Topaz JPEG to RAW AI

I’m a Topaz fan, but Topaz are over-hyping their latest product, “JPEG to RAW AI”. It’s a deceptive title which has a lot to do with marketing and very little to do with reality. The program does try to make the best of a file in the JPG format, but does it create a RAW file? Emphatically not. Not even close.

This is a shame because, after forcing myself to ignore the hype and stay with the testing, I did find a program which is useful, even though it doesn’t do what it says on the tin. Here’s a look at what it can do.

Sometimes, all you have is a JPG file and no amount of wishful thinking or regret will get you the RAW file that you wish for. Some of us develop strategies to get the best out of these JPEG files, some just give up and go take another picture. But now, JPEG to RAW AI does bring something extra to the party. Whether it is extra enough to be worth paying nearly US$100 for is another question.

I did tests; lots of tests. Here is one test that is fairly indicative of them all. The original JPG file was well exposed and taken at a low ISO. Nevertheless, the results are not that pretty - this is a screenshot of a portion of the picture at 200% magnification. As you can see, it’s fairly ‘gritty’ with both JPEG artefacts and noise. On an arbitrary quality scale of 0-5, I’m going to score this at the bottom = ‘0’ (the best sample will score a ‘5’). (You may need to view the pictures larger to see the differences.)

In the second screen-shot, I applied just enough noise reduction to remove the ‘grit’. I used Topaz DeNoise 6 on a fairly low setting and then added a bit of sharpening. It’s better, the grit has gone, but now the grass is turning to mush. This is the typical noise reduction tradeoff and, depending on your personal preference, may raise the quality score to 1 or maybe a 2.

The third screenshot is what I usually do with JPEG files, I use Topaz AI Gigapixel to reduce the file size by 50% which removes most of the grit, and then enlarge by 200% which restores some clean detail using Topaz’s AI algorithms. Finally, a touch of DeNoise 6 deals with any small amount of remaining ‘grit’ while also taking the edge off of AI Gigapixel’s aggressive sharpening. The result is much better all around but, at 200% magnification, some ‘staircasing’ is evident and the very finest of detail has been lost - this is almost invisible at normal viewing magnification. For me, this jumps the quality score up to about a 4 and produces a usable file

Finally, I run JPEG to RAW AI and again, because this deals with JPEG artefacts but not actual noise, I have to add a touch of DeNoise 6, just as I did with the other samples. This deals with all the ‘grit’ in the original file, shows no ‘staircasing’ and retains the finest of detail. This is the best of all the four tests and therefore sets the upper bar of the score table at 5.

Topaz also claim an improvement in highlight and shadow recovery. Quite frankly, I could find no evidence of this beyond that which anyone can get from converting a JPEG file to a 16 bit TIFF before attempting the recovery - and you don’t need expensive software to do that.

All this creates a dilemma; JPEG to RAW AI does do a very good job but I already have AI Gigapixel and can get most of the way there without spending another US$100 on a new piece of software (which, by the way, takes several minutes to process a 20Mb JPEG file). If I can get ⅘ of the improvement without spending a cent more, then is JPEG to RAW AI worth its rather high price for that last little step? Probably not.

And, Topaz, please drop this JPEG to RAW nonsense - it’s just embarrassing and makes you look silly.

Topaz DeNoise

Over the last year or two, I have become rather reliant in my post processing on a set of software filters from Topaz Labs (http://www.topazlabs.com/). These filters encompass everything from noise reduction, through black and white conversion and tonal adjustments to special effects. They are not cheap – NZ$370 for a 10 filter bundle – though sometimes they come up on offer, and I originally brought mine for half that price. They are also available individually for those that just need just one or two filters.

I use Photoshop Elements (NZ$165) and, with Elements and Topaz combined, find no need to pay NZ$1,300 for Photoshop CS5. So, that said, I thought it worth talking about those filters that I especially find indispensable; starting with Topaz DeNoise (http://www.topazlabs.com/denoise/).

I hate digital noise. I also used to hate grain in my prints from film, but some people deliberately add grain to their digital images, so I’m open to the fact that not everyone will hate noise as much as I do. My Nikon does a pretty good job at keeping noise down, but at higher ISO or in pictures with a high dynamic range, noise can still intrude. Nikon’s own software (NX2) and Photoshop both have crude noise reduction algorithms that seem to suppress detail at the same rate as they suppress noise. Topaz DeNoise is different.

When I first used DeNoise, I was so blown away by the clean results I got that two things happened – I got cross at being short changed by the mainstream software providers (not helpful) and I raised my usable ISO ceiling by two full stops (very helpful)! That was simply using the basic presets that came with the tool. Since then, I have learned how to use the controls that DeNoise provides to finesse even more detail from previously unusable RAW files.

Now let me be clear, this isn’t a tool you would want to use to process a thousand RAW files from a photo shoot – that would take an eternity, but for those photographers preparing top quality files for final use in print or even web, its a godsend. Below is a 100% crop from a review picture taken on the Nikon D5100, 16Mp sensor at ISO 6,400. The first frame is from the original RAW file and the second is after a minute in Topaz DeNoise – given the subject matter, quite a usable result.

So, that’s Topaz DeNoise and why I couldn’t live without it :-)

Disclaimer: I am just a Topaz user; I have no other relationship with Topaz and have received nothing from Topaz for this review.