Topaz introduces AI Sharpen

The next utility in it's AI series is a new method of sharpening:
https://topazlabs.com/let-ai-sharpen-your-photos/

Good to know they finally "updated" Topaz InFocus

The couple of times I used InFocus, it worked on my slightly blurred, out of focus images. Just don't overdo it or you'll see quite a few artifacts.

Just gave it a quick try after downloading the free trial, It runs painfully slowly on my  Intel i7 6700k, 4Ghz CPU,  32 Gb RAM, GeForce GTX 750 PC. Constant lag/update  as you move around the image and over 90 seconds to apply sharpening to a 21 mp image. Perhaps I am missing something.

DChan wrote:Good to know they finally "updated" Topaz InFocus

The couple of times I used InFocus, it worked on my slightly blurred, out of focus images. Just don't overdo it or you'll see quite a few artifacts.

This is totally different from that - that tool uses deconvolution sharpening which is really a technique designed primarily to deal with diffraction losses.  this new tool has almost nothing in common with that.

chrissandys27 wrote:Just gave it a quick try after downloading the free trial, It runs painfully slowly on my  Intel i7 6700k, 4Ghz CPU,  32 Gb RAM, GeForce GTX 750 PC. Constant lag/update  as you move around the image and over 90 seconds to apply sharpening to a 21 mp image. Perhaps I am missing something.

Yeah, that's the reason it has taken so long for AI tools which are part of a category called Computational Photography to come to market. These tools require a ton of computer power.  A GTX750 is likely not up to the task of these types of tools as that is a ver slow card by today's standards, even a GTX9xx would be marginal IMHO.  But even with everything ultra-high end, these tools do a pixel by pixel analysis of the entire image, compare them to a database and then apply the corrections.

Thanks EJ. I shudder to think what spec. workstation you will require to process, with AI tools, the 100mp images you will be soon enjoying from the Fujifilm GFX-100S !

E.J. Peiker wrote:

DChan wrote:Good to know they finally "updated" Topaz InFocus

The couple of times I used InFocus, it worked on my slightly blurred, out of focus images. Just don't overdo it or you'll see quite a few artifacts.

This is totally different from that - that tool uses deconvolution sharpening which is really a technique designed primarily to deal with diffraction losses.  this new tool has almost nothing in common with that.

Hence my quotation marks on "updated".  They did mention InFocus as part of their history in developing sharpening software. This new app also deals with blurred/out-of-focus images like InFocus does (don't know if you have used it before). Should be better of course.

I just did a 32 megapixel file that suffered from a bit of motion blur in about 7 seconds using the same CPU (4GHz i7) and a GFX-1080 GPU.

Interesting. Is there any actual need to purchase this if you already have AIClear, which handles noise and sharpening?

They are giving it to me for free...tried to download and it said, not enough memory. Using a 3.4 I7, 1050 nividia, and 16 ram.

I find this very interesting. I have been extremely happy with the other Topaz AI modules. Bill, I use AI Clear as a "capture sharpening". I find I still need to do some "Creative Sharpening" for which I use PK sharpener. Of course, if I make a print, I also do "output sharpening". I like the way PK Sharpener allows me to brush in the effect on selected areas. My guess is that with AI Sharpen we will have to apply it in a layer and brush out the areas we don't want sharpened.

I am also intrigued by the motion blur possibilities. I have used the Shake Reduction in PS and find it hit or miss. The halos and artifacts do drive me nuts. However, if I erase what I don't want the results can be good, but tedious. This new option may help.

Do you have to log in to use TopazStudio and its apps?

You have to be on-line all the time when using TopazStudio??

E.J. Peiker wrote:I just did a 32 megapixel file that suffered from a bit of motion blur in about 7 seconds using the same CPU (4GHz i7) and a GFX-1080 GPU.

Looks like I will have to see about getting a new card assuming my Mobo will accept one.  Mine is actually the 750 ti but it seems as though that is the bottleneck judging from your experience. As you have the GFX 1080 I presume that would be recommended. 

Today I downloaded the 30 day trial.  Here are my impressions after using it on  a grand total of 3 images. I particularly chose images which I was going to dump to see what could be done.  I at first tried all three modes - Sharpen, Stabilization and Focus.  The challenge is to see which mode works best for each image as it is not always easy to tell.  the default settings seemed to work best and Topaz cautions you to not overdo the effect.  I worked in a layer so I could adjust the result and erase anything on which I didn't want to effect visible.  I have a 6 month old very powerful computer so it only took about 15-20 seconds to complete the process. It should be noted that I ran the AI Sharpen on images which were rather large crops loaded directly from Lightroom.

My workflow was - Process in LR including cropping; Create layer and run AI clear, merge layers; Clean up any bad stuff at edges; Run AI Sharpen on another layer and erasing the BG as sometimes the software sharpened branches and stuff I didn't want affected, Run a very light pass of NIK ColorEfex Detail Enhancer abut 5% by brush only on the bird, Final Sharpen with PK Sharpener High Pass 1 brushed into the bird only.  Resize for to 2X with AI Gigapixel with resulting final image at about 13 X 22.

Yes, I sharpened more but much less than prior to using AI Sharpen.  I usually have been using Narrow Edge Sharpen 1 which I think is harsher than High Pass.

My opinion is that the jury is out on the final decision to spring for it.  AI Sharpen can certainly do a better job of stabilization than the PS version.  It seems best suited for those images which are borderline keepers.  With images that are sharp to begin with I am not sure I noticed a difference.  AI Clear as a first step seems to be best for those.

Here is an image which was a throwaway but I processed today.  It represents about 25% of the original 7D2 file. Of course the compressed version will not show the entire details but you will get the idea.

Topaz has posted a minimum hardware requirements page and as you see, a fast GPU is necessary for good performance:
https://help.topazlabs.com/hc/en-us/art ... 0024353312

E.J. Peiker wrote:Topaz has posted a minimum hardware requirements page and as you see, a fast GPU is necessary for good performance:
https://help.topazlabs.com/hc/en-us/art ... 0024353312

I have had no issues running any of the Topaz AI software (Clear, Gigapixel, Sharpen) here are the important particulars of my system.

Intel Core i7 8700K 3.7 GHz Six Core 12 MB 95W

64 Gig RAM

PNY Quadro P2000 PCI-E 5GB

Win 10 Pro

Topaz Sharpen AI is completely different from AI Clear. Sharpen AI helps to fix the minor blur which happens due to the subject in action and lack of shutter speed. The above one is processed in the Focus processing mode in the Topaz Sharpen AI

More Before  After images and review samples below:
https://www.photographyaxis.com/post-pr ... ai-review/

Makes me wish I hadn't deleted a few missed focus shots over the years

Looks like it really is a better Topaz InFocus.

E.J. Peiker wrote:Topaz has posted a minimum hardware requirements page and as you see, a fast GPU is necessary for good performance:
https://help.topazlabs.com/hc/en-us/art ... 0024353312

I downloaded and tried Sharpen AI for one of my images captured with the 1DxII that unfortunately was not focused correctly. I ran Sharpener AI on the 16bit Tiff file processed through CaptureOne 12 before. The results are amazing and I wish I had come across that Topaz software earlier.
My current system still consists of the Sandybridge i7-2600k @ 3,4 GHz, 32 GB RAM, Asus P8P67 Deluxe MB and Nividia Geforce 570 GTX Graphic card, OS is Win 7 ultimate. Though the requirements tell that all Nividia Cards with < 2 VRAM are not supported and the Geforce 500 series is on the blacklist, I had no problems. Of course, it took around 2 minutes to process the file and it's surely not a good idea to apply Sharpener AI on a batch of images with the PC configuration listed above, but for single files it surprisingly has worked for me. My system tells that the 570 GTX has 1280 MB video memory but totally 4280 MB. Not sure what this means but the specification of the GTX 570 in fact lists 1280 MB of memory.

Anyway, I'm thinking of upgrading the graphic card the more as I perhaps will also try Topas Studio and Clear AI. I'm not sure if I'd be lucky again by then so that these tools surprisingly would run on my system, too -  slowly, at least. The Asus P8P67 has been a good and reliable MB so far,  - https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P8P67/  - but of course it's not up to today's standards anymore. So it's difficult to find some information on the compatibility of newer and powerful graphic cards for this board. That said, I'd appreciate some recommendations of graphic cards - maybe a GTX 1060 or GTX 1070 ? I'm not interested in gaming, though and don't want to spend 800 €  or more right now. To date I also don't need to work on 4K videos

I surely will have to build a new system from the scratch some time in the next 1 or 2 years. But for now, my system still does the job for my tasks - even for post processing the files of my 5DsR. Beyond that, true to the motto "never change a running system" I'm still hesistant to go through all the trouble of reinstalling and reactivating all my software - especially with regard to Adobe's stand alone products I'm currently using. I'm not sure if they set up a trap to pull me on the cloud in the end once I try to reactivate the older products on a complete new system;-) An upgrade of the GC maybe could be an intermediate step for the time being.

Wolfgang