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  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

Digital Processing Issues and Fixes: NEW Topaz upsampling product: A.I. Gigapixel

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Hi Mike
Interesting, I read your article on your blog and am downloading the trial version and do my own trials…
Thanks for the info and be sure I'll use your own coupon if I decide to buy it.
I'm used to enlarge my Pentax 645Z files for large prints, so I'd love even better enlargements than my own recipes…
 
The process is a bit slow, but the results are amazing! I suspect the app will be optimized further as time goes on.

I need to try this on my 2011-build Hackintosh (i7, 16 gigs RAM, dedicated graphics card).
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Mike,

There is a whole academic pursuit of image enlargement and finding ways to make boundaries and transitions appear genuine and detailed textures true to life.

So this Topaz process needs to be compared with competitive acknowledged current leaders so we know where this excels or is lacking.

Are there any such critical reviews?

Asher
 
Asher, I haven't come across a high-level review to date, but the person who spearheaded the development posted some info here.

I may just have to fire up all these type of apps and see what I can find out!
 
Thanks Nicolas!

Update V1.0.2 has the following changes:

New Features:
- none

Bug Fixes:
- Custom ratios did not work correctly
- Start button was not enabled when size was measured in inches
- Installer would stall after user accepted terms and conditions
- Saved as 72ppi instead of original resolution
- Underexposure of processed images has been improved

GUI Modifications:
- none
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Thanks Nicolas!

Update V1.0.2 has the following changes:

New Features:
- none

Bug Fixes:
- Custom ratios did not work correctly
- Start button was not enabled when size was measured in inches
- Installer would stall after user accepted terms and conditions
- Saved as 72ppi instead of original resolution
- Underexposure of processed images has been improved

GUI Modifications:
- none

I dunno if it's user's fault or a bug… The app processes HDR DNG files ("cooked" with PEF files from Pentax 645Z) issued from LR, but the resulting file, while openable cannot be used (blurred as if it did process a thumbnail)…
Any Idea?
 
I dunno if it's user's fault or a bug… The app processes HDR DNG files ("cooked" with PEF files from Pentax 645Z) issued from LR, but the resulting file, while openable cannot be used (blurred as if it did process a thumbnail)…
Any Idea?

Hi Nicolas,

Probably nothing to do with the user, but rather with the (Version 1) software. I'm excited by the new software because it allows (provided one's hardware is supported) to improve the perceptual quality of large format output. It also can make more usable output from small images/crops.

The technology they use is not new, but they allow the user to process the images on his/her own location, instead of having to upload to a powerful server somewhere in the world, have it processed there, and then allow to download the result (which can take a while for large files). It does require a lot of horsepower on the local machine, and then still takes some time due to the trillions of calculations that are required per image.

This being a Version 1 of this application, there are certainly some initial issues that need to be encountered for the first time since its release, and then resolved. But in my experience with the folks at TopazLabs, they try to respond to service requests and usually get things fixed.

Also make sure to verify any potential hardware incompatibilities here.

So I suggest to send them a message and a link to an example HDR DNG output from LR. Meanwhile, you can render to a TIFF output and process that with A.I. Gigapixel.

Cheers,
Bart
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Also make sure to verify any potential hardware incompatibilities here.

Hi Bart
Glad to hear from you!
Yes I did check, the tests I've done were with a Macbookpro with a Intel*Iris*Pro 1536 Mo graphic card.

With this -A-I-Gigapixel I did process tiff 16 bit files as well raws (Pentax PEF) with very good results.
Processing raw files needs to post prod them in another sw such as LR or other raw developper as the very HD is pleasing but not colors and lights. But the IQ permits to do that.

Within LR I have processed and exported a file to 16 bit tif to its native resolution
Within -Intel*Iris*Pro 1536 Mo I have processed the original RAW to 200%
Within -A-I-Gigapixel I have processed the LR tif to 200%
Both were very long tasks!
The result ended with slight better results from the direct processing of the RAW
I might try and use some different processing with LR if I intend to enlarge after the tiff file later…
As I found that A-I-Gigapixel has a real powerful denoise action.

@Mike
My trial (further to the above) was :
Within LR (latest Adobe Lightroom Classic CC 7.5 version, ran by macOS 10.13.6 - High Sierra):
Fuse 5 PEFs files into a DNG HDR
Processed the resulting file with -A-I-Gigapixel
Tooks a while…
Opened the multi Mb Tiff made by -A-I-Gigapixel in Adobe Photoshop CC 2018 (and also with LR).
File opens but the image is deeply blurred as if I had processed a thumbnail.
Unusable.

Computer:
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15 inches, mi-2015)
2,2 GHz Intel Core i7
Ram 16 Gb 1600 MHz DDR3
SSD Hard disk with 100 Gb free
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Hmmmm,
Still working with the trial, seems to be a bit buggy…
I now have to uninstall and reinstall the app before each single file processed…
Glad to have a speedy fiber optic Internet connection!
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Beautiful new work. You clearly demonstrate the potential for leveraging the beauty of small sensors to be able to make aggressive enlargements as if one has a more expensive pixel rich camera!

For those with pro cameras, this could be a magic jump to 11x14 film drum scan quality!

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
....oh and there’s a 15% discount via the link for ALL Topaz products!

Thanks for the service!

Asher
 
On another forum there was some talk of Topaz A.I. Gigapixel making it easy to grab and reuse web-sized images (for good or bad). So I did a test using my own website.

The home page image of the hawk (desktop version of the site) downloaded at 45kb (489x320px @ 72ppi). Here's what it looked like after a 600% uprez in Gigapixel (unretouched):

topazhawk.jpg
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I plan to look into this. I just have a late 2013 Grey Cylinder Mac, 3.5 GHZ 6 core with 16 GB of RAM. I think to be practical, one might need a more powerful Graphics card. But I do not know for certain as I haven’t had time to try it. I am currently considering an Akitio Thunderbolt connected supplementary GPU card.

Asher
 
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