Topaz Sharpen AI Discovery

Maverick07 · Sep 18, 2021

I have been using Sharpen AI (ver 3.1.2) since Black Friday of 20. I can claim this is an awesome tool and I have used it on several hundred images to date. A few observations in using the tool;

Induces artifacts, primarily at the max range. Caution on batch processing to catch this.

Difficulty in identifying the image. ie flower calling it a duck. In other cases unable to identify the object.

Bloat after processing several images. Upon re-opening runs extremely fast. Helps to use a robust video card.

Overall a great investment. I am waiting to see how they can top this in their next release.

This is not a paid review, rather to share personal experience.

Great job Topaz

Maverick07 · Sep 18, 2021

I intended to include Sharpen processed a landscape pano 110 X 13 inches of a wide diversity of objects w/o breaking a sweat. The image does not contain any artifacts as far as I can tell.

Toermalijn · Sep 19, 2021

Maverick07 said:
I have been using Sharpen AI (ver 3.1.2) since Black Friday of 20. I can claim this is an awesome tool and I have used it on several hundred images to date. A few observations in using the tool;

Induces artifacts, primarily at the max range. Caution on batch processing to catch this.

Difficulty in identifying the image. ie flower calling it a duck. In other cases unable to identify the object.

Bloat after processing several images. Upon re-opening runs extremely fast. Helps to use a robust video card.

Overall a great investment. I am waiting to see how they can top this in their next release.

This is not a paid review, rather to share personal experience.

Great job Topaz

Sharpen 3.2.2 is out. If you have a subscription, you can download and install the software for free.

Sagittarius · Sep 19, 2021

Toermalijn said:
Maverick07 said:

I have been using Sharpen AI (ver 3.1.2) since Black Friday of 20. I can claim this is an awesome tool and I have used it on several hundred images to date. A few observations in using the tool;

Induces artifacts, primarily at the max range. Caution on batch processing to catch this.

Difficulty in identifying the image. ie flower calling it a duck. In other cases unable to identify the object.

Bloat after processing several images. Upon re-opening runs extremely fast. Helps to use a robust video card.

Overall a great investment. I am waiting to see how they can top this in their next release.

This is not a paid review, rather to share personal experience.

Great job Topaz

Click to expand...

Sharpen 3.2.2 is out. If you have a subscription, you can download and install the software for free.

If he bought on Black Friday of '20, OP should be good.

bmoag · Sep 19, 2021

My enthusiasm for this program has waned a bit with extended use. But I still go out to it frequently from PS to see what it will do.

It remains the best/only option I've seen to try to get a usable result from images with mechanical shake. Some results have been awesome.

Edge artifacts and over-sharpening of bokeh comes up frequently. Adjusting sliders and final rendering generates longer than expected waits, even with a powerful GPU. The latest iteration of the program seems to have problems remembering the preference was set to GPU rendering.

Noise reduction is not its strong suit.

The masking tool, used to try to avoid edge artifacts and oversharp backgrounds, remains wonky and often requires several tries to get a stable mask that does not reset itself halfway through creating the thing. Grrrr inducing.

Does not play will with scanned film images.

Given the program is clearly a work-in-progress it is off-putting that one gets "updates" only for a year after purchase. Not sure I will "re-up" when my year is over.

plantdoc · Sep 19, 2021

I agree about watching for artifacts. I use sharpen primarily to improve pics taken with consumer grade telephoto lenses that go soft at the extreme end. Also, I have a couple of lenses that have some decentering issues and I can use the zone sharpening to fix the decentered areas. Using software to fix optical IQ issues still does not make a pro quality lens, but it is easier on the budget and kit to carry. I suspect smartphones use some version of this approach to cope with tiny lenses and sensors. My limitation is my desktop PC while high end 5 years ago lacks a suitable graphics card to speed up a very demanding application. Adding a better card is pricey, hard to find, and make be a technical problem I can not solve. My solution is to batch process when necessary.

Greg

Van Griff · Sep 19, 2021

bmoag said:
The masking tool, used to try to avoid edge artifacts and oversharp backgrounds, remains wonky and often requires several tries to get a stable mask that does not reset itself halfway through creating the thing. Grrrr inducing.

bm

Make sure your . . . Auto-Update Preview . . . is not enabled in Preferences [Mac] as it may be resetting before you want it to.

Fab program . . . IMHO!

Good luck with it.

Best,

V G

Henry Richardson · Sep 19, 2021

bmoag said:
Edge artifacts and over-sharpening of bokeh comes up frequently.

I have found that with Sharpen AI I fairly often have to create 2 images and then use masking in Photoshop (or some other editor) to get good results. For the non-sharpened version I often use Denoise AI and for the sharpening of the main subject if there is a bit of motion blur/out of focus I use Sharpen AI. I don't use the masking in the Topaz programs because it is so clunky. Also, if you only create one image and you need to do some NR and sharpening then in Sharpen AI if you do masking then you don't get the NR in the other areas.

bmoag said:
Adjusting sliders and final rendering generates longer than expected waits, even with a powerful GPU. The latest iteration of the program seems to have problems remembering the preference was set to GPU rendering.

It also depends on the resolution of your monitor and how you are viewing. For example, 100% view with a 4K monitor is a lot more pixels than with a 1080p (1920x1080) display so updating the display after any change requires lots more work.

bmoag said:
Does not play will with scanned film images.

I have started to sometimes use Denoise AI with the Clear model on scanned film and it usually does a good job for NR and sharpening. I am talking about photos that do not have camera shake and not out of focus. Works particularly well with scanned color negatives which are often the hardest to deal with.

--
Henry Richardson
http://www.bakubo.com

Sagittarius · Sep 19, 2021

Henry Richardson said:
bmoag said:

Edge artifacts and over-sharpening of bokeh comes up frequently.

Click to expand...

I have found that with Sharpen AI I fairly often have to create 2 images and then use masking in Photoshop (or some other editor) to get good results. For the non-sharpened version I often use Denoise AI and for the sharpening of the main subject if there is a bit of motion blur/out of focus I use Sharpen AI. I don't use the masking in the Topaz programs because it is so clunky. Also, if you only create one image and you need to do some NR and sharpening then in Sharpen AI if you do masking then you don't get the NR in the other areas.

Member said:

Adjusting sliders and final rendering generates longer than expected waits, even with a powerful GPU. The latest iteration of the program seems to have problems remembering the preference was set to GPU rendering.

Click to expand...

It also depends on the resolution of your monitor and how you are viewing. For example, 100% view with a 4K monitor is a lot more pixels than with a 1080p (1920x1080) display so updating the display after any change requires lots more work.

Member said:

Does not play will with scanned film images.

Click to expand...

I have started to sometimes use Denoise AI with the Clear model on scanned film and it usually does a good job for NR and sharpening. I am talking about photos that do not have camera shake and not out of focus. Works particularly well with scanned color negatives which are often the hardest to deal with.

I have no problems using Sharpen AI. I send image from LR to SAI as .tiff and than back to LR.

Maverick07 · Sep 20, 2021

Appreciate your input. I am aware of the latest update. I seen it only fixes bugs which I have not seen yet.

No issues I have seen on the GPU. I am running a RTX 2070 card. I have seen it tax the GPU combined with 80% (32Gb) RAM usage. I am running Win 10.

Will I go for the new version upon release? Will have to see what has changed.

Major Jack Reacher · Sep 20, 2021

Maverick07 said:
I have been using Sharpen AI (ver 3.1.2) since Black Friday of 20. I can claim this is an awesome tool and I have used it on several hundred images to date. A few observations in using the tool;

Induces artifacts, primarily at the max range. Caution on batch processing to catch this.

Completely agree. Bad artifacts at times.

Maverick07 said:
Difficulty in identifying the image. ie flower calling it a duck. In other cases unable to identify the object.

Bloat after processing several images. Upon re-opening runs extremely fast. Helps to use a robust video card.

When I first started using this software, it would take up to 2 minutes to complete an image. Now, it is litterly 10-20 seconds. Not sure why to be honest.

Maverick07 said:
Overall a great investment. I am waiting to see how they can top this in their next release.

I have also used this software quite a bit, and so far, get many great results from it.

Maverick07 said:
This is not a paid review, rather to share personal experience.

Ditto.

Maverick07 said:
Great job Topaz

Maverick07 · Sep 20, 2021

I updated to Sharpen 3.2.2 this morning.

A few observations since;

1) Slowed almost to a crawl. Like going from a Lambo to a Ford Escort.

2) Need to manually reset to run GPU vice CPU.

However, even after changing the settings this has slowed down to where it takes 3 times longer to process using the Normal settings in Sharpen.

However, I am sure if this is due to the new NVIDA Studio driver which was just released this morning. I am going to attempt to rollback the NVIDA driver then re-run again.

Henry Richardson · Sep 20, 2021

Maverick07 said:
I updated to Sharpen 3.2.2 this morning.

A few observations since;

1) Slowed almost to a crawl. Like going from a Lambo to a Ford Escort.

2) Need to manually reset to run GPU vice CPU.

However, even after changing the settings this has slowed down to where it takes 3 times longer to process using the Normal settings in Sharpen.

However, I am sure if this is due to the new NVIDA Studio driver which was just released this morning. I am going to attempt to rollback the NVIDA driver then re-run again.

Awhile back I read on the Topaz forum that recent Nvidia drivers have some sort of problem with Topaz software so they recommend going back to the April and May drivers until Nvidia finds the problem and fixes it. I don't know if the latest drivers have finally got things working again.

--
Henry Richardson
http://www.bakubo.com

Mister tee · Sep 21, 2021

I had that driver issue. Nvidia released a new one yesterday (GTX 2070 super) gpu) that got me running again.

Marco Cinnirella · Sep 21, 2021

An alternative to using masking is to just use the history state to revert to the pre-sharpened history state and then use the history brush to brush in the sharpening from the Sharpen AI history state. Downside obviously is that you haven't saved the sharpening on layers so no tweaking weeks/months/years later, but a bit quicker than using layers and uses less memory

Maverick07 · Sep 21, 2021

Henry Richardson said:
Maverick07 said:

I updated to Sharpen 3.2.2 this morning.

A few observations since;

1) Slowed almost to a crawl. Like going from a Lambo to a Ford Escort.

2) Need to manually reset to run GPU vice CPU.

However, even after changing the settings this has slowed down to where it takes 3 times longer to process using the Normal settings in Sharpen.

However, I am sure if this is due to the new NVIDA Studio driver which was just released this morning. I am going to attempt to rollback the NVIDA driver then re-run again.

Click to expand...

Awhile back I read on the Topaz forum that recent Nvidia drivers have some sort of problem with Topaz software so they recommend going back to the April and May drivers until Nvidia finds the problem and fixes it. I don't know if the latest drivers have finally got things working again.

Henry;

Appreciate the info. Yes, I seen the message when it was posted. However, they appear to have resolved the issue. Apparently there is something in the upgrade where it is stuck in Auto vice allowing the user to configure to their machine (GPU).

As always the support from Topaz is very good. I am working with their tech support now.

Thanks

stormyboy · Sep 21, 2021

Mister tee said:
I had that driver issue. Nvidia released a new one yesterday (GTX 2070 super) gpu) that got me running again.

Me too. I finally was able to update from the May driver which was the latest that would run Denoise AI, Sharpen AI , and Gigapixel AI without causing a failure in being able to update one of the various screen options.

Now, Sharpen AI won't stay locked into my GPU preference, but keeps resetting to Auto. I'm not sure yet that it is causing a problem in speed or not.

Like Maverick07, I have been reporting to Topaz customer service also. The squeaky wheel and all that...especially when I don't know how many people are affected by my particular problems.

Henry Richardson · Sep 21, 2021

Maverick07 said:
Appreciate the info. Yes, I seen the message when it was posted. However, they appear to have resolved the issue. Apparently there is something in the upgrade where it is stuck in Auto vice allowing the user to configure to their machine (GPU).

I have not had that problem. I have the latest Sharpen, Denoise, and Gigapixel and I set them all to use the GPU when I first installed them. They don't reset to Auto for me.

By the way, when I install a new version I first uninstall the old version and also I delete the appropriate Topaz folder in my Win10 AppData folder to just be sure I get a totally clean install with no old stuff lying around that may cause a problem.

--
Henry Richardson
http://www.bakubo.com

stormyboy · Sep 21, 2021

stormyboy said:
Mister tee said:

I had that driver issue. Nvidia released a new one yesterday (GTX 2070 super) gpu) that got me running again.

Click to expand...

Me too. I finally was able to update from the May driver which was the latest that would run Denoise AI, Sharpen AI , and Gigapixel AI without causing a failure in being able to update one of the various screen options.

Now, Sharpen AI won't stay locked into my GPU preference, but keeps resetting to Auto. I'm not sure yet that it is causing a problem in speed or not.

Like Maverick07, I have been reporting to Topaz customer service also. The squeaky wheel and all that...especially when I don't know how many people are affected by my particular problems.

Here's a followup I just received from Topaz Labs customer service:

"This is the Sharpen AI specialist at Topaz Labs. Eric has shared your help request with me.

There's currently an issue in v3.2.2 where the AI Processor automatically resets to ''Auto'' after closing and reopening the software and it will be fixed in the next update. However, ''Auto'' would be the same as your NVidia GPU so this shouldn't be an issue for you in the meantime"

Maverick07 · Sep 21, 2021

stormyboy said:
stormyboy said:

Mister tee said:

I had that driver issue. Nvidia released a new one yesterday (GTX 2070 super) gpu) that got me running again.

Click to expand...

Me too. I finally was able to update from the May driver which was the latest that would run Denoise AI, Sharpen AI , and Gigapixel AI without causing a failure in being able to update one of the various screen options.

Now, Sharpen AI won't stay locked into my GPU preference, but keeps resetting to Auto. I'm not sure yet that it is causing a problem in speed or not.

Like Maverick07, I have been reporting to Topaz customer service also. The squeaky wheel and all that...especially when I don't know how many people are affected by my particular problems.

Click to expand...

Here's a followup I just received from Topaz Labs customer service:

"This is the Sharpen AI specialist at Topaz Labs. Eric has shared your help request with me.

There's currently an issue in v3.2.2 where the AI Processor automatically resets to ''Auto'' after closing and reopening the software and it will be fixed in the next update. However, ''Auto'' would be the same as your NVidia GPU so this shouldn't be an issue for you in the meantime"

Yes, and I have sent the required documents to Topaz. No, in watching Performance Monitor in Win 10 I can see the resources it is using. However, I was not aware of the Log files in SAI. I have cleared this out based on the response from Topaz. Appears to be running okay for now. As one of the problems I was encountering in the past as the more images the more bloated it appeared. I do not see a purge button to clear these out. I will continue to monitor.

It is usurping very little resources from the GPU now. Almost a share of CPU, RAM, and GPU. If GPU has the faster memory I would prefer it use the resources from what I paid. I am normally multi-tasking using other apps which rely on CPU and RAM. I really need to see how this progresses.

Will post a follow up.

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