Pages: 1 ... 5 6 [7]   Go Down

Author Topic: NEW Topaz upsampling product: A.I. Gigapixel  (Read 19884 times)

MauriceRR

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 45
Re: NEW Topaz upsampling product: A.I. Gigapixel
« Reply #120 on: September 30, 2018, 03:19:47 pm »

That would be very kind. I can imagine they won't fix it tomorrow.
Logged

JaapD

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 303
Re: NEW Topaz upsampling product: A.I. Gigapixel
« Reply #121 on: October 09, 2018, 01:48:41 am »

This Topaz tool looks very promising. However after looking at the following review I was not so sure anymore:


https://youtu.be/LGWEyG4DUOM


It looks like Topaz is creating all kinds of very weird things that does not belong to the image in the first place.

What do you guys (and gals) think what's happening here?

Regards,
Jaap.
Logged

plugsnpixels

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1034
    • http://www.plugsandpixels.com
Re: NEW Topaz upsampling product: A.I. Gigapixel
« Reply #122 on: October 09, 2018, 02:10:36 am »

I'd seen this video before. Well done, but be aware, he's using version 1 from a month ago and really should do a revised version. Topaz software improves quickly and continually.
Logged
Digital imaging blog, software discounts:
www.plugsandpixels.com/blog

MauriceRR

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 45
Re: NEW Topaz upsampling product: A.I. Gigapixel
« Reply #123 on: October 09, 2018, 02:16:21 am »

It's à neural network algorithm. There is some failures, it doesn't work perfectly anytime.
It can work bad with test chart, but it works better on natural scenes, especially landscape, faces, etc, due to the training.
Logged

jim t

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 62
    • jimtsioles photography
Re: NEW Topaz upsampling product: A.I. Gigapixel
« Reply #124 on: October 20, 2018, 03:23:11 pm »

Would someone use AI gigapixel to make 24 megapixel images look better/sharper/cleaner when enlarged for bigger prints?
Logged

Bart_van_der_Wolf

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 8913
Re: NEW Topaz upsampling product: A.I. Gigapixel
« Reply #125 on: October 20, 2018, 03:36:28 pm »

Would someone use AI gigapixel to make 24 megapixel images look better/sharper/cleaner when enlarged for bigger prints?

Hi Jim,

Yes, I would.

Cheers,
Bart
Logged
== If you do what you did, you'll get what you got. ==

plugsnpixels

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1034
    • http://www.plugsandpixels.com
Re: NEW Topaz upsampling product: A.I. Gigapixel
« Reply #126 on: October 20, 2018, 03:41:09 pm »

Yes, Gigapixel is designed with a dual purpose (helping salvage poor smaller images and making monster enlargements out of already hi-res ones).
Logged
Digital imaging blog, software discounts:
www.plugsandpixels.com/blog

Brad P

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 258
Re: NEW Topaz upsampling product: A.I. Gigapixel
« Reply #127 on: October 25, 2018, 03:48:31 am »

After reading quite a lot of reviews on A.I. GP yesterday, including this thread and watching the YouTube video referenced a few posts up, I just finished demoing the product and ended up buying it.  The YouTube video was a bit frightening to me, honestly, but my fears have been abated.  I suspect some artifacts generated in that reviewer’s downsized resampled test image were to blame for the poor results, that and/or improvements made to the software during the last few months.  I didn’t yet experience that kind of distortion. 

I’ve used quite a few upscaling routines over the years, and happy to have this in the toolbox.  I’ll also be looking forward to seeing it improved over the months and years as Topaz does with its products.  I have an 8 core processor operating at 4.5 GHz and a mid/high range GPU that is supported and was not bothered with the processing times - generally a number of minutes for the more challenging jobs. 

I do have a few preliminary observations and questions on when to use it and where it best fits in the workflow.

1. I hope it can be integrated soon into Photoshop.

2. It made me skim through my last 15 years of digital files wondering what would now print big well. I will doubtlessly spend more time doing that. 

3. For 200% or less enlargement, maybe up to 400%, it seems to me there is little if any practical difference between using this product and Photoshop’s new preserve details algorithm or other premium enlargement programs.  The Photoshop preserve details function I have found excellent, and I’ll continue to use that for small scaling jobs, at least until A.I. GP is integrated well into Photoshop and I become convinced it’s better there. 

4. I wish there was some control over how aggressive the A.I. enhancement is.  For example, in the hair and a beard of a man in an old 5MP photo I scaled up at least 10 times, A.I. GP recognized most of the hair as hair and rendered it well, but left large parts of the finer detail blurry.  That can be fixed manually with a clone brush, so the picture I was experimenting with was workable, but I can imagine a slider might save quite a bit of work. 

5. There are always trade offs on where to put things in the work flow.  It seems this product may need to go very early on, earlier than others because it is replacing pixels instead of averaging them.  I think it may go best after doing lens and abberation corrections, WB, and stretching out the histogram properly in a raw converter.  I haven’t experimented where noise reduction fits in.  I’m imagining some noise reduction at low levels might work best, with most everything else after enlargement, probably curves, contrast, clarity and color after enlargement as well.  Especially sharpening, deconvolution or otherwise.  Interested in other’s thoughts. 

6. I noticed — I thought — superior performance on raw files as opposed to JPGs or TIFFs.  Is that right?  I’d rather not do that at least for white balance and histogram management reasons at least, and operate the software on TIFFs.  Again, interested in other’s experience here. 
« Last Edit: October 25, 2018, 05:52:04 am by Brad Paulson »
Logged

plugsnpixels

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1034
    • http://www.plugsandpixels.com
Re: NEW Topaz upsampling product: A.I. Gigapixel
« Reply #128 on: October 25, 2018, 04:09:40 am »

Thanks Brad for your detailed thoughts.

That video (which was very well done) ideally should be removed or at least updated to more accurately reflect the state of Gigapixel at the present time. That's the thing with software, it's (usually) always improving and an outdated trail of reviews isn't helpful for prospective customers.

I'm a bit guilty of that on my own (main) website but try to keep current in my latest blog posts (a format that lends itself to staying more immediately relevant). It's all a lot of work and hard to keep up with an always-evolving type of technology!

As for direct integration with PS, Topaz has long since moved away from the plug-in model (as have most developers of that type of software) in favor of their own standalone solutions, incorporating more and more of their older titles into Topaz Studio adjustments. I think that's smart, not tying your fortunes so directly to another company and their whims.

Of course you can bring your Topaz results in and out of PS as desired.
Logged
Digital imaging blog, software discounts:
www.plugsandpixels.com/blog
Pages: 1 ... 5 6 [7]   Go Up