The Topaz suite and JPEGs to TIFF conversions.

JensM

All-Pro
Am trying to twist my head around the Topaz suite along with their standalone JPEG to RAW converter.

I have been using this suite, primarily as plug-ins for sharpening and noise reduction work for a couple of years, and am normally quite pleased with the results, with the exception of the sometimes strange artifacts and such the suite seems fit to drop a bit randomly into the files it outputs.

I have done little work with the JPEG to RAW converter, but have noticed that it is not getting updates, and it is not "bundling" with the other Topaz programs nor is it available in LR, so it is a standalone product as far as I can tell.

So today being a lazy Sunday, I thought I should do some processing and had a 30ish old photos that I was going to work on, all taken as JPEGs with a Canon G5, with its whooping 5 MP sensor, all being good and great. Firing up the converter and dropping the folder into the program, fiddeling with the file type, choosing DNGs and setting up a apply named folder for receiving the transformed files, pushing start and the machine cranks up and does what it is supposed to.

Opening up LR to import the freshly made batch of DNG files and nope, LR is not having them, other than a couple of shots from each batch (2 batches in total). Back to the files I go, and there are some possible discrepancies in the filenames and other such menial stuff that needs tidying up, that done, fresh try, still no dice. Checking with PS - no dice there either. A quick scan on the net seems to confirm the suspicion, and several sources states that the DNGs produces are actually TIFFs packed in a DNG wrapping and that LR and PS are not having it.

It also states that the JPEG to RAW converter is somewhat defunct and the way forward is by using the Gigapixel app to make DNGs with, as it seems to have added the converter codes into it with additional codes for the enlargement bits it is known for. Trying that on for size, it produces DNGs when run as a stand-alone, but no dice as to importing them into LR. Another look at the files and they seems to be fine, counting 29MP, but with the file sizes in pixels made as 250X190, so there are some oddities going on in the conversion bits.

JPEGs imported into LR just fine as usual, and flattened in LR they makes good TIFFs when run individually through Gigapixel and the produced files are rather malleable in LR afterwards, but its not solving the wish for batch processing outside LR with importing them later as I have 15 years of JPEGs to convert.

Anyone had any luck with doing batch conversions via Topaz, either with "JPEG to RAW" or the "Gigapixel" in stand-alone mode , before importing just the converted TIFFs into LR?
 
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