Software Topaz Sharpen AI - Continues to Amaze Me

gryphon1911

Hall of Famer
Location
Central Ohio, USA
Name
Andrew
I know that some companies promise the world and often time they under deliver.

Scenario:
In the midst of the COVID19 world I am still living in here in Central Ohio, the wife and I often times roll through the streets in her dream car, a 2015 Honda Accord Coupe V6, 6-speed manual. At times I think that she may love that car more than anything else in the world.
Anyway - I always bring a camera when we do our drive throughs of the more congested areas. I'll often grab frames out the window. My timing can be off and I sometimes try and get an image or 2 while we are in motion. Usually, I can cope, but sometimes things don't always go right.

This image for instance. I liked the weathering of the sign, and the verbiage didn't hurt in piquing my interest either.
08-15-2020_cbus_P8150004.jpg
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We had to keep moving to not congest the traffic. Having not "chimped" the image, I did not realize that it was, just....well...not good in a few ways until I got home and saw it on the PC.

The severity of it can be seen even better with this 1:1 crop.
08-15-2020_cbus_P8150004-2.jpg
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Now usually, I would throw this one away....not a whole lot you can do with something like that, right? Well...we have this software tool now called Topaz Sharpen AI. I wondered and thought....they claim it can do quite a bit, so this looked to be a good test. So I ran it through the program. I tried Focus options first, but it just seemed "wormy" and halo laden, lots of artifacts.

Then I tried "Stabilize" and got this:
08-15-2020_cbus_P8150004-Edit.jpg
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Ummm....OK...pretty good, but will it hold up to the 1:1 inspection??

08-15-2020_cbus_P8150004-Edit-2.jpg
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I'll let you decide what you think of it.

For me, I was utterly amazed. Even my wife saw what the software did and she, who is usually indifferent at best remarked, "Holy S*@t!".
They truly are making some very impressive strides in software. Color me impressed that it was able to do what it did on this sign and the scene as a whole. Is it perfect? No, but it could potentially salvage a missed shot that could be the "keeper".
 
Impressive. I was holding it until I saw your review, so I got one... Previous older sharpening programs were not like this AI version... Their sale was just expired, but I found 15% off coupon from photorumors...
 
Damnation thats good. Can't really afford it but... I'll think about it. Getting the trial anyway, just to see what it can do with some of my shaky shit.

I lucked out and got "grandfathered" in from the old "Focus" plugin version that came in the old Topaz Bundle.
I plan on going through the back catalog and seeing if there is anything else iffy I can save!! LOL
 
Not everything works out as well as this example (this is probably perfectly linear motion-blur from the car-motion;
versus "curved" motion blur from handheld, or the more erratic motion-blur of a person/bird/etc.)
It's very impressive nonetheless... when it works it's a pretty great tool!
 
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