Fred Kingston
Senior Member
That's not what I meant. Post the pertinent data with the images. What is the ISO for the images?
Before and After Example Topaz 2.0.5
- Thread starter adot45
- Start date
Danno
Senior Member
I have been appreciating the examples. I do like it and ended up with the bundle but I have not used it very much because I have not had the opportunity to shoot much of late. It is nice to see someone putting it to good use justifying my investment:encouragement:.
Hopefully I will get too it soon. Oz
BackdoorArts
Senior Member
Hmmm. Those are really high from what I've ever used. I don't see anything in the original that would require that level of NR. I shoot wilfdlife at ISO 4000 and almost never get about 25. I'm guessing that within the blues the AI may have decided tere was color noise where it wasn't at that level and shifted everything? Just a guess. I always start with the default - move the window over top of the subject, click the preview update (hint: always turn off the auto-update preview box in Denoise and Sharpen), and see what's what. If it's not noisy to begin with I may even go from 15 to 10 to see if it removes enough.
I think your posts have been very worthwhile. Thanks for the work you did to show us your results.
@adot45 if you are taking screen shots of your images, the EXIF won't show up automatically. I think what Fred meant is it is difficult to assess noise reduction when we don't know the starting point. Noise at ISO 1600 most likely will be different (less) than noise at ISO 4000 or higher. If you are going to post screen shots, just type in the ISO and possibly the aperture and shutter to cover the exposure triangle. 
OR resize your images to be 1024 pixels on the long/tall side. Then the EXIF should automatically be displayed.
@BackdoorArts thanks for your info. I don't yet have Topaz but appreciate the settings you share for when I do get it.
@Woodyg3 although I don't have Topaz, I tend to use Shake Reduction far more than the High Pass Filter. Even when I use the High Pass Filter, I tend to only set it at .5 pixels which isn't a lot. But HP seems to add more noise than I want.
Jake, have you ever compared all three - Topaz Sharpen, Shake Reduction, and High Pass Filter?
OR resize your images to be 1024 pixels on the long/tall side. Then the EXIF should automatically be displayed.
@BackdoorArts thanks for your info. I don't yet have Topaz but appreciate the settings you share for when I do get it.
@Woodyg3 although I don't have Topaz, I tend to use Shake Reduction far more than the High Pass Filter. Even when I use the High Pass Filter, I tend to only set it at .5 pixels which isn't a lot. But HP seems to add more noise than I want.
Jake, have you ever compared all three - Topaz Sharpen, Shake Reduction, and High Pass Filter?
@hark Interesting. I find that shake reduction usually gives me strange, unnatural looking results. I use the high pass filter when things are a little unsharp and get very good results most of the time. Noise is a problem with both methods for me, though.
Woody, I dial back the artifacting slider as well as the smoothing slider. Plus I usually lower the amount of shake reduction after it comes up with its own calculations.
Horoscope Fish
Senior Member
Just out of curiosity... Do you desaturate before applying the HP filter?
No. Why would I want to do that?
Horoscope Fish
Senior Member
Color information in a High Pass filter isn't relevant to sharpening and removing the superfluous color-information helps ensure noise isn't increased. Try it and see what you think.
CMD+Shift+U (for you Mac users) makes it easy, then add your HP Filter.
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Dawg Pics
Senior Member
That explains the Monochrome option for the HP sharpen in Affinity Photo. Thanks
Horoscope Fish
Senior Member
No need to re-saturate since the color information returns when you choose the Blend Mode.
BackdoorArts
Senior Member
Jake, have you ever compared all three - Topaz Sharpen, Shake Reduction, and High Pass Filter?
I tried using HPF to sharpen ages ago and abandoned it. Shake Reduction I've tried when I needed to save something but I find it cumbersome to get it to work where I want and not where I don't. Topaz Sharpen I've used a couple times and outside of the extraordinary processing times for even a preview on my 2014 Macbook Pro I've found the results to be good enough that I paid for it (as part of a bundle). I don't bother with side by side by sides any more. I know what works for me and go with it. There are people monetizing videos for that.
So would I need to make a duplicate layer to do High Pass Sharpening on but de-saturate first before performing HPS? Then change the blend mode of that layer?
I tried using HPF to sharpen ages ago and abandoned it. Shake Reduction I've tried when I needed to save something but I find it cumbersome to get it to work where I want and not where I don't. Topaz Sharpen I've used a couple times and outside of the extraordinary processing times for even a preview on my 2014 Macbook Pro I've found the results to be good enough that I paid for it (as part of a bundle). I don't bother with side by side by sides any more. I know what works for me and go with it. There are people monetizing videos for that.
Thanks, Jake. I know I've used Shake Reduction a number of times since my 1.7x TC started having problems. It was the only thing that would fix the problem. But then I could go back to Camera RAW and use an adjustment brush to remove excess noise from the background if necessary.
Horoscope Fish
Senior Member
If I choose to use a HP Filter for sharpening here are the steps I take:
- Duplicate the Background layer (creating Layer 1)
- Desaturate Layer 1
- Convert Layer 1 to a Smart Object
- Apply the High Pass Filter and adjust the sliders as needed
- Change the Blend Mode to Overlay or, more commonly, Soft Light
- Tweak either the HP filter settings, and/or the Opacity, for Layer 1 to taste
Whiskeyman
Senior Member
FWIW, I downloaded Sharpen AI 2.1 yesterday. I didn't use 2.05 enough to compare the two versions.
WM
WM
Whiskeyman
Senior Member
If you have that much of an issue holding the camera steady, you could try using a monopod or/and a tripod.
WM