tech tips
P
ost-processing images is an
essential element of digital pho-
tography. RAW capture (you’re
shooting in RAW format, aren’t you?)
is only the beginning of the process,
not yet as good as the image can be—
that’s why it’s called RAW. If you’re
shooting in JPEG format, you’re letting
the camera decide a lot about how your
image will look.
Now don’t get me wrong; it’s not
just about “fixing it” on the computer.
I prefer the term “optimizing.” When
you sit down to edit, you still need to
start with an image file that has good
content and composition and is tech-
nically excellent.
There are many capable software
options for image editing, ranging from
relatively simple to highly complex. We
tend to pick one, learn it and stay with it
as long as it works for us. No program
can really do it all, however, so most
of us have a few stand-alone or plug-in
programs that augment the capabilities
of our primary editing software.
I’ve recently worked with some new
programs, both stand-alone and plug-in,
that have significantly improved the
results I’ve achieved in a variety of cir-
cumstances, so much so that I wanted to
share them with you. (Please note that
I receive no compensation from these
software companies, nor did they pro-
vide a copy of the software for testing.)Topaz Gigapixel AI
Recently, a colleague brought to my
attention a new stand-alone software
program from Topaz called Gigapixel
AI. It’s one of many interpolation pro-
grams for increasing the resolution ofsmall files, and looking at my testing,
it does an extraordinary job.
There are two main scenarios in
which I need to increase the size of
files in order to make larger prints.
The first concerns the many relatively
small digital files I have from the early
days of digital camera capture. The first
digital camera I used extensively was
the Canon D30, which had a low-res-
olution imaging sensor of 3 MP. The
Canon D60 followed, producing image
files twice as large with a 6 MP sen-
sor. From there, we went on to 8.2 MP
with the Canon EOS-1D Mark II, the
11-megapixel EOS-1Ds and steadily
upward to today’s highest-resolution
Canon digital camera, the EOS 5DS
R at 50 MP. So I have a lot of useful
lower-resolution files that need some
help if they’re to be used for printed
enlargements or publication.
The second case for improving reso-
lution post-capture is more current. I’ve
been doing quite a lot of experimenting
with using single-frame grabs from 4K
video for publishing on the web and
making prints. These files are approx-
imately 7 to 8 megapixels, or around
23 megabytes in size. I can get a pretty
good 13x19-inch print from these small
files, but after processing in Gigapixel
AI, 20x30-inch prints are possible and
quite impressive.
When opening Topaz Gigapixel AI,
you’re given the options to “Resize” the
file by scale, width or height. You can
also set the “PPI” that you’ll be printing
at. The next choice is “Suppress Noise.”
Here you set from “None” to “High”
in five increments. “Remove Blur” is a
sharpening algorithm with the same setof choices from “None” to “High” in
five steps. The next options are where
to save the new file and to designate
the file name and type (JPEG, TIF or
PNG). You can also choose “Compres-
sion” or 8-bit. The last item is whether
you want to “Keep Color Profile.” All
that’s left is to click on “Start,” and the
program interpolates the file to a larger
size, ready for printing or publication.Topaz Sharpen AI
In addition to photographer error,
there are many capture situations that
produce images that fall just short of
critical sharpness. Topaz Sharpen AI
delivers both when you want to ramp
the quality up from “sharp” to “tack
sharp” and with images taken with
lenses at their optical extreme where
a bit of the detail sharpness has been
lost. I use tele-extenders a lot (some-
times two at once), and that will cause
a small loss of image sharpness. This
program brings that detail sharpness
back. I was able to improve images
taken with the Canon EF 600mm f/4L
III and both the EF 2x III and EF 1.4x
III extenders (1680mm) to the point
that they looked as if no extenders
were used. Usually, when sharpening
is added to a digital file, there’s a halo
effect that shows up around the edges.
In the multiple tests that I ran using
Sharpen AI, no halos were produced.
The interface on Sharpen AI is very
simple; the photographer needs to make
only a couple of choices to customize
the software. The first is to “Select a
Processing Mode.” The menu offers:
“Sharpen,” “Stabilize” and “Focus.”
The Sharpen mode works in mostA “Hard” Look At Software
A selection of photo processing apps worth considering
By George D. Lepp & Kathryn Vincent Lepp30 Outdoor Photographer outdoorphotographer.com