Gigapixel vs Topaz Photo AI - Which is the Best for Upscaling

[@JeffGarris]

This was EXACTLY what I was looking for! Thank you for this very clear and thorough comparison video.

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

Thanks, glad it was helpful!

[@mala8671]

Thanks, great video. Exactly the information i was looking for.

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

Great to hear! Thanks for stopping by.

[@michiuno2238]

excellent review - exactly what I was looking for - thank you!

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

Glad it was helpful!

[@alanmaher]

When would you apply upscaling and noise reduction? Before tone adjustments, after tone, or after final color and effects adjustments ??? 🤔🤔🤔

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

Hi Alan. Depends on the Photo. In regards to the test photos - they are untouched Raw files and processed only with the software on test. Generally speaking, I'd optimize my photos before upscaling. Upscaling is the last step for me. Thanks for dropping by.

[@mcresearch]

After getting besieged with ads for Gigapixel and Photo AI, and not being able to sort out the hype, your video cleared up my confusion. Thanks.

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

No worries Mcresearch. Thanks for dropping by!

[@TGameplay4k]

Great info , but the audio was really painful, thanks tho.

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

Yeah, sorry about that. I had just bought a new mic and, as you noticed, I didn't use it properly.

[@alexeimuravsky]

Thank you for this video, it was straight to the point & helped me decide what to get!

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

Thanks Alex - glad it could be some help.

[@sonicetobehere4343]

i am glad i watched this. Just renewed my photo AI license and Gigapixel is also expired. Now I won't waste my money on the Gigapixel. Thank you!!

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

I'm really pleased I could save you some hard-earned! Thanks for writing.

[@anamariagonzalezsalguero7804]

Appreciate the thorough review and wonderful information. Thanks!

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

Thanks a lot, I hope it helped you with your decision.

[@TuncayYILDIRIM-dv1kv]

Thank you! It was very helpful review.

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

Thanks for watching - I hope it helped!

[@DMillervideo]

What about the abscence of Face recovery in Photo AI? If I only have Photo AI, am I ever going to wish I had the face recovery feature from Gigapixel?

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

Hi DMillervideo. Photo AI also has face recovery so no need for Gigapixel in this context.

[@jameskay574]

Well done! Short and to the point...

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

Thanks James - hope it was useful.

[@joaodasilva8008]

Thank you for the advice

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

Thanks for dropping by!

[@linsi879]

Thank you that was super helpful 👏 👍🏽

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

You're welcome!

[@RA-nm9xu]

Excellent synopsis! The Topaz site itself is very confusing and makes it seem like you should buy both products. You point-out that buying both is not necessary. Thank you!

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

Glad it was helpful!

[@remypascal4872]

@@silentpeakphoto1845 Thanks so far, is something out there, that can upscale out of a photo series? Combining the informations of three for example.

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

@@remypascal4872 Hi there. I suppose you could do a hyper-zoomed panoramic stitch (GigaPan?) - this used to be a big thing and was famously used to take a shot of Obama's inauguration. Technically speaking, camera's with multishot and high-res mode do this in camera with pixel shift. However, I found Gigapixel to produce better results than my OM-1's pixel-shifting high-res mode. silentpeakphoto.com/gear/cameras/camera-guides/high-res-mode/

[@marcinsarna1653]

Hi, one question. Can I use all topaz photo ai functionalities in batch? Think is I would like to run it on windows vps with bulk processing.

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

Hi Marcinsarna. You can enhance one image and then replicated those settings to multiple other images. Perhaps more usefully, you can also apply AutoPilot to multiple images at once. You can also save and apply Presets in Batch. Maybe I'll do a video :)

[@louis4535]

I read that the upscaling on gigapixel was better than photo AI. Is there any truth in this? Thank you for the video.

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

You're welcome. I've found Gigapixel and Topaz Photo AI to produce near-identical results upscaling good quality images. I'm guessing they use the same technology. Topaz Photo AI is better at upscaling noise-ridden and blurred images.

[@ninaehmer1091]

Being a wildlife photographer, this was very helpful.

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

Glad you liked it. For high-ISO wildlife shots, Topaz Photo AI is an absolute no-brainer.

[@RWROW]

My use case for upscaling is to prepare photos of grandkids that were originally taken on a camera phone and sent to me via WhatsApp that does a lot of compression so I'm working with images around 300KB. The weakness I've found with upscaling with Photo AI is where there was uneven lighting in the scene. Upscaling can produce odd effects particularly on bare feet and hands. Probably asking too much of such products.

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

Hi RWROW. My testing has shown that upscalers can mistake compression artifacts as detail to expand upon, creating all kinds of weird stuff! The condition of a photo appears to matter much more than its original size which isn't good news for your usecase. However, I often got decent results at smaller upscales (200% max)

[@RWROW]

@@silentpeakphoto1845 Thanks for sharing your experience. Since these small photos tend to upscale automatically between 3 and 4 times, I'll try manually setting it lower. Thanks.

[@eltonlima9383]

Hi friend, please the final file is too big, usually 6x is around 500mb why..? The original file is 2mb. Very hard to use converted file.

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

Hi Elton. I'd guess you're saving a low quality 2MB JPEG as a 6x upscaled DNG Raw or TIFF. It would be worth double checking your export settings. You can certainly export JPEGs as JPEGS with variable compression settings. Good luck my friend.

[@eltonlima9383]

@@silentpeakphoto1845 I'm using gigapixel and don't have this option friend

[@PawFromTheBroons]

In my view, if we're to just blunt force upscale and have AI hallucinate some contents, we might as well use the free ChaiNNer with the appropriate upscale models for the subject matter. So while Topaz Photo AI is more expensive, at least it has features that justify its price.

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

Hi Paw. I like your term 'hallucinate'. I think AI has purpose for functional images. But, for me, photography is a creative pursuit so I'm less inclined to handover creative controls to another intelligence.

[@dwoodwoo65]

I’m finding the new gigapixel 8 redefine option far superior to the updated photo AI. A simple test involving hands is conclusive. I’m guessing photo AI will eventually get that option but I’m guessing topaz intentionally lags photo AI behind gigapixel.

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

Hey there. Both Topaz Labs and Gigapixel have had hefty updates recently. I aim to rerun this comparison soon.

[@dwoodwoo65]

@@silentpeakphoto1845 yeah I neglected to check the new refocus on photo ai, so the jury might still be out. I look forward to your new comparison.

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

@@dwoodwoo65 Hi Dwood - I've yet to do my comparison video but my recommendation remains the same. Super Focus offers marginal gains but is slow. Gigapixel 8's Redefine and Recover are extremely slow, and unreliable. Thus, I'd still use Photo AI to upscale a blurred or noise ridden image.

[@tannguyenphoto]

your voice as deep as Ocean..

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

This comment made me chuckle. Nice one Tannguyenphoto!

[@snowiecore]

nintendo ds level of microphone quality

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

Unfortunately, it's more the user than the mic. But I'm getting better

[@Xeos77]

Why are you talking like a robot? Is very difficult to understand you

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

Sorry Xeos - I used a new mic and the sound seemed okay during the edit. I've got used to the mic now and my more recent videos sound better.