Is Topaz Photo AI 3 Worth It?

➡ Try Topaz Photo AI v3.0: bit.ly/topazphotoai
Topaz Labs recently released Photo AI v3.0, which includes several "quality of life" improvements designed to make your app experience more enjoyable and customizable. But is it worth it? Let's find out!
Chapters:
00:00 - What’s new in Topaz Photo AI 3.0
00:47 - New App Icon and UI
01:56 - Customizable AI Filter Control Panels
02:50 - Adjust Color and Lighting of RAW files
04:46 - Where Photo AI falls in my editing workflow
06:37 - Saving presets
08:07 - Reordering AI Enhancement Filters
08:45 - Apply Face Recovery multiple times
#topazlabs #topazphotoai

[@johndoddato2662]

I would enjoy seeing a complete work flow using this app with masking and all various choices of enhancements available.

[@perryelder5045]

Recent convert from Lrc to LR, have used Photo AI in the past using Lrc, however to date, have not used it with LR, how about a video on a workflow between LR and Photo AI, thank you

[@RandyPollock]

Love the program, but they are going down the slippery slope of trying to do to many things...I was happy with the noise reduction, sharpening and resizing...

[@brianmatiash]

Gotta say… I agree with you 100%, Randy.

[@reefhugger100]

Me too. I love Topaz programs for denoise and sharpening, but can't conceive of using it instead of Lightroom or Photoshop. I suppose they are wanting to pull in users not using a photo editing program already?

[@TC_Conner]

I'm barely noticing any changes in my raw files when using the new featuers. Since Adobe has improved their denoise so much in Lr, I've not used Topaz Photo AI noise reduction as often as I used to. I don't have a need for upscaling my images so I don't use that feature. If I'm being honest, my workflow since around the start of this year has only been Camera RAW > Photoshop. I still keep Topaz Photo AI, ON1 Photo RAW, and Luminar Neo updated just to kind of stay in the know with all the new features they add. But, I rarely use them these days. Enjoyed watching this Brian. 👍🏼

[@MrSimonj1970]

Pretty good results, but not worth $200 IMO.

[@andyhughes073]

Hi Brian. I’d like to see how you would use Photo AI in a Lr/mobile workflow. Of particular interest is using it to enhance phone images then get them back into the cloud. I have the demo version, but have not yet been tempted to stump up the very high $199 asking price!

[@markcasebeer8273]

Brian, I enjoyed the video. I’m a Lightroom guy and love the capabilities with all of the masking tools. That said, I’m finding after my initial Lightroom workflow it easier and faster to just take my raw file to Topaz Photo to denoise and sharpen. The results speak for themself. I wish Lightroom denoise would add a sharpen checkbox to the process.

[@larrymulmed2081]

Yes, detailed "how to" would be welcome

[@MDMiller60]

Enjoyed watching. I still use topaz denoise and topaz sharpen. I remember seeing ads for Photo , but didn't really understand what it did. It seemed to be a combination of denoise and sharpen but I wasn't sure. It looks like Photo AI does both the noise and sharpen and that would be good for me, rather than having to send it to one program and then send it off to the other?

[@jfbaro2]

Is there any AI tool to enhance video that can also take (as input) some photos of the scenario and actors to use those to increase the video even further with real details that are in the photos but not in the video??

[@davep6603]

Thanks for this video. I have the latest Topaz, but question whether the results are worth it. There are also the “deals” and “sales” that Topaz offers when a new version is released that I find a turnoff, even as a customer. There are benefits to using Lr as your sole editing application, such as a simpler workflow, lower cost-and a simpler pricing model. No chasing deals, just a simple monthly subscription fee keeps you continuously updated with the latest version of Lr.

[@ScottBaker1]

I have denoise , sharpen and Gigapixel. Do you think there is any benefit to switching to photo ai?

[@brianmatiash]

The only reason why I’d say yes is because it looks like Topaz Labs is focusing development efforts on Photo AI and Gigapixel AI. I can’t even find product pages for Denoise AI or Sharpen AI on their site. They may still add updates, but I’m not sure for how long.

[@57sapke]

Great video, I compare Topaz Photo AI vs Topaz Denoise AI and for me Topaz Denoise AI is much sharper and less noise.

[@Johnthetripper]

With upscaling in Photo AI would you need Gigapixal as well? I have both, but in the future would I only need to have Photo AI to do everything.? I have all the original suite of apps and did pay for the Gigapixel upgrade, but would Photo AI cover everything now? Thanks for another great video Brian.

[@FotomakerAcademy]

For now you'd likely be fine to handle upscaling in Photo AI vs needing Gigapixel AI with the following provisos... (1) For now there may be some model differences between the 2 programs. You'd need to test like processes to see which product handles your images best. (2) Topaz may move to differentiate the functionality b/wn PAI & GAI in future. Then you'd have to decide which product (or, both) would suit your needs best. For ex., would you need to primarily upscale and print? Or, do you need to generally enhance large batches of images that you use digitally?

[@JackBeasleyMedia]

When I first saw the "preset" button, I was happy I could apply the same denoise to a larger number of images, in a batch - just like I had done with Topaz Denoise. Turns out, NO JOY. Also, it still insists on doing face recovery on every single image in the batch. Again, NO JOY.

[@FotomakerAcademy]

Have you turned Face Recovery to Off in the Preferences (Edit menu) if you don't want it to run automatically?

[@robertdane1212]

Jack I use the Lightroom denoise ai and it works great. It when doing a batch of 100 images it just takes too long. I tried to use the topaz photo ai but it will sometimes grab faces onto eh background and recovery then making them look like ghost lol. Fade recovery works well but on the correct subject and I don’t want to have to click thru every photo and pic out the faces. I just sent to batch process and only use the denoise enhancement.

[@wiriadinata]

right, they don't need to add more than denoise, sharpen and resize - just make sure it perform superb

[@DeanFetterolf]

Why does it mess up colors of RAW files? Why does it not read/apply camera profiles.

[@ZombieRofl]

Very good software if you are talking about sharpen technique. BUT if you are working with more than 100 raw files, you will notice the immense slowdowns. And crashes to.

[@alangibson3293]

YES!

[@esterix101]

definitely not. It looks like garbage from topaz ai

[@Metal_Vistas]

There's nothing in the new version to compel me to upgrade - certainly not at their asking price. Good enough is good enough, and my 'quality of life' is not contingent on bells and whistles, only on clean output.

[@reefhugger100]

I'm guessing Topaz is aiming for the customer base that doesn't use Lightroom/Photoshop. I'm not familiar with other apps enough to comment. I loved and still use Denoise, Sharpen and Gigapixel. But I can't conceive a reason to use Topaz instead of Lightroom/Photoshop for the myriad tools for lighting and color. I respect the need for Topaz to grow, but am skepical taking on the existing photo editors is a good idea. I've got Topaz Photo AI 2. Don't see any reason to upgrade to AI 3.

[@the-birdman-of-panama]

Is Topaz Photo AI 3 Worth It? No. Topaz Photo AI, at $199, might end up being the most expensive piece of software you own. Photo AI is massively overpriced for what amounts to two decent features cherrypicked from the hundreds offered by Lightroom. Photo AI costs more than Lightroom, Photoshop, and all the companion Adobe mobile apps and Adobe fonts...combined. And Topaz Photo AI is a "sneaky subscription," where you get a "perpetual" license but they'll only honor that for a year before they leave you behind or drive you to an expensive upgrade.

[@MrShaun_D1]

So I purchased the Sharpen, Denoise, and Gigapixel so doe this mean there is no more updates or you have to buy PhotoAi?

[@the-birdman-of-panama]

@@MrShaun_D1 No more updates to Sharpen or DeNoise. For the current noise/sharpening features, you would need to buy Photo AI.

[@summerbored]

The creative cloud cost $720 a year, and Lr+Ps cost $240 a year?

[@the-birdman-of-panama]

@@summerbored Lightroom and Photoshop with 20GB of photo storage cost $120/year. You can get more storage if you pay $240, but there are no other differences between the subscriptions.