Topaz Studio AI NR?

SantaFeBill · Jun 19, 2018

Has anyone tired the new AI noise reduction/image enhancement available for Topaz Studio?

If so, do you think it better than DxO Photo Lab's Prime NR and/ or Neat Image?

Thanks.

Steve Bingham · Jun 25, 2018

I think I have forgotten more than I ever knew. I can't remember.

JLGF1 · Jun 25, 2018

OzarkAggie said:
I have most of their Photoshop plugins so I'm not dissing the company, just Studio.

Just to clarify, the Legacy plugins also work within Studio as well as (eg) Affinity Photo.

New adjustments, such as AI-Clear, will only work with Studio. Some user configs seem to have more issues than others; I've had relatively few problems.

JLGF1 · Jun 25, 2018

Miike Dougherty said:
I've tried and purchased a lot of Topaz plugins in the past so I trusted them to accurately portray AI Clear; so I bought it. It's actually Studio that is slowing me down.

I own seven Legacy plug-ins, but Studio is still undergoing growing pains. So, for any new Studio adjustments I recommend exercising well for 30 days before purchase.

Miike Dougherty · Jun 25, 2018

JLGF1 said:
Miike Dougherty said:

I've tried and purchased a lot of Topaz plugins in the past so I trusted them to accurately portray AI Clear; so I bought it. It's actually Studio that is slowing me down.

Click to expand...

I own seven Legacy plug-ins, but Studio is still undergoing growing pains. So, for any new Studio adjustments I recommend exercising well for 30 days before purchase.

I haven't been making very good decisions lately. I did purchase AI Clear. On a side note, I extended my subscription to Shutterbug Magazine for 3 years for $64 and they just notified me that they will cancel the print edition and it doesn't look like they want to give me my money back. They want to give me a subscription to an unknown magazine I probably don't want.

sobrien · Jun 26, 2018

Signed up to a trial of this. Ran a ISO 128,000 image from a 5D mark iv through it. Indoors in poor enough light. Canon's 24-70 2.8 ii lens.

The result was a noisier image.

This was on the default setting. Tweaking the parameters (to increase detail) unsurprisingly made it noisier still.

Disappointing.

Jefftan · Jun 27, 2018

why not just use DXO PRIME

isn't it the best?

Beatsy · Jun 27, 2018

Jefftan said:
why not just use DXO PRIME

isn't it the best?

I got DxO when I was exploring ways to dump Adobe after the subs model came in.

Prime noise reduction is very good, but s-l-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-www.

I still use it occasionally to try and rescue the odd very noisy image, but Topaz Denoise works better for general use because of the speed with perfectly good results too (and it plugs in to other editors).

Jefftan · Jun 27, 2018

if only use on high ISO image, me only 1600 up

let it run a few hours in batch, speed no problem

JLGF1 · Jun 28, 2018

It's subtle, but it does work. You need to be zoomed in quite far to see the before/after in action. But, there is definite improvement and more clear (ie sharper) is the best way I can describe it.

Whether it is worth the semi-steep price of admission is another discussion...still on the fence about that. And whether similar results can be achieved with other tools is also another discussion.

Perhaps these shots can illustrate. Note the the barn roof and the mare's back. I tried to get the zoom location close in both edits; not perfect but close enough.

Detail boost setting: none

AI-Clear test (before)

AI-Clear test (after)

JLGF1 · Jun 28, 2018

Review by Joel Wolfson (fwiw)

JLGF1 · Jun 28, 2018

Another example of relatively good results.

Strength: 90

Detail boost: Low

Note the grille area, emblems (Land Rover), and headlights (enlarged view).

Before

After

JLGF1 · Jun 29, 2018

Strength: 90, Details: Low

Before AI-Clear

After AI-Clear

andyh_73 · Jul 2, 2018

Downloaded the trial from within Topaz Studio. Tried on a mixture of challenging landscape photos where focus was a little off, indoor high ISO and some indoor and outdoor portraits that I've put through DxO PhotoLab before. Here's my thoughts:

Firstly it's really slow - not a bad thing if it does a good job; however,
De-noising is very average compared to DXO Prime, and slower,
Restoring detail in AI Clear is very hit and miss. Trying to recover detail (detail boost) has resulted in very strange results, even the reverse sometimes (over smoothing of image)
I've also had noisier images produced after AI Clear analysis
Sometimes, despite obvious issues with a source image, AI Clear does nothing to improve the image

All in all, I won't be purchasing when the demo is up. Really disappointing. Used to love my Topaz plug-ins, but ever since they've moved in the direction of their Studio product it's not been the same. After trying nearly all of the plug-ins and Lightroom alternatives out there over the past couple of years, I'm now in the process of culling down to my favourite core products, unfortunately Topaz is no longer on my shortlist.

Ernie Misner · Jul 2, 2018

Miike Dougherty said:
JLGF1 said:

OzarkAggie said:

I decided it was a waste of time - at least until the bugs are fixed, but I also think that the 30 day trial would also apply if you asked for a refund during that period.

Click to expand...

What I can't figure out is why people purchase before trying new software out for 30 days. Imo, that makes zero sense unless they are getting a big discount.

Click to expand...

I've tried and purchased a lot of Topaz plugins in the past so I trusted them to accurately portray AI Clear; so I bought it. It's actually Studio that is slowing me down. It really put a speed bump in my workflow. I'm holding judgement for now on AI Clear because I'm having difficulty getting used to the workflow. I must be doing something wrong.

If you get a lot of layers going it might speed things up if you hit Apply which is like flattening the layers in PS I think. The new image then shows up down in the film strip. Click on that and it will open with all of the edits applied but no layers showing.

--
Ernie Misner
http://www.flickr.com/photos/erniemisner/
"Being in nature allows the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s command center, to rest and recover, like an overused muscle." - David Strayer

Ernie Misner · Jul 3, 2018

Miike Dougherty said:
JLGF1 said:

Miike Dougherty said:

I've tried and purchased a lot of Topaz plugins in the past so I trusted them to accurately portray AI Clear; so I bought it. It's actually Studio that is slowing me down.

Click to expand...

I own seven Legacy plug-ins, but Studio is still undergoing growing pains. So, for any new Studio adjustments I recommend exercising well for 30 days before purchase.

Click to expand...

I haven't been making very good decisions lately. I did purchase AI Clear. On a side note, I extended my subscription to Shutterbug Magazine for 3 years for $64 and they just notified me that they will cancel the print edition and it doesn't look like they want to give me my money back. They want to give me a subscription to an unknown magazine I probably don't want.

Give them a call and see what the magazine options are. You might be pleasantly surprised.

JLGF1 · Jul 4, 2018

Jim B (MSP) · Jul 4, 2018

why AI Clear appears to work sometimes, and not others?

I have a Canon 80D, 24 MP, and I have tried multiple high (>2000) ISO shots. They are tiffs passed from Lightroom to Photoshop to Studio via a plugin.

The results are negative - nothing seems to happen when viewed at 100%. If I view at 200%, there may be some very small differences.

When I read through all these posts, some people appear to have a lot of success. Others are like me - no success. I would like it to work.

Is it the original RAW? Is it the type of noise ( I believe the new Canon sensor has less noise that previous models and more shot noise at low ISO) ? Is the a function of the number of pixels?

Why?

--
Jim
"It's all about the light"

Beatsy · Jul 4, 2018

I haven't even got it to work "sometimes"! Crashes out with a GPU timeout on all but the smallest images too. But from the examples I've seen where it does work, it really only seems to improve things at near pixel-peeping levels. What's the point? Given how slow it is, and the need to work in Topaz Studio, it really isn't worth the time. Perhaps I'll have another look at future versions - but noise reduction in Capture One 11 serves for 99% of my images (that need noise reduction), and Topaz Denoise handles the rest. I've given up on AI clear for now. Completely underwhelming IMO. A blot on Topaz's otherwise excellent record sheet.

JLGF1 · Jul 6, 2018

Works for me...

Before

After (note the large bud in the center)

ATP62 · Jul 6, 2018

JLGF1 said:
Works for me...

Before

After (note the large bud in the center)

Can You please upload the original photo , so i can try with other progs like Nik Define - Perfectly Clear and Affinity.

Topaz Studio AI NR?

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