TOPAZ Sharpen AI Plugin?

[Van Griff]

On my iMac Retina 5K I recently purchased TOPAZ Sharpen AI v1.4.4 and loaded into the AFFINITY Photo 1.7.3 plugins [correctly I think].

When I go to Filters > Plugins > Topaz Labs > Topaz Sharpen AI the plugin loads but does not function . . . I can change the settings and click on update preview but nothing changes . . . I still see the original image with no change.

I have other TOPAZ plugins which will load and function . . . but the Sharpen AI plugin seems to load ok but does not function.

Any assistance here to get me functioning would be greatly appreciated!

Best,

V G

[mpowell]

Just now, Van Griff said:

On my iMac Retina 5K I recently purchased TOPAZ Sharpen AI v1.4.4 and loaded into the AFFINITY Photo 1.7.3 plugins [correctly I think].

When I go to Filters > Plugins > Topaz Labs > Topaz Sharpen AI the plugin loads but does not function . . . I can change the settings and click on update preview but nothing changes . . . I still see the original image with no change.

I have other TOPAZ plugins which will load and function . . . but the Sharpen AI plugin seems to load ok but does not function.

Any assistance here to get me functioning would be greatly appreciated!

Best,

V G

I think the plugin itself may have a bug in it. I would contact the author who created the plugin about the situation..

[Van Griff]

MP

Thanks for your input . . . I will check at the TOPAZ end.

Best,

V G

[Jowday]

38 minutes ago, Van Griff said:

Thanks for your input . . . I will check at the TOPAZ end.

Mmmm well these plugins are made for Photoshop more than anything - Affinity Photo is just made compatible with them - you should post here as well:

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/forum/77-photo-bugs-found-on-macos/

Serif may have to make a tweak or two to Photo before it works again. 

[Van Griff]

JD

Thanks for your input.

I will post in your suggested forum as well.

Best,

V G

[All Media Lab]

Hi VG,

Because of the different zoom level you have between Affinity Photo/Topaz Sharpen AI plugin and the standalone plugin from Topaz it's hard to notice the effect at first.

I can assure you Topaz Sharpen AI works on Mac (Catalina or Mojave) in Affinity Photo. Before doing anything else take a image and duplicate it with CMD + J and stay on that layer during the whole test. Now Apply Sharpen to that new created layer. 

After the plugin is closed zoom in to the extreem with CMD + + and toggle the layer on and off. Do you notice any difference in the pixels you see between the original layer and the duplicate your on?

If yes it works if no please post an screen shot of the plugin panel so we can see how the plugin is connected. 

The plugin panel can be opened on Mac by clicking left top: Affinity Photo > Preferences > Photoshop Plugins

Regards,

David

 

This is what you want to see on Mac with or without the /Contents:

[John Rostron]

Sharpen AI works OK for me on Windows as a plugin.

John

[Van Griff]

10 hours ago, All Media Lab said:

Hi VG,

Because of the different zoom level you have between Affinity Photo/Topaz Sharpen AI plugin and the standalone plugin from Topaz it's hard to notice the effect at first.

I can assure you Topaz Sharpen AI works on Mac (Catalina or Mojave) in Affinity Photo. Before doing anything else take a image and duplicate it with CMD + J and stay on that layer during the whole test. Now Apply Sharpen to that new created layer. 

After the plugin is closed zoom in to the extreem with CMD + + and toggle the layer on and off. Do you notice any difference in the pixels you see between the original layer and the duplicate your on?

If yes it works if no please post an screen shot of the plugin panel so we can see how the plugin is connected. 

The plugin panel can be opened on Mac by clicking left top: Affinity Photo > Preferences > Photoshop Plugins

Regards,

David

 

This is what you want to see on Mac with or without the /Contents:

AML

Thank you for your input and detailed comments.

Here is a screen shot of what my plug in panel is showing . . . 

 

I think part of the issue may be that I have loaded what may be stand alone apps rather than plugin specific apps.

My Plugin Search Folders are displaying differently than yours are.

In AP > Filters > Plugins > Topaz Labs > only Adjust AI . . . Impression 2 . . . and Sharpen AI display.

Adjust AI seems to work OK . . . but Imp 2 an ShAI don't work.

Any suggestions as to how to rectify?

I think I may have loaded the apps incorrectly or loaded the wrong apps?

Your assistance is greatly appreciated!

Best,

V G

 

 

 

[All Media Lab]

Your path seems to be wrong you want the plugin try this:

First remove sharpen with the remove button then follow the steps closely.
/Applications/Topaz Sharpen AI/Topaz Sharpen AI.app/Contents/
You can add the path in the “Plugin Search Folder” by clicking “add” the panel opens and you have to click CMD + Shift + G now you can fill in the path etc.

Try it with /contents and without I can't see from here how you did the install.

And Gigapixel is no plugin so better remove that too it's the only one application that doesn't provide a plugin version from the AI Suite.

Think the problem is caused by paths leading to standalone applications instead of the plugin version.

The path I show you at the start of my reply is the same for all Topaz plugins, obviously you only have to change the naming of the plugin.

 

Regards,

David

[Van Griff]

AML / David

Hi

Thank you very much for your response and apologies for not responding yet . . . been very busy.

I have played around with it a bit but still have not yet achieved a solution.

Hopefully I will get some time with it this weekend.

One question tho . . . is there a Plugin download?

I downloaded the Standalone app and that is what I am trying to use.

I can't find a Plugin download on the TOPAZ site?

Best,

V G

[Van Griff]

AML / David

1.  Deleted AI Gigapixel.

2.  Upgraded Sharpen AI to v1.4.5.

3.  Removed Sharpen from Photoshop Plugins directory.

4.  Loaded your file path exactly as you provided with spaces between certain words with . . . /contents . . . and without . . . /contents . . . restarted the app both times . . . still not working.

5.  I think I have the Stand Alone App installed . . . I can’t find a Plug In App at the TOPAZ website . . . does one exist?

If there is a separate Plug In App that is probably where the problem lies.

Thank you for your assistance!

Best,

V G

[buzov]

separate plugin located inside resource folder (finder-applications-plugin appp-show package contents) even if removed to separate folder this plugin still visible in AP but nothing happens when you open it and move sliders 

 

[All Media Lab]

 

The plugin is part of the normal download and contains both standalone and plugin! When you apply a normal install on Mac it installs both.

[John Rostron]

I have just revisited my assertion that Topaz Sharpen works with Windows. In the Sharpen screen, there are three options including Sharpen and Focus. This last is intended for out-of-focus images. I have just tried each of these with a couple of scanned slides. The Sharpen option has no visible effect, and the Focus option works as expected.

Here is the original image, of a slightly out-of-focus grass plan

Now I apply AI Sharpen with the Sharpen option at its maximum strength:

Then I start again (from the original) and ad the Focus option, again at maximum strength:

The last image (Focus)  is clearly over-sharpened, but the second (Sharpen) image is identical to the first.

I will try this again with the standalone program. (These were done with the plug-in.)

John

 

[firstdefence]

Actually the second one is slightly different to the first image, there is some sharpening that can be seen as enhanced grain if you flick between the images on the forum image preview window.

[All Media Lab]

Yes and to see it really working you have to zoom in.

[John Rostron]

@firstdefence, @All Media Lab, I claimed that they were identical because if I view the Original and Sharpen images as two layers with the layer mode set to difference, then I get a totally uniform dark appearance. I can detect no difference at 100%. 

John

[John Rostron]

I have repeated these trials using the standalone Topaz Sharpen AI and get the same results: Sharpen has no effect; Focus does.

John

[All Media Lab]

Made a screen video in Windows 10 to show you it works. Did you try to remove the application and reinstall? Like in the video that's how you have to test it!

And are you sure you connected the 64bits plugin: "PS_Plugins_x64"?

[firstdefence]

I get similar on Mac with Auto, it's subtle, but it is there, less is more springs to mind. I think if it was a face and the focus was off slightly it would be a nice tweak. The sample image blur is quite extreme and could be easily over sharpened.

Manually it can be too obvious and garish

This is the effect I see @400% zoom in TS Ai this is sharpen at Max (1.00)

[All Media Lab]

No on my iMac it works perfect too! Did you see my video? It's not a common sharpness tool! It stops "enhancing sharpness"  when nothing can be done anymore!

Instead of contrast boosting that normal plugins do at extreem settings.

[firstdefence]

9 minutes ago, All Media Lab said:

No on my iMac it works perfect too! Did you see my video?

Yes, I saw the video, just uploaded a screenshot showing the effect of sharpen with the top two sliders at max, clearly showing excessive sharpening, well more just noise enhancement really.

[All Media Lab]

The problem is you start of with a wrong test image to begin with. You can't make a image like your using for testing sharper!

The result will be artifacts caused by the quality of the image.

You really need a normal image and then it works like magic. 

Try the same test with "Unsharp Mask" in Affinity and it will do nothing at moderate settings!

[Ulysses]

FWIW we have had a few different threads running recently about this issue with Topaz Labs' Sharpen AI and it not working as a plug-in for Affinity Photo. The plugin will seem to open from within AP, but making slider adjustments seems to have no effect whatsoever upon the image. This exact issue has been going on for a few months, and only for the past couple of incremental updates. At one time several months ago, it was working just fine. The only thing that changed was an incremental update in the version of Sharpen AI. Hopefully with a future update we will see a return to full functionality from within AP. 

[firstdefence]

I see almost the same level of sharpening regardless of it being standalone or plugin, there is sometimes a slight variation on the remove blur as can be seen here.

Standalone

Plugin