my speed back to where it was before the update.

 

[bajadreamer]

On Sharpen AI I found out that after I had made the update, it had changed my performance preferences, and I had to go back in and change the setting to use my graphics card again. That mage a significant difference and got my speed back to where it was before the update.

That's good information. Will have to go back and recheck mine. I tend to only use Sharpen AI on motion blur and when I do use it I apply a mask to limit the effects to the face and eye of the bird. I also will use it on a separate layer (in PS) so I can trashcan it if I do not like the result.

 

[RichF]

You might want to download the trial for DXO pure Raw. i don’t know what voodoo they have in their program but it’s quite impressive on noise and sharpness.

I have tried Pure Raw and it works well (based upon limited testing)