Topaz AI

[Greyswan]

I bought Topaz AI early in 2024, haven't really used it much other than for processing negative conversions which it seems to do well enough. However, with RAW CR2 files I get horrible oversaturated colour shifts that are not easily correctable, and leave a lot of muddy-looking flat colours when I do try to desaturate or correct. I'm annoyed because I do love the sharpening and denoise, that's very controllable, but the oversaturated colours do not seem to have anything but the crudest colour controls that have no finesse to them. It looks cartoonish in the ned, and I do have a lot of experience in colour corrections, so I don't think I'm missing much there.

I haven't really used it much, is there something I'm missing here? Otherwise I'm going to ditch it, even though it was pretty expensive.

Any suggestions? Cheers.

 

[ShipleyNW]

Which controls are you talking about?

I've been using Topaz for a few years now (I started with the individual apps and now the consolidated Photo AI.) I use it as a finishing step for denoise and/or sharpening, and that's all. I fire it up from LRC, and when I do it that way, I'm rarely in a mood to play with new software, so I just use what I know. When I push the pictures back to LRC, Topaz closes automatically and I forget about it entirely.

When I read your post, I thought, what's he talking about, so I opened Topaz AI independently, without LRC. Wow, they do have a lot of new stuff. The app even pushed a video on me about the new features. I assume, now, that's what you were talking about; the 'Adjust Lighting' and 'Balance Color'. I also see a 'Super Focus (BETA), and a Remove Object option.

I've got no interest in those new things. My needs for those adjustments are satisfied in LRC. The reason I started using Topaz for denoise and sharpening was that it worked better for those things than the last time I tried them in LRC. I've heard that LRC is better now than it used to be, but I have Topaz in the workflow and I'm satisfied doing it there.

Lighting and color balance are way too personal for me to leave to AI.

 

[Greyswan]

Which controls are you talking about?

I've been using Topaz for a few years now (I started with the individual apps and now the consolidated Photo AI.) I use it as a finishing step for denoise and/or sharpening, and that's all. I fire it up from LRC, and when I do it that way, I'm rarely in a mood to play with new software, so I just use what I know. When I push the pictures back to LRC, Topaz closes automatically and I forget about it entirely.

When I read your post, I thought, what's he talking about, so I opened Topaz AI independently, without LRC. Wow, they do have a lot of new stuff. The app even pushed a video on me about the new features. I assume, now, that's what you were talking about; the 'Adjust Lighting' and 'Balance Color'. I also see a 'Super Focus (BETA), and a Remove Object option.

I've got no interest in those new things. My needs for those adjustments are satisfied in LRC. The reason I started using Topaz for denoise and sharpening was that it worked better for those things than the last time I tried them in LRC. I've heard that LRC is better now than it used to be, but I have Topaz in the workflow and I'm satisfied doing it there.

Lighting and color balance are way too personal for me to leave to AI.

The controls on the Photo AI are simply too crude to do any good, and I agree with you that it's very important to have control over those items. What I've found is that the lighting control and the colour balance simply do a horrible job. Photo AI changes the colours, for instance, a nice sky blue will turn into a horrible oversaturated deep flat dark cerulean with no nuances in the colours. I'm happy with the sharpening and denoise, but both will have that extreme colour shift, without even adjusting the lighting and colour balance controls. It also seems to saturate yellows and reds where there is very little, as I said, cartoonish in effect.

I guess I'll just dump Topaz and do it manually in Affinity or Photoshop with actions.

 

[MSH411]

Which controls are you talking about?

I've been using Topaz for a few years now (I started with the individual apps and now the consolidated Photo AI.) I use it as a finishing step for denoise and/or sharpening, and that's all. I fire it up from LRC, and when I do it that way, I'm rarely in a mood to play with new software, so I just use what I know. When I push the pictures back to LRC, Topaz closes automatically and I forget about it entirely.

When I read your post, I thought, what's he talking about, so I opened Topaz AI independently, without LRC. Wow, they do have a lot of new stuff. The app even pushed a video on me about the new features. I assume, now, that's what you were talking about; the 'Adjust Lighting' and 'Balance Color'. I also see a 'Super Focus (BETA), and a Remove Object option.

I've got no interest in those new things. My needs for those adjustments are satisfied in LRC. The reason I started using Topaz for denoise and sharpening was that it worked better for those things than the last time I tried them in LRC. I've heard that LRC is better now than it used to be, but I have Topaz in the workflow and I'm satisfied doing it there.

Lighting and color balance are way too personal for me to leave to AI.

Same here, bought it when it was stand alone applications (denoise and sharpen) and transitioned to Photo AI. Like you I still use only the two functions.

Personally I believe they lost their way and are attempting to make the product a catch all, compete with PS, LR and others in the post production software market and created a buggy mess.

 

[Dicky109]

Thanks all for posting your bad experiences with the color segment of the new Photo AI. Like most of you, I started with the Topaz stand-alone apps and transitioned to the first version of Photo AI. I was seriously thinking about upgrading to the new version, however after reading your experiences, will wait and hopefully, they will fix the color problem.
Just a question on the new version. Is it not possible to turn off the color modifying section? That would be a major shortfall and shortsighted on the part of Topaz.

 

[MSH411]

You can simply not use the functions.

I am on the latest version and update when there are new releases. I strictly use sharpen and denoise, once and a while face recovery, lighting and color balance have disabled in edit/preferences.

And since the big push to become something different (not sure what that is....) they have been short sighted. When you launch the program from PS or LRC their own logo is a mess, cropped poorly and incomplete. Appears to be a trend to some regard, things get released and they are a bit incomplete.

 

[Greyswan]

Thanks all for posting your bad experiences with the color segment of the new Photo AI. Like most of you, I started with the Topaz stand-alone apps and transitioned to the first version of Photo AI. I was seriously thinking about upgrading to the new version, however after reading your experiences, will wait and hopefully, they will fix the color problem.
Just a question on the new version. Is it not possible to turn off the color modifying section? That would be a major shortfall and shortsighted on the part of Topaz.

Just using the regular denoise function alone gives huge colour shifts, so no, there's no way of mitigating it as far as I can see. Same with sharpening. So it's not a matter of turning off anything, you actually have to add the lighting adjustment and colour balance as separate functions.

I'm glad it's not just me, it seems to be a hot mess.

 

[Greyswan]

Thanks all for posting your bad experiences with the color segment of the new Photo AI. Like most of you, I started with the Topaz stand-alone apps and transitioned to the first version of Photo AI. I was seriously thinking about upgrading to the new version, however after reading your experiences, will wait and hopefully, they will fix the color problem.
Just a question on the new version. Is it not possible to turn off the color modifying section? That would be a major shortfall and shortsighted on the part of Topaz.

Maybe it depends on the system as well. I use an Alienware but no separate graphics card.

You can simply not use the functions.

I am on the latest version and update when there are new releases. I strictly use sharpen and denoise, once and a while face recovery, lighting and color balance have disabled in edit/preferences.

And since the big push to become something different (not sure what that is....) they have been short sighted. When you launch the program from PS or LRC their own logo is a mess, cropped poorly and incomplete. Appears to be a trend to some regard, things get released and they are a bit incomplete.

You can simply not use the functions.

I am on the latest version and update when there are new releases. I strictly use sharpen and denoise, once and a while face recovery, lighting and color balance have disabled in edit/preferences.

And since the big push to become something different (not sure what that is....) they have been short sighted. When you launch the program from PS or LRC their own logo is a mess, cropped poorly and incomplete. Appears to be a trend to some regard, things get released and they are a bit incomplete.

I don't use the color modifiers at all. Just the denoise and sharpen. Either separately or together, the colour shift is horrible. You actually have to add both lighting and colour balance to the edit if you want them. Then it gets even worse.

 

[MSH411]

Interesting Greyswan I don't get any color shift when using denoise or sharpen. How are you launching the application? Are you using through LRC, PS or something similar or stand alone?

 

[ShipleyNW]

Interesting Greyswan I don't get any color shift when using denoise or sharpen. How are you launching the application? Are you using through LRC, PS or something similar or stand alone?

I'm not sure I'm seeing anything either. I haven't really played with the newest version. I just installed it and I think I worked on a couple of images the other day and didn't notice anything. I found an image that I'd done in an earlier version and tried running the .cr3 file through the newest version.

I'm not seeing any difference between the edited raw file, the tif created with the previous version and the tif created with the newest version.

The first shot here is the edited raw file and the second shot was put through the latest Topaz AI with denoise and sharpen only.

 

[ChuckMiller]

I haven't touched my camera in several months therefor I haven't used LRC/Denoise AI since. I just looked at the Topaz site and saw they have consolidated Denoise AI into Photo AI (a $200 app). My Denoise AI is version 3.7.2, update says that is the latest version they released before the change. Denoise AI is masterful at denoise.

Tony Northrup is raving about DXO PureRaw 5. Maybe that is a new all in one answer.

 

[Greyswan]

Interesting Greyswan I don't get any color shift when using denoise or sharpen. How are you launching the application? Are you using through LRC, PS or something similar or stand alone?

Standalone.

 

[Greyswan]

I haven't touched my camera in several months therefor I haven't used LRC/Denoise AI since. I just looked at the Topaz site and saw they have consolidated Denoise AI into Photo AI (a $200 app). My Denoise AI is version 3.7.2, update says that is the latest version they released before the change. Denoise AI is masterful at denoise.

Tony Northrup is raving about DXO PureRaw 5. Maybe that is a new all in one answer.

I may have to look at DXO. The Photo AI is the one I have, and I'm highly annoyed at having paid that amount and getting these ghastly colour shifts. I have a pretty good computer with lots of ram so I don't understand why it's happening. But it does seem to be a fairly common complaint, going by google searches.

 

[ChuckMiller]

Have you contacted customer support?

 

[MSH411]

I may have to look at DXO. The Photo AI is the one I have, and I'm highly annoyed at having paid that amount and getting these ghastly colour shifts. I have a pretty good computer with lots of ram so I don't understand why it's happening. But it does seem to be a fairly common complaint, going by google searches.

What camera are you using and have you looked to make sure the camera profile has loaded/updated? Also, is it happening with jpg, raw or both? Sorry if you posted the info earlier.

Also, have you run the latest updates to make sure you have the latest and greatest. They just released 4.0, if you haven't run the update you may want to give it a try, what can it hurt. Mine is running "normally" since the update.

 

[Greyswan]

Eos R, and the camera profile is loaded. I have the latest 4.0 as well.

 

[Greyswan]

Have you contacted customer support?

Lol. I never actually thought of that. CS with most apps is abominable, they just give rote answers. I might have to force myself to do that...

 

[gonzogolf]

The frustrating part of topaz is it's never the same program twice.... I may go a week or two between using it and when I come back it's a new version needing upgrading. Get past that and you find out this control has been subsumed into that module and the thing you use most is not there anymore or the controls you use for it are different. I applaud their innovation but it's hard to find the sweet spot when it's constantly moving around.

 

[MSH411]

The frustrating part of topaz is it's never the same program twice.... I may go a week or two between using it and when I come back it's a new version needing upgrading. Get past that and you find out this control has been subsumed into that module and the thing you use most is not there anymore or the controls you use for it are different. I applaud their innovation but it's hard to find the sweet spot when it's constantly moving around.

Agreed!

 

[Greyswan]

The frustrating part of topaz is it's never the same program twice.... I may go a week or two between using it and when I come back it's a new version needing upgrading. Get past that and you find out this control has been subsumed into that module and the thing you use most is not there anymore or the controls you use for it are different. I applaud their innovation but it's hard to find the sweet spot when it's constantly moving around.

Exactly this! And almost every upgrade seems to require another payment!

Here's a sample of the problem: I started editing in Topaz and it worked perfectly fine for about twenty images and then, same settings, same bird, same background, same camera & lens, and I open the image and get this: supersaturated neon colours. I can desaturate but the colours don't come out as nice as the original. Just normal denoise and light sharpening, no colour adjustments.

The first image was also edited in Topaz, it worked fine for a number of images.

I have a pretty high-end computer, and have no problems with any other apps running on it, I also don't run a lot of apps at the same time.