I watched a promo video where they took a horribly out of focus shot where nothing was recognizable and used Sharpen to turn it into a completely focused shot.

That said, it's not magic, and I think Topaz sometimes oversells the results. I did one shot of myself from a fair distance where I was fairly out of focus, and it did an amazing job of producing a natural result. For those skeptical about upscaling (as I was) I'd recommend checking it out - it's not just pixel interpolation. Fewer artifacts and just seems more natural overall (I need to play with my workflow Sharpen may be good AFTER upscaling). Frankly, I'm not sure if I'll use Sharpen that much any more as Gigapixel seems to do a better job of sharpening through upscaling. So much so that I went ahead and bought the whole suite on a black Friday sale (ended up around $200 with a coupon and they credited me some since I already had Sharpen and Denoise). I'd recommend it as well if you can get it on sale.īut I just downloaded Gigapixel yesterday to try it out (you get 30 days to try it) and I'm hugely impressed. Sharpen is very good as well, but it is only helpful on 50-60% of my pics (although updates throughout this year have improved it significantly, and they seem to be continually refining it). Denoise is great - I strongly recommend it. Mask was ok, but not great - it made things a LITTLE easier than in Ps, but not a whole lot, and didn't seem worth the price. I downloaded the first 3 earlier this year and ended up buying Sharpen and Denoise. I have a good deal of experience with Topaz Sharpen, Denoise, and Mask, and a little with Gigapixel. That's just my personal opinion for what it's worth If it's too much, then combined with oversaturation, it starts to look like a cartoon drawing, especially geometric shapes with high contrast edges and areas with high dynamic range. Now for continuous tone prints, it's not as bad but that's how a lot of these programs create detail, by edge sharpening.

Then it really sticks out when it's put on a press. For my industry, that's a bad thing because the printing process 'sharpens' (or adds contrast) by default because of how it puts ink to substrate. When sharpened too much, they get what we call white line/black line, meaning on the highlight side, you get a glowing halo and the shadow side, the line turns black even though it may have a color to that edge. I'm sure some people like it but it's not for me. I've seen what some people do with RAW files and there seems to be a trend of oversaturated colors, oversharpening, and colors breaking harshly. Topaz has a lot to offer and a lot to recommend it.I've been doing commercial/professional imaging for over 25 years. The treatments give it intensified color and beauty. It's commonly treated, which is okay with us. An eight on the scale of hardness, it can easily stand up to regular wear. Topaz has been around for many centuries, and although not as well-known as the big four precious stones, it has its own, well-deserved following. Some April babies wear white topaz as an alternative to the more expensive diamond. Topaz is also a popular birthstone, as blue topaz is December's primary birthstone and yellow topaz is a birthstone option for November. Plus, it's a knockout when paired with many colored stones. Why? Because it delivers a winning one-two punch of wear-ability and affordability. Whichever you choose to brighten your day, the topaz blues are well-liked, gorgeous, and affordable. Described as vibrant, electric, or super blue, Swiss blue topaz can be compared to the rich colors of the Caribbean Sea. Swiss blue is one of the prettiest and most popular of the blue topaz with its intense blue color range. London blue is a darker-blue tone and Swiss blue is the bright, electric, more vibrant blue of the three. Sky blue is very much like aquamarine in its color range. The stones in the blue shades of topaz are Sky Blue, Swiss Blue, and London Blue.

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