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Archive 2019 · Topaz Sharpen AI (released 2/27/2019)

mzbe
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Topaz Sharpen AI (released 2/27/2019)

Topaz is sending free download tokens for a new product called 'Sharpen AI' to Topaz InFocus owners (regular price $79, currently there seems to be a lower promotional price).

I gave it a quick spin on several Nikon Z7 files.

Benchmark results for a standard sharpen (defaults, 50, 50) on a Macbook Pro 2018 i9 with 32GB RAM:
210" with a Radeon RX Vega 56 (Blackmagic eGPU Pro)
267" with CPU - Core i9 2.9Ghz, 6 core
319" with the built-in Radeon Pro 560X

This is not as fast as I would like ... Unfortunately only one GPU is used at a time. The CPU is not utilized at all by the core imaging algorithm. Computation time does not depend on the content of the image (e.g. amount of blur). It always takes the same amount of time.

The quality of standard sharpen is outstanding (as it should be, given the computation time). See examples below.
Net/net: This is a worthy successor to the (sadly) abandoned Piccure+.

The last two images show the 'AI' magic at work: While Piccure uses adaptive decomposition, Sharpen AI synthesizes finer grained structures (e.g. strands of human hair) by applying additional sharpening heuristics. It also looks like this comes at the loss of contrast, so it's conceivable that Piccure would look nicer in print and/or additional tricks (e.g. another macro contrast boost or layer blend) may be required for Sharpen AI.

Fun times!

unsharpened vs. Sharpen AI

Sharpen AI vs. Piccure+ 3.0

Sharpen AI vs. Piccure+ 3.0

Edited on Feb 28, 2019 at 02:11 AM · View previous versions

Feb 27, 2019 at 11:05 PM

bluloo
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Topaz Sharpen AI (released 2/27/2019)

I don't see any reference to a product called AI Sharpen on their site or even via google. I own InFocus and haven't seen an email about the product.

Edit: found it in their plugins store. Odd...

Thanks for the post. I miss Piccure+

Edited on Feb 28, 2019 at 12:07 AM · View previous versions

Feb 28, 2019 at 12:03 AM

mzbe
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Topaz Sharpen AI (released 2/27/2019)

Here you go: https://topazlabs.com/sharpen-ai/
It’s under “standalone”

bluloo wrote:
I don't see any reference to a product called AI Sharpen on their site or even via google. I own InFocus and haven't seen an email about the product.

I wonder if it's only a selected rollout?

Feb 28, 2019 at 12:06 AM

bluloo
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Topaz Sharpen AI (released 2/27/2019)

Thanks.

I updated my post after you posted. Strange Google didn't turn it up.

Checking it out now. Looks like it doesn't open raw Sony files. Much more processor intensive than Piccure+ too.

You can also set a preference to use the GPU or CPU. I'm on an iMac with a Radeon Pro 580 8192 MB, and 4.2GHz i7 quad core. CPU processing seems to take 1/2 to 1/3 of the time compared to GPU processing, on my machine.

Will have to play with it a bit and experiment.

Feb 28, 2019 at 12:09 AM

charlyw
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Topaz Sharpen AI (released 2/27/2019)

Ouch, I don't see any reason for the AI - unless it is trained to make out of focus backgrounds look really really really awful...

Feb 28, 2019 at 06:59 AM

Rajan Parrikar
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Topaz Sharpen AI (released 2/27/2019)

See this ongoing thread -

https://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=129311.0

Mar 01, 2019 at 08:18 AM

EB-1
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Topaz Sharpen AI (released 2/27/2019)

charlyw wrote:
Ouch, I don't see any reason for the AI - unless it is trained to make out of focus backgrounds look really really really awful...

It's because every program in the world has to have the word AI in it per their Marketing Dept.

EBH

Mar 03, 2019 at 09:24 PM

dclark
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Topaz Sharpen AI (released 2/27/2019)

I downloaded the 30 day trial and ran a few tests. Below is an image of a phoebe chasing a bug that is not sharp. I believe it was mainly due to motion not focus since the bird was moving very fast and I was hand panning. The image was taken with a Sony A9 with a 100-400 GM. The file is 3723x2094 after cropping. Very little processing and no sharpening for noise reduction prior to loading into Topaz Sharpen AI. I tried a few settings for remove blur and suppress noise. The files below are at 0.8 and 0.8 which is pretty strong processing. I found that unless suppress noise was set high there was a lot of noise in the processed file. It was taking about 10-12 seconds to process the image using an Nvidia 1060 GPU.

Topaz Sharpen AI definitely makes a difference, not all of it good. Some settings result in a lot of noise and some settings are a bit over processed. I tried a few images that were total failures. If there is a lot of noise in the image it really drives the noise to very high levels regardless of settings.

Original file - no sharpening or noise reduction in LR

Sharpen

Stabilize

Focus

Original file - Cropped to 1:1

Sharpen

Stabilize

Focus

Mar 03, 2019 at 11:40 PM

govindvkumar
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Topaz Sharpen AI (released 2/27/2019)

I have tested with the trial version of Topaz Sharpen AI
I am sharing Before After comparison images processed in the three modes for Portrait, Wildlife and Landscape photography in the Link below:

Topaz Sharpen AI Review and Samples

Mar 04, 2019 at 06:43 AM

saxguy
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Topaz Sharpen AI (released 2/27/2019)

For those that have been using it, do you find it's better to address noise reduction first or use Sharpen AI first? I use Clear AI and have been really happy with the results. I'm shooting hand held in low light at times so my images sometimes suffer from camera shake if I'm working close up and stopped down for increased DOF.

Apr 04, 2019 at 10:00 AM


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