New Tools can Improve Old Photos (Topaz Sharpen, Gigapixel) - Even some throwaways

[zackiedawg]

I've had a few Topaz products for a while now, with Denoise being a long-time favorite, and adding Sharpen a few years back which I didn't find all that exciting until the newer AI versions really started to add some great features.  The most recent addition was Gigapixel AI which I figured I had no need for at all - why would I want to resize a bunch of photos to really big sizes?  But then I started reading around and looking at samples and realizing that I could look at Gigapixel another way - using the AI up-res abilities to enlarge smaller crops and lower resolution photos, then resizing them back again - resulting in surprising resolution and sharpness gains.  If I have a small 1400x933 crop, enlarge it by 6x, then resize back to 1800 pixels for example, the results can be much better detail, less noise, and better sharpness.

 

I have been going through various old shots in my harddrive - ones that for some reason I didn't delete even though they were not that good...some had motion blur, or missed focus, but the scene was something I really wished I had a better shot of and couldn't bear to delete them.  These were old JPGs, some heavily cropped too, so I wondered whether any of these new tools could breathe any life into those shots.  Just thought I'd share a few examples of decent improvements on some shots that were never good enough to post - some still aren't really 'gallery worthy', but show definite improvements.

 

Here's a very poor example - I was fairly new into wildlife photography, had just gotten my first DSLR, with an CCD sensor, and was using a big heavy zoom handheld for the first time, so I wasn't real steady yet and didn't realize that some of those 500mm zooms weren't optimal at full zoom and wide open apertures.  Basically, this shot had everything wrong - overexposure, poor lens quality at that distance, atmospheric distortion, motion blur...you name it!  It was a JPG, no RAW, so I had to work with this JPG original (I had cropped it a little tight on the first go-around):

 

Pulling up the uncropped original JPG, I decided to first work on bringing down the overexposed highlights, increasing contrast, and then figured Topaz Sharpen AI's 'Motion Blur' setting would be best to fix the blur in this shot.  While not perfect, it definitely was improved significantly:

 

This shot had been a missed focus - I saw the red-winged blackbird land and the heads all popped up so I tried to quickly rattle off a shot...without concentrating on my focus area...the mother bird settled down on the chicks right after, so I didn't have any chance to get the shot again, so even though my focus was right afterwards, none of the other shots had the chicks lined up so perfectly, and the whole thing was just OOF soft:

 

For this shot, I decided to use Topaz Sharpen AI's Out of Focus mode, set to normal, and tried to adjust the sliders until I had better overall sharpness on the chicks:

 

Another example of an older shot, with my first DSLR - and a lens that didn't have as good contrast...plus me not being quite as steady with the big kit yet and the focus on the old DSLR really slow compared to today - this momma raccoon with her cubs was walking towards me, so by the time I got focus confirm and shot, they weren't where they were when I focused, but already a few inches closer, resulting in not-quite-there focus:

 

A little initial work with Topaz Sharpen AI, Motion Blur mode, followed by a bump in contrast and color, yielded improved final results:

 

So how about Gigapixel AI to try to improve overall details and sharpness?  Well I had this original shot inside Bethesda By the Sea church, taken with my NEX-3 and a manual Vivitar 28mm F2.8 lens...it was a little dull, but also at ISO 3200, lacking in any fine details and a bit noisy when you tried to drill in...this is a resized original, just made smaller for the sake of posting online:

 

I ran this photo through Gigapixel AI, resized to 4x, using the 'low resolution' mode.- increasing the original 4000 pixel width photo to 18,000 pixels...then resized it back to 4000 pixels again.  After touching up the highlights and color a bit, here's the resized-for-posting end result, which has definitely gained details in all the fine lampwork, and murals and glass, while also eliminating the noise very well:

 

This was shot with my NEX-5N and 55-210mm lens - it was the first time I spotted a red-tailed hawk high up in the sky - unfortunately the lens didn't have much reach, and I had to mega-crop the shot to ID the bird...the end-result was pretty poor on details and a little soft too:

 

I decided to use Gigapixel AI again, taking the 1400x original up by 6x, giving me 8400 pixels wide...using standard mode.  I then resized that back down to 1800 pixels, bringing the shadows up a touch for better face details, and bumped the color a bit:

 

Using Gigapixel can also provide more 'detail' to work with - I know the AI is rebuilding pixels that never existed, but seems to do so fairly intelligently, so even with a small, dark, undetailed photo like this, which I snapped from my room balcony while at Disney as I thought this was a bird I hadn't ever seen before:

 

I originally had cropped heavily, and lightened it heavily - enough to confirm it was my first sighting and photo of an American Goldfinch...but my first attempt was like a watercolor.  After running through Gigapixel 6x, low resolution mode, then cropping and resizing, plus brightening and touching up the colors, the final result was still not great, but definitely less watercolor looking (still soft, but previously the wingbars and eye weren't even clearly defined), and enough to see the bird's pattern and colors cleanly, and clearly to identify as a goldfinch:

 

Just thought I'd share some processing play with some old lost photos!  Comments or questions welcomed.

 

[Crew News]

I am a longtime Topaz products user and have salvaged many less-than-great photos that were just too interesting to discard.  With masking options, bokeh for backgrounds can be maintained while the main image salvaged. 

 

The new Topaz AI products seem to average an update every month with the comparison view a real advance in options choices. 

[zackiedawg]

Here are a few more examples, messing around with both Topaz Sharpen AI and Topaz Gigapixel AI on some more older photos - for Gigapixel, to see what kind of sharpness improvements and detail improvements I could get from older photos that were a little soft, and for Sharpen AI to see how well it could correct older shots that had some motion blur, or slight out-of-focus blur.  The software is pretty impressive - both of them.  Some more examples of each...

 

Sharpen AI:

 

A meercat being fed...just not optimally sharp, taken with cheap consumer zoom lens:

 

Run through Sharpen AI, Motion blur, standard, and cropped differently:

 

Original tiger closeup, mostly softer just because of shooting through thick, fingerprint-covered glass:

 

Run through Sharpen AI in Out-of-Focus mode, standard:

 

Definite motion blur, not panned well and not enough shutter speed:

 

Slightly different crop, but mostly run through Sharpen AI in Motion Blur mode, very blurry:

 

Here's one using Gigapixel AI - took the original:

 

Then ran it through Gigapixel's Low Resolution mode, at 4x uprez...then resized back down with a slightly tighter and larger final crop:

[mskaufman]

I am following this thread.  Since I have both Lightroom and Photoshop Elements I have been trying to decide if the Topaz suite is worth the investment.

[zackiedawg]

I haven't found too many plugin suites to be worth paying for - I consider the Topaz main trio (Denoise, Sharpen, Gigapixel) to be worthwhile.  I don't know if I'd get Gigapixel on its own, but with the discount through buying all three, it's worth the add-on.  Denoise has definitely been a favorite for a long time, and sharpen has become more impressive with the updates recently over the past year or so.

[pengu1n]

Great examples, Justin! I've have denoise for years, and just upgraded to get the other 2.

[zackiedawg]

Be prepared to waste a full weekend digging through some of your old shots that were just-miss, or not up to today's standards, and seeing what you can do with them with the new tools.  It can be quite addictive!

[cruises42]

I’ve been seeing  the common night hawk flying several days over the past couple weeks. The small photo is the original, the larger photo I’ve enlarged it in the camera and played with it on my iPad. Do you think topaz can make this any better? It’s been really exciting to see them several days there were multiple ones flying over.

Edited September 20, 2021 by cruises42

[cruises42]

A couple more from a different day.

 

[cruises42]

 

[cruises42]

 

[Crew News]

Sharpen and Gigapixel have saved a lot of my "throwaways".  Just wish I had not tossed so many digital photos before i found Topaz.

[zackiedawg]

1 hour ago, cruises42 said:

I’ve been seeing  the common night hawk flying several days over the past couple weeks. The small photo is the original, the larger photo I’ve enlarged it in the camera and played with it on my iPad. Do you think topaz can make this any better? It’s been really exciting to see them several days there were multiple ones flying over.

 

 

With those examples, I think Gigapixel has a chance of pulling out some additional sharpness and possibly rebuilding some detail - by significantly enlarging, then cropping and resizing, you'll end up with better details and a larger overall image.  Topaz's sharpen tool could help a bit with one of your examples (#10) which shows some motion blur.  The examples you posted are the types where I've seen some nice results using Gigapixel - you might try it out just for fun - all of Topaz's tools give you a full function 30 day free trial...click on that and run a few through to see.  I'd probably try running them at 4x to 6x enlargement, and try both the 'standard' and the 'low resolution' methods in Gigapixel.  And a tip - I'd do any brightening, shadow boost, and color adjustments first on the original uncropped photo, then crop tight to how big you'd want the bird in the frame, and run THAT through Gigapixel.

[cruises42]

6 hours ago, zackiedawg said:

 

With those examples, I think Gigapixel has a chance of pulling out some additional sharpness and possibly rebuilding some detail - by significantly enlarging, then cropping and resizing, you'll end up with better details and a larger overall image.  Topaz's sharpen tool could help a bit with one of your examples (#10) which shows some motion blur.  The examples you posted are the types where I've seen some nice results using Gigapixel - you might try it out just for fun - all of Topaz's tools give you a full function 30 day free trial...click on that and run a few through to see.  I'd probably try running them at 4x to 6x enlargement, and try both the 'standard' and the 'low resolution' methods in Gigapixel.  And a tip - I'd do any brightening, shadow boost, and color adjustments first on the original uncropped photo, then crop tight to how big you'd want the bird in the frame, and run THAT through Gigapixel.

Thanks, I'll give Gigapixel a try.

[BoozinCroozin]

I have not tried Topaz, but I did try DXO's DeepPrime and absolutely loved it. I have not purchased one yet and trying to find out which is best for a home picture taker. I am not a photographer, but know how to use the triangle in Manual mode. Having an m43 system, one of these platforms will help tremendously. I just don't want to purchase before Black Friday because supposedly both will have an upgraded version then that is not free if you buy now.

 

Anyone use DXO and DeepPrime that can compare to Topaz?