Editing pictures can be a real hassle if you don’t have the necessary knowledge and skill sets. But with the appearance of artificial intelligence, a lot of solutions for this task are starting to appear, and with this Topaz photo AI review, I will introduce you to one of them. This article will contain everything you need to know about this platform to form a solid opinion.
Topaz Labs is a company that develops enhancement software to improve the overall quality of your photos and videos. It offers a wide variety of tools, including Gigapixel, Sharpen, and Photo AI. These applications are ideal for both beginners and professionals who want to one-up their game and achieve a faster, more efficient workflow.
Additionally, if you enjoy uploading videos to any platform and need assistance with editing and, for example, adding subtitles - Pictory is perfect for the job. Moreover, if you like posting photos on your personal blog, Writesonic can help you produce written content using its high-quality, AI-powered tools.
That being said, is Topaz really the application you’re looking for? Let’s dive in and see.
Verdict at a glance: Topaz Lab is great for people who want to efficiently enhance their video and photo quality. From sharpening and increasing the resolution of your pictures with an all-in-one Photo AI tool to supercharging your footage by reducing the effect of low shutter speeds in fast-moving scenes, among other features. On the other hand, Topaz is not perfect and is receiving some backlash for producing abandonware and forgetting about old projects.
Pros
- An all-in-one fully automated editor
- Wide selection of tools
- Interface fitting for both beginners and experienced
- One-time payment
Cons
- Abandonware production
Table of Contents
- 1. What is Topaz Photo AI?
- 2. Topaz Review: PROS
- 2.1. Wide Array of Tools
- 2.2. All in One - A Fully Automated Tool
- 2.3. Interface Fitting for Beginners
- 2.4. Great Overall Performance
- 3. Topaz Review: CONS
- 3.1. Abandoned Tools
- 4. Topaz Pricing
- 5. How to Use Topaz?
- 5.1. How to Sign Up on Topaz?
- 5.2. A Quick Start Guide for Using the Topaz Photo AI Application
- 6. Topaz Photo AI Review Conclusions
What is Topaz Photo AI?
Before I explain what Topaz Photo AI is, it’s important to understand that it combines the Gigapixel, Sharpen, and DeNoise features into one application, and it offers less individual flexibility and control over each tool compared to when they are used as separate platforms. Therefore, if you care about all the small details in your photos, take this into consideration.
That being said, to make this Topaz Photo AI review useful, let me quickly overview what exactly it’s designed to do. To put it simply, it was developed to enhance image quality and resolution based on a deep understanding of the contents of your picture. We will dive deeper into this topic a little bit later when we get to the pros chapter.
Nevertheless, before we continue, let me just mention that Topaz Photo AI offers a very clean and easy-to-use interface. It includes only a few controls for each tool, making it straightforward and beginner-friendly. Additionally, because most of the work is handled automatically by AI algorithms - hence its name, “Autopilot”, it allows people to seamlessly edit their photos.
One last thing to mention is that Topaz Photo AI is compatible with both Mac and PC. It enables you to process multiple images simultaneously on its own, or you can integrate it with Photoshop to enhance your workflow. The company has also collaborated with tech giants like Nvidia, AMD, and Intel to ensure that the software runs quickly and efficiently on your computer.
Topaz Review: PROS
Now that we know a little more about this application, the next step in this Topaz Photo AI review is to discuss the platform's pros and cons.
With that said, let’s begin by looking at the pros.
Wide Array of Tools
In this chapter, we will explore all of the platform's tools more deeply to make this a truly useful Topaz AI review.
Let’s begin the overview with Topaz AI's upscaling feature, Gigapixel. This application assists people like photographers, who can use this platform for better printing, cropping, restoration, and more. Topaz Gigapixel AI performs several image processing steps to enhance details and resolutions to achieve razor-sharp photos[1] that are especially suitable for large-format prints.
With this feature, you can also improve the graphics in fur and feathers, improve textures and create smoother edges, add fine, realistic and natural details, and create cleaner lines to improve graphic art.
Moreover, if you also need to recover low-resolution portraits, digitally zoom without loss of clarity, fix extreme pixelation and compression artifacts, clean up low-quality line art and PNGs, and restore subtle elements in vintage photographs, Gigapixel will do everything for you.
Another feature on this Topaz AI review is called DeNoise. The tool is designed to eliminate noise while recovering real detail to get the best possible image quality. This is another Topaz AI upscaling feature that you can utilize manually, especially if you want to get sharper images or recover faces.
As mentioned at the beginning of this Topaz Photo AI review, DeNoise is 1 of 3 applications within the Autopilot software. This solo tool uses deep learning algorithms to process millions of pictures and learn how to accurately distinguish between real image detail and noise. Therefore, allowing you to denoise photos while actually recovering important aspects.
To make this an even more extensive Topaz Labs review, let me tell you that many other noise reduction applications typically filter your photos through complex math operations, inevitably resulting in the loss of important elements. This AI platform is fundamentally different since it can actually improve true image quality by removing noise while restoring detail.
That being said, let’s do a quick Topaz Sharpen AI review. This application works differently by targeting and reversing three specific types of blur to create much more natural results:
- Motion - trained to reduce motion blur caused by a shaky camera or moving subject.
- Focus - trained to reduce lens blur caused by missed focus. However, this is the toughest use case and won’t recover 100% of your photos.
- Softness - trained to give already-good images that extra “pop” while making sure they stay natural.
When doing a Topaz Sharpen AI review, it’s important to mention that a lot of people utilize this application for reviving old pictures and recovering special memories. This platform is also widely used among photographers, social media personas, or just someone who uploads content since it greatly increases the overall quality of your photos and makes them look sharp.
Last but not least is Topaz Video enhanced AI trained with millions of footage frames and designed to understand the difference between noise and detail. This tool is able to recognize people's faces and knows exactly how to correct them.
Moreover, Topaz Video-enhanced AI can keep the focus on your subject, not on the camera shake, stabilizing the frame and recovering details lost by unwanted movement. It can also reduce blur caused by motion and slow shutter speeds.
Before we dive into the next chapter about the pros of the Topaz Photo AI and review the application, since we are on the topic of videos, let me highlight and recommend a platform that could prove useful for people who also require assistance in generating and editing footage.
Pictory is an excellent software that offers a free trial, allowing you to test its services and determine if they meet your needs. Additionally, if you have a blog page where you post videos or photographs and enjoy writing regularly but feel like the content could use some additional work around the edges, allow me to introduce you to a platform capable of helping - Writesonic.
All in One - A Fully Automated Tool
Naturally, as promised at the beginning, we will finally dive deeper into the star of this article and do a proper Topaz Photo AI review. We have already briefly overviewed how this tool functions and what it does, but that was only an introduction. This application is great for maximizing the visual quality of your pictures with one of the best noise and blur reductions in the world.
Topaz Photo AI was designed to provide a quicker and more reliable way for the user to resolve the issues affecting image condition by applying the most suitable methods. The platform was built to seamlessly integrate into your existing post-processing workflow, no matter the type of file you will be working with, whether it’s JPEG or RAW.
In this Topaz Photo AI review, it’s also important to mention that sometimes the application will require interventions to get the results you’re looking for. Hence, the developers have built manual controls, allowing you to dial in specific settings precisely the way you prefer. However, do note that they are limited and do not provide as much control as it does for the separate tools.
Furthermore, the Topaz Labs Photo AI model has been trained and refined for years to address some of the most common problems that make images look bad. With Autopilot, they are determined to take a step further by designing the software to automatically analyze the pictures and apply the right models and settings, giving you more time for creative edits.
That said, to make this a good Topaz Photo AI review, let me explain how the application works. Referred to as Autopilot, it’s created to analyze each image intelligently. By combining the power of Topaz Gigapixel AI, DeNoise, and Sharpen, the platform improves the quality of the photo you’d like to enhance.
Autopilot will report all of the crucial information about the image, such as detected subjects and faces. Topaz Photo AI will begin the enhancement process by first detecting noises, including luminance, color, or mixed, as well as motion or lens blur during capture. Then, it proceeds to automatically select and apply specific denoise and sharpen models with automatic settings.
Furthermore, if the photo contains people, you can proceed to use Topaz AI for upscaling the faces in the image, as the platform will detect all of them and automatically apply enhancements to all detected low-quality faces.
One of the last steps that the Autopilot will perform is detecting the most noticeable subjects in the picture. Based on their sharpness, it may apply sharpening to them, allowing them to stand out.
This is a new detection approach that allows Autopilot to use the most appropriate remedies for specific portions of the picture. For example, the Topaz Photo AI feature may apply both denoise and sharpen models to the automatically detected subject and only apply denoise to the background.
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Interface Fitting for Beginners
Now that we have the features out of the way, to make this a great Topaz Photo AI review, let’s also examine the application's user interface.
The whole layout can look a bit daunting when you first open up the application, giving off the feeling of a professional tool you would use to enhance your images. However, even if you are a beginner who has no prior experience in the field of editing or upgrading the quality of pictures, there is nothing to be afraid of since the application is friendly and provides intuitive navigation.
Additionally, since we are talking about user interface, it's important to take into consideration the so-called "Autopilot" feature. The name itself does most of the explaining. Since this tool is fully automated (as per its name), you are not required to do anything manually unless you want to play a bit with the settings.
If you are someone who has more experience with editing images and would like to be in charge of the overall process, as I mentioned before in this Topaz Labs review, the Autopilot is basically 3 different applications combined into one. Hence, if you require more control over how the photo will be customized, you can use those tools separately.
That said, Topaz Sharpen AI, Gigapixel, and DeNoise can be great applications for professional photographers or anyone who enjoys taking pictures and sharing them, whether on social media, in blog posts, or simply to enhance and revive old pictures for the sake of preserving memories.
These features can be integrated into other image editing and catalog software, including Lightroom Classic, Photoshop, Capture One, Apple Photos, Affinity Photo, and other applications, greatly increasing the versatility and efficiency of this platform.
Moreover, it needs to be mentioned that the further development of Topaz Sharpen AI and DeNoise has recently been discontinued, and they no longer receive updates. More on that later, when we reach the cons chapter.
Lastly, one more thing needs to be mentioned about the Topaz Photo AI review on its user interface, since this feature makes your job so much easier. It’s called “Batch Processing”, which is designed to process your images in groups, saving a lot of time for people who want to increase the quality of multiple pictures at once.
Great Overall Performance
When it comes to the speed of the Topaz Labs Photo AI, it’s safe to say that this feature is impressively fast at editing any image that lacks sharpness or is too noisy. It proves to be significantly faster to use this standalone tool than the 3 separate applications just because you save a lot of time opening each of the platforms and saving the files.
The reason Topaz AI upscaling is so good is that it knows which AI edit to perform first. Therefore, it is much easier and faster for people who are not entirely sure what step sequence to take if they were to use Gigapixel or Sharpen.
Furthermore, in this Topaz AI review, it’s also important to evaluate the quality of the platform. If you want to make sure that you’re making the right choice when picking an application, a great way to do research on the software is by reading other user reviews.
That being said, when I entered "Topaz AI review" into the search bar, I saw that many users praised its quality. The majority of them were Topaz Photo AI reviews, and of course, it’s not worth hiding that some of the comments weren’t all that pleasant, but there were only a few of them, which is definitely a good sign.
Nevertheless, there is a significant issue with the application's output quality. The Topaz Labs Photo AI struggles with upscaling faces covered by helmets, scarves, hats, or any other kind of clothing attribute. Often, the original version looks better than the edited results.
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Topaz Review: CONS
Now that I have told you about all of the good parts in order to make this a fair Topaz Photo AI review, let me mention the drawbacks. However, truth be told, I didn’t find a lot of issues with the platform, and the only thing that bothered me was the rising number of abandonware that this company has.
Abandoned Tools
While I didn’t see many drawbacks with the application, I have noticed a repeating pattern within the company itself: the abandonment of past projects that were actually successful and for which people paid money. I briefly touched on this in the pros chapter, but now, let’s explore this issue more thoroughly.
Let’s begin by addressing the fact that you are still able to download these applications, which are referred to as “Legacy Programs”. Examples include Topaz Mask AI and Topaz Adjust AI. The Legacy programs are discontinued applications that the company no longer develops or sells.
The main issue is that these programs no longer receive updates. As time goes on, they become increasingly outdated. Therefore, due to changes in operating systems, hardware, drivers, or conflicting software, they are likely to stop working in the future.
In 2020, the company made the decision to focus on its quality applications and decided to discontinue its “creative” apps. This decision left many users dissatisfied, particularly those who were accustomed to tools like Topaz Adjust AI and had invested money in them. Having multiple abandonware projects can damage the trust that people have in the apps.
That said, unfortunately, the Topaz Mask AI and Topaz Adjust AI weren’t the only discontinued applications. Quite recently, DeNoise and Sharpen were abandoned as well since the developers decided to focus fully on Photo AI.
Topaz Pricing
Another crucial thing to go over in this Topaz Photo AI review is the pricing for all of the platform’s tools.
The first thing that needs to be mentioned is that, as you already know, Topaz Mask AI and Topaz Adjust AI are discontinued, and because of this you are no longer able to purchase these services as they are completely removed from the platform. Nevertheless, if you had previously bought one of these tools, you are still able to download it, but with a chance that it won’t work.
Furthermore, even though Topaz Sharpen AI and DeNoise are placed on the legacy list, you can still purchase them at $199 each. But remember that they can stop working at any time, so do it at your own risk.
That said, if you were confused as to why people who have previously purchased Topaz Mask AI and Adjust are still able to download them, it’s because once you own the version you bought, you can access it forever.
It sounds pretty cool, doesn’t it? But there is a catch: You will also receive only 1-year of updates, and after that period passes, if you’d like to upgrade your application, you will have to pay an additional fee.
Now that all of the small details are out of the way, let’s examine their pricing. They offer 3 main services in their product list. The first one is the Topaz video enhance AI application, also known as “Video AI 5”, which is priced at $299. As for the upgrade, at the time of writing, it currently costs $149.
Then, there is the Topaz Gigapixel AI, an image enhancement software that uses machine learning algorithms to interpret the grayscale values of each target pixel[2]. It is priced at $99, with upgrades available for $79.
Before I tell you the cost of the last platform, keep in mind that, as they state on their website, if you are not satisfied with your purchase for any reason, you can contact them within 30 days of the payment to request a full refund.
Lastly, the Topaz Labs Photo AI application comes at $199, and the upgrade is offered for $99, which, as mentioned, extends your upgrade license for 1-year. Here is the list of available plans and their prices in one place:
Platforms:
- Photo AI 2 - $199/one-time payment;
- Gigapixel 7 - $99/one-time payment;
- Video AI 5 - $299/one-time payment.
Upgrades:
- Photo AI 2 - $99;
- Gigapixel 7 - $79;
- Video AI 5 - $149.
Additionally, it also provides a free demo to try out the services beforehand, so if you are not sure about purchasing one of the platforms, be sure to test it first.
How to Use Topaz?
So far in this Topaz Photo AI review, I have covered topics like “Topaz Sharpen AI review” and pretty much all of its other applications. However, that is not all. I believe it’s also important to go over the sign-up process and give you a quick guide for the setup.
How to Sign Up on Topaz?
The process for signing up is simple and straightforward. It will look like any other application you’ve registered on.
Step 1: To create a new account, you will need to head to their website and access the dashboard. Afterward, you’ll need to click on the “Account” button, which is seen at the top right corner.
Step 2: You will then be taken to the login page, where you must press “Create an account”. After that, you will be prompted to enter your email.
Step 3: Finally, to access your account, you will need to check your email and complete the registration process by pressing on the link they sent and choosing a password.
Now you’re all set. You can either proceed with purchasing one of the services, like Topaz Gigapixel AI, or you can try the free demo first to see if the services fit your needs.
A Quick Start Guide for Using the Topaz Photo AI Application
Since this article is mainly about the Topaz Photo AI review, I will only provide the quick start guide for this application. However, the whole process will look almost identical to every other platform they have. Therefore, even if you are interested, let’s say, in Topaz Gigapixel AI, this quick start guide should still prove useful.
Step 1: This step is important, and you should probably take it before making a payment unless you are very confident about your device's computational power. First, make sure that your computer fits the system requirements and will be able to run Topaz Photo AI or any other application.
Step 2: When you make sure that your device is strong enough to fully utilize any of the software, the next step is to install it.
In this Topaz Labs review, it’s also important to mention a minor disclaimer: The model files will be double-zipped to safeguard proprietary data. Hence, this may trigger alerts from certain security applications that impede model file downloads. In case it happens, Topaz recommends temporarily disabling antivirus, firewall, VPN, or proxy before the installation.
Step 3: The last step before you can utilize the tools is to activate the application. As mentioned multiple times, each software program has a free trial version. It has all the same functionality as the paid version except for exporting processed images, as they will add a definitely visible watermark.
That said, if you have a license, you will need to click on the “Activate” button. This will open your browser, where you can log in with your account credentials. Afterward, you should be all set to use Topaz Photo AI.
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Topaz Photo AI Review Conclusions
This is the end of my Topaz Photo AI review. If you have read the entire article, you should now understand most of the applications this platform offers, including Gigapixel, Sharpen, and DeNoise. Naturally, since this review primarily focused on the Photo AI tool, more information is available about this software than the others.
Moreover, don’t forget that if you’re a photographer who likes to upload photos to your blog but you’re not confident in writing, the previously mentioned Writesonic application could definitely prove useful. Additionally, if you need assistance with editing videos, adding subtitles, or creating voice-overs using artificial intelligence, Pictory can handle these tasks for you.
That said, if you have read the whole Topaz Photo AI review or at least opened the pricing chapter, you will know that the applications don’t come at a small price. Therefore, don’t be too quick to jump the gun and give it some thought, seeing as it is not the only software capable of providing top-notch services for enhancing images and videos.
The content published on this website is not aimed to give any kind of financial, investment, trading, or any other form of advice. BitDegree.org does not endorse or suggest you to buy or use any kind of AI tool. Before making financial investment decisions, do consult your financial advisor.
Scientific References
1. S. Le Mouélic., O. Gasnault., K. Herkenhoff., et al.: 'Using deconvolution and machine learning to improve MSL Curiosity images: application to ChemCam and MAHLI';
2. P. J. Straight., P. M. Gignac., W. J. Kuenzel.: ‘A histological and diceCT-derived 3D reconstruction of the avian visual thalamofugal pathway’.