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Hi all, my ultimate combo for better-looking pictures in general without damaging or changing artificially the look of my pictures is DxO Pureraw 2 or 3 + Topaz Focus AI (for specific areas that lack focus or sharpness like the eye of a bird for instance). Most of the time, I don't even need Topaz at all. So thank you for spreading the news about these two fantastic tools!

Thanks so much for all the effort that you put into finding noise reduction that really works. I have not been happy with Topaz Photo AI and usually use sharpen AI but I look forward to watching the video for beginner you suggested to figure out what I may be doing wrong. Looking forward to figuring all of this out with your help, of course! 🙂

I do know one thing if the remove tool is used in Photoshop it's best to do noise reduction first as the noise messes up the results of using the remove tool.

Love Topaz Photo AI. It allows me to use higher ISO settings without the worry of the noise it creates. An extra few minutes to add in my processing is worth it.

One thing that helps in Lightroom is to use different levels of noise reduction and sharpening on the subject verses the background. Still I find Topaz photo AI seems to do a better job and is less work.

I've used Topaz Photo AI since version 1.0. While I've not done comparisons like you did, it has worked well for me in almost all circumstances. I shoot a lot of photos (birds) at ISO 12800, and Photo AI has made that vast majority nearly perfect. Now, if Topaz could fix a few annoying bugs ...; but that is another story.

I use the Autopilot in Topaz Photo AI for my workflow. I shoot mostly sports so I'm dealing with hundreds to thousands of shots. I don't have the time to tweak each photo. I used to just shoot JPEG and let my D500 handle the NR. When I'm shooting outside in sunlight and my ISO's won't go above 400, I'll probably just shoot JPEG. Indoors, I'm pushing ISO 4000 to 8000, and I run my RAW files through Topaz, export JPEGs which go to Perfectly Clear (Radiant) for color enhancement. Each shot takes ~13 seconds to process (3.5 hours for a 1000 shots).

Interesting, However, I believe few need the enhancement difference provided for the $199 for topaz vs what I am paying for Adobe Photoshop & Lightroom $9.99 monthly which runs $120 year with lots of upgrades of the Adobe Software. Who knows after a year that Topaz makes a major upgrade then charges another price to get the upgrades. The average non-Photographer will be hard to find that can see the minute details between application of either software. Very interesting I will stick with Lightroom Denoise Ai which no doubt will improve over time. I do appreciate your imparting your knowledge of the various softwares available to us.

Mr. Parker, I appreciate your videos so much. Thank you! This one, however, is my least favorite. I've done the same comparison with all four, and DxO with DeepPrime XD worked better for me...at first. Lately, of the top three (Topaz Denoise is garbage so shouldn't be part of this), for me Lightroom Denoise consistently has the fewest artifacts, especially in soft bird feathers and bokeh backgrounds, followed by DxO, then Topaz Photo AI in third place. (In my experience, DxO is best with higher ISO pics, followed by the others in the same order.) Photo AI, zoomed to 100%, looks "sharpest" but exhibits by far the most artifacts for me, putting detail where there is none. I'll get the occasional win with Photo AI, like the examples in this video, but for me Lightroom customarily looks more like a photo of the actual subject and less "crunchy." Mr. Parker didn't mention that while Lightroom Denoise reduces noise, there are four other Lightroom tools to use for sharpening: Texture, Clarity, Sharpen, and Detail. Lightroom is more time-consuming, but you can get to the same sharpening place with fewer artifacts. Add in Lightroom's superior masking and you can likely get beyond the others. Plus, Topaz Photo AI, which specializes in exactly two things, costs almost double an annual subscription to Photoshop and Lightroom and the associated Adobe mobile software, fonts, and storage...combined. And Topaz is an annual subscription by any other name. They give you one year before they leave you behind and you have to pay for an expensive upgrade to keep up. I can't believe how many times I let them do that to me in the past. I must be a masochist.

thank you for explaining this noise reduction setting that you use for picture enhancement. this has been one tool ive never been able to understand. i shall be looking foreward to practising this skill to further improve my workflow within lightroom from now on. please keep sending this knowledge.

For me DXO worked better. I compared my pictures with both softwares: DXO & Topaz

Not to nitpick but "quality" was misspelled in the opener. Otherwise great tutorial!!

Thanks again for another quick "how to" video Chris! I've been self-exploring Topaz Photo AI for the past month since I downloaded it, but your in-depth tutorial of tips and tricks has sped up the learning process for me. Now I'm going digging in the archives amongst the five Nikon DSLR's I've owned to see what I can salvage! 😀I'm looking forward to using it on some high ISO shots I plan to make with my new Z8.

Thanks!

Great video, rly helpful, thank you a lot!

Other than a few hiccups along the way I have found Topaz Photo Ai far better than LrC Denoise and DXO somewhere in the middle.Thanks for the video. A final tweek with Topaz Denoise Ai doesn't go astray on some images.

or, you could use DXO and Topaz sharpen AI...Topaz has *always* oversharpened, it's been a big issue with the software since inception.

Interesting. I've been using DeNoise for years, and I actually have Photo AI and almost never use it! I think that has to change! :)

Excellent video, but I have a question: what is the name of the tool thad you use to obtain the best result?¿It is an LR plugin, I have doubts?

I like Toqaz AI. However, it’s more useful for birds than human portraits, as some artificial and unwanted details in faces.

Excellent Video.

When I heard the claim to have a secret weapon to clean photos I was ready to holler B.S. because I knew my software was the best at this and no one else can come close.... turns out Parker was talking about my favorite software and that is no B. S.

Nice tip!

Helpful tip: you might want to correct your opening shot to spell “quality”correctly. “Higher qaulity” kind of gives the wrong message. You know, that this is NOT quality. Apart from that, thanks for the information. It’s helpful.

It would be nice and encouraging if the second word to appear in this video was correctly spelled.