Topaz Sharpen AI ...

[Arthur Morris]

Image #1: Sandwich Tern diving

This image was created at Fort DeSoto Park in Pinellas County, FL on the morning of 21 September 2020 during a mega-feeding spree. I used the handheld Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens (at 565mm) and the blazingly fast AF King, the Sony Alpha a9 II Mirrorless Digital camera body. ISO 640. Exposure was determined via Zebra evaluation with ISO on the rear dial as detailed in The Sony Camera User’s e-Guide and One Camera Set-up Video. 1/2500sec. at f7.1. ABW at 9:12am in mostly sunny conditions. RawDigger showed that the RAW file was marginally over-exposed.
Center Zone Continuous AF was active at the moment of exposure and worked fairly well.

As for the image, don't be shy; all comments and suggestions are welcome and appreciated.

Before you click http://www.birdsasart-blog.com/2020/...reen-captures/http://www.birdsasart-blog.com/2020/...reen-captures/ to learn more about the creation of this image, take a look at the Topaz Sharp AI screen capture in Pane 2.

with love, artie

[Arthur Morris]

As mentioned above, this image was created during the mega-feeding spree at DeSoto. The site that is often the location of such sprees is detailed in the Fort DeSoto Site Guide here. I was somewhat dismayed when I viewed the head of the tern under the Loupe in Capture One. I thought that it was soft because of motion blur. But Topaz Sharpen AI revealed that I was wrong. After first hearing about the amazing Topaz AI Plug-ins from multiple IPT veteran Larry Master and then from good friend Anita North, I finally decided that this was something I needed to get into … So I did. See the screen capture here below to learn about the effectiveness of Topaz Sharpen AI.

So why was the head unsharp?

Folks might ask, “If SONY a9 ii AF is so great, why was the head of the Sandwich Tern unsharp?” Consider that the optimized image above was cropped a fair bit from above and from our left. That means that in the original (RAW) file, the bird was farther down in the frame. That indicates that I did not pan quite quickly enough. And because of that, Center Zone Continuous AF had grabbed focus on the bird’s wings and back. With the bird angling slightly toward me, the bird’s head was in front of the plane of focus. In short, as is often the case, operator error was the culprit. Keep reading to learn about Topaz Sharpen AI magic.

Anita North showed me that there are three sharpening options in Topaz Sharpen AI, Sharpen, Stabilize, and Focus. As I originally thought that the unsharpness of the head was due to motion blur, I first tried Stabilize but that did not do much. In his recent Image Processing Webinar, Alan Murphy stated that Auto is a great place to start with Sharpen AI, and Anita North seconded that. When I hit Auto, the system picked Focus. That was when I realized that the unsharp head was not caused by motion blur, but by the fact that sharp focus was on the bird’s back and wings.

The result, as you can see in the screen capture above, was astounding. The unsharp head was rendered sharp with a single click. No crunchiness or pixilation appeared, and there were no halos. In short, Topaz Sharpen AI is a quite miraculous plug-in.

There has been lots more on both Topaz Sharpen AI and Topaz DeNoise AI in subsequent blog posts. Click on one of the active links here and enter the ARTHUR15 code at check to save 15%. And then e-mail me your receipt to get a copy of my Topaz Getting Started Guide.

[dankearl]

I realize you were using this for an example but the file is not that sharp to begin with and although
Topaz is a fine product, and I think the Denoise is great, relying on software to sharpen images
is poor photography practice IMO.
Just keep and process sharp photos, dealing with noise and exposure is one thing, attempting to sharpen files
that are not sharp is just a waste of time.

[David Roach]

While Dan has a good point, I think this is better than the usual extra round of sharpening on the head when focus misses. The OP looks great. How big is crop?

[Arthur Morris]

While Dan has a good point, I think this is better than the usual extra round of sharpening on the head when focus misses. The OP looks great. How big is crop?

This was a small crop from the top and the left. The master tif file contains 87% of the original image capture. Dan is entitled to his opinion; I disagree, however, with everything that he says but only 100%. If he opts to ignore the amazing new AI technology, that is his choice.

with love, artie

[dankearl]

I do not opt out of using new software at all, I use Topaz Denoise.
You are walking around with the latest greatest equipment, 20 grand worth
and you want to rely on $50 software to get sharp photos???
The original was not sharp and the "sharpened" version is not sharp either.
Software will not fix poor focus. You know that.
You are so good, Software is not needed.

[Arthur Morris]

Dan, As I said above, you are entitled to your option. But I disagree with what you are saying.

with love, a

[Daniel Cadieux]

I think it's safe to say that anyone would rather have it sharp in-camera, but if a software can be good enough to salvage an otherwise family-jewel type image, then bring it on. I'm sure that when AF was introduced some said it was poor practice to use it to obtain properly focused images. I would not use this on dime-a-dozen images, but for great action or unique stuff that is just a touch off, yes. Anyhow, as Artie said in the past: JIJO (junk in, junk out), so even this technology cannot make a bad picture good - although it is amazing at salvaging what would otherwise be tear-inducing oh-so-close frames.

This is not meant to defend Artie, or to push back against Dan, only offering my opinion on something that should be an excellent discussion topic.

As for the image itself, pretty darn cool, and the amount of detail recovered is downright impressive. Yes, I agree even the modified one has a bit of subject motion (in pane #2), but looks great for web posting.

[John Mack]

The first person i saw recomend this software was Alan Murphy. That was about four-five months ago. It is impressive. This is also easy software to use. I can see it saving some great images in the time to come. I really liked the before and afters on your blog with the wood storks.