Topaz Studio update: NEW AI CLEAR version >3X faster

Back in July I demonstrated Topaz’ AI Clear, billed as “the first desktop application that uses a custom AI noise model to quickly remove image noise and enhance image details.”

With the new Topaz Studio update to version 1.12.6 you get a fully updated version of AI Clear, complete with the improvements we’ve come to expect with each new release of a Topaz product. Topaz added some new items to the GUI to give you even more control over the Noise reduction and detail enhancement performance.

•Note: Topaz is not promoting a coupon code or discount for the pro version AI Clear adjustment but we are! Use coupon “plugsnpixels” here to save 15% off the retail price (this discount also applies to ALL Topaz products). The latest update is FREE for existing users, as per Topaz’s longstanding policy for all of its software.

Here’s what’s new in AI Clear:

•Auto Button: Analyzes your image to automatically pick an appropriate noise reduction model
•200%-300% speed increase with improved processing and Neural Network to give you even better quality
•New Detail Synthesis: This latest update to the A.I. models in A.I. Clear now allows the model to not only enhance existing details but actually replicate missing detail that may have been completely obscured by noise or artifacts. Now you actually can create missing pixel data with the power of deep learning neural networks
•Intelligent noise detection
•New Sharpness selector: Get even more control over the amount of sharpening applied to your image with a selector for low or high sharpness
•Various bug fixes

Using the new version of Topaz Studio and AI Clear, I revisited the noisy, slow-exposure nighttime forest fire image I took with a Minolta DIMAGE S404 back in 2003. In the screenshot below, you see the results of simply clicking Adjustments>AI Clear and letting it work by itself on Auto:

I was impressed with the original version of AI Clear but this result made me literally smile! I remembered having to tweak the sliders in the first version just a bit to fight the white spots in certain areas of this image, but not this time. They were ALL gone without any further effort on my part!

This is about the worst image of my own that I currently have on hand, but photographer Judy Gilde provided me with a RAW Canon EOS 5D Mark II image she shot in 2009 at ISO 12,800! A beautiful shot of an incoming storm for sure. But it’s a noisy, smeary mess, about the worst I’ve ever seen due to the circumstances (low-light night shot, 1/8 second exposure, high ISO, decade-old sensor by today’s standards, etc.). Here’s how the image looks (full-frame, reduced) when first opened in Topaz Studio, with no adjustments:

Now here is AI Clear doing its thing on Auto:

And I smiled again! It’s the same feeling I’ve been having when working with Topaz AI Gigapixel. These “AI” results are like nothing I’ve seen before. It’s worth seeing these results enlarged further, since AI Clear is not only removing noise, it is improving the details as well.

Normally when you use a noise removal tool, you have to accept some degree of softened details to compensate. Not so here! Let’s start at the left side of the image (moon and tree). The noise is gone, the moon looks nice and smooth and while nature itself couldn’t restore detail back to the tree leaves, AI Clear not only maintained what data was there but slightly improved the leaf area and branch edges to the point where you might think those original details were coming back:

Next we’ll examine the distant tree line. Again, detail was not sacrificed for noise removal; instead we get less noise and more detail! And this is without even attempting to Enhance Sharpness, Recover Details, add Clarity or adjust Exposure:

Here is the cloud area closer up (on Auto). The angry, gritty storm has been tamed:

Now the telephone pole, mostly recovered and reconstructed from deep in the night mist (still on Auto):

Now let’s get our hands dirty and play with the settings and sliders a bit. Here’s a much-enlarged view of the far-away trees stripped of noise, made more moody and given back some detail by using a High level of Remove Noise/Enhance Sharpness, reduced Exposure and a heightened Clarity setting:

Finally, lets zoom out and see the whole scene with some different manual tweaks in AI Clear:

Try AI Clear on your own images! They don’t have to be this bad off to enjoy improvement.

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