Recently, Topaz Labs released Photo AI, which merges DeNoise AI, Sharpen AI, and Gigapixel AI into one program, meant to improve the quality of any image with little to no intervention from the photographer. However, most users probably use it in tandem with another cataloging and editing program like Lightroom. So, what is the best way to go about that? This great video tutorial will show a less common way of using the two in combination that offers some useful benefits.
Coming to you from Anthony Morganti, this helpful video tutorial will show you a useful way of working with Topaz Photo AI and Lightroom. If you use Lightroom to catalog and organize your images but also use a second program as part of the editing process, you probably use that extra application as a plug-in. This is fine most of the time, but the disadvantage is that Lightroom will change the file to either a PSD, TIFF, or JPEG file before sending it to the second program. With Morganti's method, the image opens as a raw file in Photo AI and makes its way back to Lightroom as one, preserving the advantages of working with a raw file. The downside is that any edits you make in Lightroom will not transfer to Photo AI, so you will want to make sure you do this early in the process. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Morganti.
I just tried this, and while the results are impressive, it apparently doesn't play well with Olympus Raw files. Built-in lens profile distortion corrections are not applied, regardless of whether "Enable Lens Correction" is checked in the Topaz Photo AI preferences. Back in Lightroom, there doesn't seem to be a way to apply the built-in corrections to the DNG copy.
For my test case I used a .ORF file taken on an EM1-II with the Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8, shot at 12mm. The lack of distortion correction is quite evident when comparing the DNG copy to the original ORF image in Lightroom Classic.
That's odd, because I never had issues with .ORF files, though my workflow doesn't involve LR at all; I start with PhotoAI then push the exported DNG into DxO PhotoLab.
PhotoAI gets updated pretty often so I trust that it will be fixed soon enough
Oh boy, my PAI give a hint to use the plugin instead of using the "edit in" to keep the raw data!