Topaz Photo AI 3 Review - Is it Worth it?

[@sdlcman1]

I tested it with a variety of photographs. The worse the photo, the better you'll like it. I took some really bad low resolution photos directly from the web just to test it and was amazed how much they were improved just by batch processing. If you have tons of decades old photos that you plan on digitizing, It would be worth it just for that.

[@AustinJamesJackson]

100%! Thanks for sharing.

[@steam-az]

hi, can this program change eye color from photo

[@PanamaCultura]

Good video! Thanks. What microphone did you used in this video?

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Rode PodMic!

[@TheKingsOutlaw]

I wish you would have demonstrated the Remove.

[@AustinJamesJackson]

I tried a few times and the processing time was so long. It took multiple minutes to even remove one small thing, and I’m using a fully loaded 16 inch MacBook Pro that is 1 year old. It’s just awful.

[@petescafidi]

I was mainly interested in the image remove function. I ended up subscribing to Canva Pro ($15 monthly) that does this in seconds, under a tab called "image grab" and another called "image erase." Hope this helps. This was a great vid as well, so thank for posting.

[@Jimbo116]

I’ve tried it, and while some photos turn out fantastic, others don’t. It really depends on the photo. However, it works exceptionally well on portraits. I do a lot of old photo restoration, and this is just one of the tools I use alongside Photoshop and Stable Diffusion. I usually like to start with face restoration in Topaz before moving on to the other steps.

[@AustinJamesJackson]

True! Thanks for sharing your experience.

[@kennycantin3872]

Just curious, have you tried doing a comparison of the Photo AI 3 noise reduction vs the new AI noise reduction in Lightroom? The reason why I ask, I've watched 2 videos in the last week that compared previous versions of the Topaz denoise to the new Lightroom denoise and Lightroom was significantly better, however both of those were filmed well before Photo AI 3 was released using older versions of the Topaz and only with denoise. If I understand correctly, the new Lightroom denoise also enhances the image so I'm not sure that's an apples to apples comparison, where as Photo AI 3 you could denoise and sharpen. Maybe that makes a difference? I've used the one in Lightroom a few times and it is painfully slow for me, so I only use it when I have to. Anyway, just wondering if you may have done that comparison and what your thoughts may be on what works better.

[@AustinJamesJackson]

I made a short video a couple weeks ago comparing and found Topaz to still be better than Lightroom.

[@kennycantin3872]

@@AustinJamesJackson thanks, I must have missed that one. Appreciate the response!

[@WesleyPinkham]

Honestly some incredible models at work here. Also, love the joshua trees in the snow. thanks for this update/review.

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Glad you like them!

[@jeffhill6278]

What MacBook do you have. I cannot upscale on my 2017 MacBook Pro due to lack of memory/processing power

[@AustinJamesJackson]

I have a 2023 16-Inch. Unfortunately these kinds of software are pretty tough on the computer.

[@jayeshtopiwala3219]

Floating panel needs to be docked on right hand panel empty space.

[@AustinJamesJackson]

👍

[@myketripp3838]

Thanks for the review. I will wait for the upgrade. They should give those who already have the program a break on the cost.

[@AustinJamesJackson]

That would certainly be nice!

[@Twobarpsi]

Do you have any experience with DXO Photolab 8?

[@AustinJamesJackson]

A little bit! I like Topaz a little better.

[@AGXJDM]

Can you compare it to videoproc converter ai? I would really appreciate it because it’s free and really good imo! 🙏 pls do

[@AustinJamesJackson]

I'll add that to the list in the future!

[@marcobrautigam9227]

How do you like this software for people that don’t have another photo editing program?

[@AustinJamesJackson]

It isn't really meant for photo editing, more meant for photo correction.

[@marcobrautigam9227]

@@AustinJamesJackson thank you

[@skyunlimitedvisualmedia]

Great in depth video and tutorial. I’ve been looking for a competent versatile program to use for my media, seeing your vid just made my verdict of choice easy. Thanks

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Glad it was helpful!

[@rogerrose4573]

How well does Topaz do with editing multiple photos? Can you do a video on how to work with multiple photos? Sports photos

[@AustinJamesJackson]

I'll keep that in mind for the next video! I haven't tried much batch editing.

[@johnchedsey1306]

Good overview of the product. I actually think I'll probably hold off another year for any "AI' software like this. I currently have the Topaz sharpening plug in which does just fine for my needs. I suspect that another year of development will bring far better software, so I'll save my money for the time being.

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Great idea!

[@fakhrifarhan]

best explanation, you just got a new subscriber😁😁

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Thanks!

[@JohnJohnson-bo5sv]

i believe if you "zoom to fit" it wont have to update the processing every time you move it.

[@AustinJamesJackson]

I'll give that a try!

[@moenesca]

Whats better overall? Photo Ai or Gigapixel? (price do not matter to me)

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Photo AI for sure. More features.

[@photography_by_henk_101]

Thanks for sharing your opinion on that topic.

[@AustinJamesJackson]

My pleasure!

[@vinceammirato]

WAIT YOU HAVE TO RENEW? We just bought for $200 yesterday. Does that mean we have to pay $200 next year?

[@AustinJamesJackson]

It’s for one year, but you do own the software. Updates are included for that year, but after that you’ll have to pay to keep getting updates. You can still use it once your subscription ends.

[@dougharder6258]

The face of the man lost a lot of definition. I think the original looked much better even with the noise. I tried the free demo and thought it did a horrible job.

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Interesting. I don’t work much with people photos so I’ll have to do some more testing!

[@the-pixel-whisperer]

I agree. The man lost definition and Photo AI turned his skin waxy. The second example, with the landscape, was unsalvageable, at least with this software. The Photo AI took the photo from "blurry" to "dizzying."

[@Rayas71]

I was thinking, I'm the only one watching how bad looks the face of the man after the denoise tool. Well, thank you.

[@DV.Digital]

Very true,. The noise gave the photo a great signature.

[@rogerbeltz2370]

Thanks for the overview. After looking at the results of the various "filters" I really don't see this software being worth $200. Even though I am still working with an old version of Photoshop (CS6) and using three old Topaz filters (actually "antique" in computer years); DeNoise, Clarity and very occasionally, Simplfy I do not see anything that I would call "amazing" with this Topaz AI. I can do pretty much the same things using this old version of PS. There's a lot more I could say but will refrain.

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Thanks for checking it out!

[@jeanettflynn]

Thanks for a great overview. I will upgrade.

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Good choice!

[@Tyger367]

There is something fundamentally wrong with the way Topaz ai uses the preview. Even if the photos have been color corrected before import it holds on to the original color. If you shoot in black and white preview/Raw it will not release the BW and exports as bw even if color shows in the app thumbnails at the bottom. The large preview in Topaz will only show BW.

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Hmmm that's interesting.

[@benjackson4086]

Pretty sure the original photo you used in the Preserve Faces example already had AI effects applied to them. More subtle than what you did afterwards, but the faces in the original already have a more subtle AI look

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Interesting. I’ll have to look into that!

[@richcox]

I love it. Those that don’t are usually overdoing it.

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Agreed!

[@Video2Webb]

Throwing in my experience so far with Photo AI 3 and my 40+ year old scanned photos, both b&w and color slide. I have Sharpen AI and Denoise AI already, just bought the Photo AI. I am finding that the Face Recovery from Photo AI is fantastic on these old pictures scanned both from prints and from neg or slide. You just won't want to spend the time picking out faces in the other two softwares to obtain the same result, even if it's possible. NB, you can deselect faces that Face Recovery finds if you want. Sometimes it's too extreme and the face is way too out of focus in the background to attempt to resuscitate. So it's nice to be able to pick and choose which faces to let the AI work on. I am finding that sometimes I need to use Denoise or Sharpen after using Photo AI in order to smooth out the whole image, OR to pick some parts that need Denoising/Sharpening using the brush. One criticism of Photo AI 3 is that the brush is incredibly slow in comparison to using a brush in Denoise or Sharpen. Don't know why it is so damn sticky yet! But its stickiness is very off-putting, hence using all three softwares on these old photos to obtain an acceptably sharp and denoised image. I am VERY grateful to Topaz Labs for these softwares when it comes to historic images!

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Thanks for sharing all this great info!

[@steam-az]

hi, can this program change eye color of person

[@Video2Webb]

@@steam-az Not that I know of.

[@batex3]

Sounds like not worth $200 to upgrade for the year, since Lightroom’s noise reduction and sharpening is improving (and it only costs me $120 for the year for LR and PS) there is less need to have both

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Yeah I’d agree if you don’t demand the absolute best results! The difference is very little.

[@NickOchoa]

I don’t see any special effects or tools that this offers that windows photo editor has built in or your phone being either iPhone or android.

[@AustinJamesJackson]

You definitely can't get noise reduction and upscaling like this on a phone.

[@HanSolocambo]

TIme to process 1 image is ultra fast. But good luck batching 20+ images. The more you batch the slower it gets (from 1s. for an image to more than 1 minute for an image). Topaz WAS good. Now it's shit. (EDIT: latest version Topaz Photo AI 3.0.2 fixed that issue and one can now batch process any amount of image without slow down, aka GPU memory is, at last ! properly refreshed)

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Yeah that makes sense. I don’t do much batch editing, but I’ll have to give it a shot.

[@KeytoKungFu]

Simple answer yes

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Yup!

[@jamesheller9185]

5:00 dude that was clearly motion blur

[@AustinJamesJackson]

That is lens blur in my opinion.

[@Colorado4x4]

Bro that guy on the left already had AI face!!! 😂😂😂😂

[@AustinJamesJackson]

😂

[@timkasper544]

Stop moving the slider so fast

[@AustinJamesJackson]

You're welcome to pause and play the video if you'd like it to go slower.

[@fakeaccount3415]

Reduce the playback speed

[@veggiebroth5542]

Lmao this guy's talking like he's watching a live video

[@taijitu123]

Agree on gong slower with the slider. It was making me nauseous with the high speed back and forth.

[@Rajphotos_usa]

Hope one day Adobe will buy topaz and add it in Lightroom & Photoshop instead of us doing subscription for a subscription….LOL

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Maybe, but doubtful since they have their own denoising and I'm guessing sharpening is on the way.