Today Topaz is launching Sharpen AI to “help photographers create tack-sharp images in real-world conditions by mitigating camera shake, focus problems and general softness”. Topaz goes on to say, “Sharpen AI’s main differentiator vs. other sharpening tools is that the machine learning training process allows it to understand the difference between detail vs. noise. This means that it can selectively apply sharpening to just the image features it perceives as detail, which ends up in a much more natural-looking result.”
•The 2-week intro discount for Sharpen AI will be $59.99 (normal price $79.99), so take advantage of that!
To prepare this blog post I’ve been spending time testing several pre-release beta versions of Sharpen AI with various sharpness-challenged images. I shot them over the years with devices ranging from a Kodak DC265 (1-megapixel), a Minolta DiMAGE S404 (4-megapixel), an iPad 2 (5-megapixel), a Nikon Coolpix L810 (16-megapixel) up to a Canon EOS Rebel T3 DSLR (12-megapixel).
BTW, Sharpen AI is intended to replace Topaz’s earlier InFocus plug-in, since, as Topaz says, “Sharpen AI beats InFocus’s deconvolution algorithm in almost all images we’ve tested for both motion and lens blur.” As a result, Topaz is activating Sharpen AI for all current InFocus owners for free and deprecating InFocus.
Here’s what you will see when launching the new Sharpen AI: a simple interface with three processing modes (Sharpen, Stabilize and Focus) and three sets of sliders (Input Blur Amount, Input Noise Amount and Add Grain):
The split view allows you to preview the before-and-after results once you make the desired adjustments and click the Update Preview button. When you’re happy with the preview and ready for the final render, click Save As to begin the full processing, which (be prepared!) could take some time depending on your source image, settings and computer hardware.
Let’s start our examination with a shot from the Canon Rebel T3, shot with its stock 18-55 Canon zoom lens at the widest angle setting (full-frame, reduced):
The image seems reasonably sharp until you look at a section of it at 100%:
After running it through Sharpen AI with Sharpen mode settings of Blur=90, Noise=30, Grain=0, the improvement becomes apparent:
•The 2-week intro discount for Sharpen AI will be $59.99 (normal price $79.99), so take advantage of that!
Here’s another example from the Canon with the same lens, taken at a location near the one above (full frame, reduced). After running it through Sharpen AI I was surprised at how soft the original was (this is true for all of the Canon images, hmm)!
Comparing 100% crops from the original with the result of Sharpen AI’s Focus mode with Remove Blur=70/Suppress Noise=1.0, you can see the details pop as if I had used a better lens:
Here’s a zoom shot of a crow made in 2005 with the Minolta DiMAGE S404. The focus is almost there, but slightly soft (full-frame, reduced):
A trip through Sharpen AI did wonders for it (100% before-and-after view):
Note the highlight in the eye as well as the details in the feathers, also the popped detail in the branches.
Now we go back to 1999 and the Kodak DC265 1-megapixel camera. The waterfall image (flash+daylight) is both soft due to being lo-res and suffering from some subject motion, both of which problems were improved with Sharpen AI in Stabilize mode (100% crop views, original first):
•The 2-week intro discount for Sharpen AI will be $59.99 (normal price $79.99), so take advantage of that!
The Nikon Coolpix L810 gave me this mushy handheld evening shot. Here is a 100% crop from the larger scene (which you can see in the Sharpen AI interface screenshot below):
Sharpen AI‘s Focus module helps restore a majority of the original detail while removing noise. There are some artifacts present, but I expect the final build and subsequent updates to improve on this:
The palm tree shot below was taken in similar circumstances as the one above but with the Canon EOS Rebel T3, a handheld and zoomed in grabshot. Here we are dealing with motion blur (camera shake) even more than focus softness. Sharpen AI‘s Stabilize module was used to undo most of the damage. 100% crops from a larger image, before and after:
And now for the iPad 2 shots! I was on break during jury duty back in 2013 and took photos outside the courthouse. Of course the results were mushy, but Sharpen AI‘s Focus mode salvaged the shot for the most part (before and after):
Finally: Will Sharpen AI work miracles? Maybe not, but it’s really trying, even in its pre-release form! I am excited to see where this technology will go as it develops.
Here’s the zoom/focus-challenged Nikon Coolpix L810 up to its tricks again, and a fine college try by Sharpen AI (in Focus mode) to recover some detail from the mess. The results remind me of Gigapixel technology!
(Note: Topaz is actually using this image to train the AI in an upcoming release of Sharpen AI and they eventually expect to offer even better results.)
Note: Sharpen AI will run as a standalone or directly as a plugin to Photoshop/LR or as a standalone application. It’s not a Topaz Studio Adjustment or Gigapixel-style batch processor. Topaz will be using this format in the future for utility-type applications such as sharpening and noise reduction.
•The 2-week intro discount for Sharpen AI will be $59.99 (normal price $79.99), so take advantage of that!