Sharpen AI

Bengan

Senior Member
I'm using several Topaz products including Sharpen AI and like them a lot. Sharpen AI has three functions/modes. Sharpen, Stabilize and focus. All modes have impressed me so far. You can't achieve wonders but as long as you have realistic expectations I think you will be impressed as well. I suggest that you download the program and try it out. All Topaz products have a 30 days free trial period.
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
I've post elsewhere in this forum about how Topaz AI products have changed and greatly simplified my workflow. I have Denoise, Adjust, Sharpen, Mask, and Gigapixel AI products and use the first two on just about every shot I take. I've talked about them several times before so I'll just say if you're really interested you can find my posts elsewhere on them.

Since you ask about Sharpen AI all I can say is it's a tool I use for fixing sharpening on unsharp photos and not to sharpen photos that are already sharply focused. It does an impressive job correcting OOF, blurred, and just plain soft photos, but the AI is very slow on my 2014 Macbook Pro and it can take a minute-plus just to render a preview (hint, I have "Auto-Generate Preview" turned off on every AI product except Adjust), and then I've waited as long as 10 minutes for it to fully render the image (we're talking a 20MP D500 raw file as input). But, if you need to fix a shot then it's worth the wait. But for normal sharpening it's overkill. For that I start with Denoise, tweak in Camera Raw, and then enhance in Adjust.

The main reason I have them all is because I've purchased them in bundles, which saves you significant money (it's a 45% discount), and if they add a new product to a bundle and you have all the others you can rebuy the bundle and they credit you for the ones you already have so you get that 45% discount and you can still apply any other discount code you have.
 

STM

Senior Member
I downloaded the free trial a few days ago to see how it does. It does an ok job but adds a lot of noise to the image. I have found myself having to use Topaz Denoise after it. I like the DXO sharpen routine a lot better.
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
I downloaded the free trial a few days ago to see how it does. It does an ok job but adds a lot of noise to the image. I have found myself having to use Topaz Denoise after it. I like the DXO sharpen routine a lot better.

That's because it's an utterly mislabeled product. it's not meant to sharpen, it's meant to fix an unsharpened image so that's what it's looking for and will try and fix things that you don't want fixed. Denoise does a better job at sharpening even if you don't need to denoise (turn that function down to zero), as does Adjust AI which includes far too many things that are in the Basic module of Camera Raw. I think of them this way...

Sharpen AI should have been Repair AI
Denoise AI should have been Clarify AI
Adjust AI should have been Detail AI

That's how I use them and they work well for those functions.
 

Whiskeyman

Senior Member
I've had a license for Denoise for a while, but haven't used it much. I wish that I could say that's because I don't need to use it, but that isn't the case.

I just uploaded the latest release and am going to try it on a few shots to see what it does. According to Topaz, it is greatly improved from the previous version; I'll see.

WM
 

Whiskeyman

Senior Member
I've post elsewhere in this forum about how Topaz AI products have changed and greatly simplified my workflow. I have Denoise, Adjust, Sharpen, Mask, and Gigapixel AI products and use the first two on just about every shot I take. I've talked about them several times before so I'll just say if you're really interested you can find my posts elsewhere on them.

Since you ask about Sharpen AI all I can say is it's a tool I use for fixing sharpening on unsharp photos and not to sharpen photos that are already sharply focused. It does an impressive job correcting OOF, blurred, and just plain soft photos, but the AI is very slow on my 2014 Macbook Pro and it can take a minute-plus just to render a preview (hint, I have "Auto-Generate Preview" turned off on every AI product except Adjust), and then I've waited as long as 10 minutes for it to fully render the image (we're talking a 20MP D500 raw file as input). But, if you need to fix a shot then it's worth the wait. But for normal sharpening it's overkill. For that I start with Denoise, tweak in Camera Raw, and then enhance in Adjust.

The main reason I have them all is because I've purchased them in bundles, which saves you significant money (it's a 45% discount), and if they add a new product to a bundle and you have all the others you can rebuy the bundle and they credit you for the ones you already have so you get that 45% discount and you can still apply any other discount code you have.

Jake, how much RAM are you working with on this MBP? And what model is it? (I've looked at the Apple support site and don't see anything regarding a 2014 model.)

I'm running the latest upgrade to Sharpen AI on a Mid-2015 iMac operating at 3.3 GHz with 32GB of RAM. It is a bit tasking on the system, but not that bad. I'd sure hate to have to run it on my 2009 MBP, or even worse, one of my old Windows desktops.

WM
 

Danno

Senior Member
I got them in a bundle sale and what little I have used them I like them. They are very easy to use. I have used Denoise and Shapen AI. I have been using them as a plugin to LR.
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
Jake, how much RAM are you working with on this MBP? And what model is it? (I've looked at the Apple support site and don't see anything regarding a 2014 model.)

I'm running the latest upgrade to Sharpen AI on a Mid-2015 iMac operating at 3.3 GHz with 32GB of RAM. It is a bit tasking on the system, but not that bad. I'd sure hate to have to run it on my 2009 MBP, or even worse, one of my old Windows desktops.

WM

I've got 16GB which was the most I could get at the time (April 2014?) with a 2.6GHz processor, so yeah, I'm a little slower. Looking at going to a new 27" iMac and upgrading what I can to save $$ to pay for upgrades on what I'm not willing to screw with. I want to wait for the new models with the Apple processors but something tells me that's going to cost me more money.
 

Whiskeyman

Senior Member
I've got 16GB which was the most I could get at the time (April 2014?) with a 2.6GHz processor, so yeah, I'm a little slower. Looking at going to a new 27" iMac and upgrading what I can to save $$ to pay for upgrades on what I'm not willing to screw with. I want to wait for the new models with the Apple processors but something tells me that's going to cost me more money.

My MBP runs at 2.2 GHz with 16 GB of RAM, so I understand a bit of the limits of your current machine.

Are you familiar with Other World Computing (OWC), at https://eshop.macsales.com ? I've always purchased the min RAM I could get when I purchased an iMac and got additional memory from OWC, then installed it myself. They also sell additional upgrades, as well as refurbished computers.

Unless the newest model iMac has a feature that you really need or want, I'd look at a high end phaseout model when purchasing an Apple computer. Last year, I was able to save more money than switching my car insurance to GEICO by buying an older model, still getting a fast (3.4 MHz) processor and a very good graphics card. Initially, it had 8 GB of RAM, to which I've added 32 GBs for a total of 40, and it handles whatever I ask of it quite well. By adding the RAM myself, I saved about $400 over purchasing the computer with that much RAM from Apple.

Your requirements are surely different than mine, but when buying an iMac, I now always make sure to get one that I can add RAM to myself. Surely, though, you'll like the 27-inch iMac when you get it. What upgrades do you expect to want for it when you get it?

WM
 

STM

Senior Member
That's because it's an utterly mislabeled product. it's not meant to sharpen, it's meant to fix an unsharpened image so that's what it's looking for and will try and fix things that you don't want fixed. Denoise does a better job at sharpening even if you don't need to denoise (turn that function down to zero), as does Adjust AI which includes far too many things that are in the Basic module of Camera Raw. I think of them this way...

Sharpen AI should have been Repair AI
Denoise AI should have been Clarify AI
Adjust AI should have been Detail AI

That's how I use them and they work well for those functions.

I have not used it to sharpen an in focus object, just one slightly out of focus and like I said it added a lot of noise I had to deal with.
 
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