HOW TO USE GIGAPIXEL AI AS A PLUG IN TO PHOTOSHOP

Recently Topaz (for website link, see sidebar at my Tidbits Blog) made their Gigapixel AI software available as a Lightroom and Photoshop plugin. I thought I would show you what I did after upgrading to this newest version. I was pretty astonished how great it can be. This Windsor Castle weather vane is an example of one of the images I tried using it on. Besides getting more detail in the close up area, Gigapixel is also great for printing out smaller images. Below is the original that was cropped in tight.

This image was taken using Aperture Mode, an 18-200 mm lens set to 200 mm, ISO 200, 1/320 sec Shutter Speed at F/9.0. That is as close as I could get to the weather vane using this lens. A couple things had to be done in Lightroom before opening it into Gigapixel AI. Obviously, first it had to be cropped; then in the Lens Correction Panel, checked Remove Chromatic Aberration and Enable Profile Correction. By zooming in so far into an image, you will probably see some chromatic aberration. To go into Gigapixel, just right click on the image and select it in the list – it will ask what file format you want the image to be brought back into Lightroom. In this case, I used a tiff file with a -Edit added to the file name which was then taken into Photoshop after it came back into Lightroom. Below is a Screenshot of what Gigapixel looked like for the above.

You can see that I let Gigapixel AI Auto detect the Suppress Noise and Remove Blur in the image – it seemed to help since nothing like this had been applied in Lightroom. This does not have to be done and probably would not be checked in most cases. The image was doubled in size by selecting 2X. It is still a small image so I could have used 4X. The final post work in PS involved mainly adding Luminar 4 (for website link, see sidebar at my Tidbits Blog) to the image and adding a sky from a set by Karen Hutton called Heavenly Clouds-the Sunsets. Then the various sliders could be adjusted to fit the sky to my image. This is really a fabulous feature of Luminar.

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To do this same thing from Photoshop, you will not find the Topaz Gigapixel AI in the Topaz Lab folder under Filters since changing the size is something that cannot be done as a filter. Therefore, to find the plugin, go to File -> Automate -> Topaz Gigapixel AI and a similar screen will open as shown in the screenshot above. Make your corrections and click save – it will come back into Photoshop as a named “gigapixel layer” and the image will be larger than what it was. This is such a great upgrade – I think I will be using it a lot!

Above is the original image – it was taken through a plastic window using Aperture Mode, an 18-200 mm lens set to 200 mm, ISO 200, 1/60 sec Shutter Speed at F/5.6. It is really not that great an image, but by cropping in close and taking the result into Photoshop, it gives a pretty nice close up of his face. I actually did do some changes in Lightroom before opening the Raw file in Photoshop and cropping. The final work in Photoshop was once again using Luminar to enhance the detail in his face mainly.

If you have not tried Topaz Gigapixel AI, give it a try, especially if you do not have a really major large zoom lens. It has been suggested that you can freeze-frame a video image and use Gigapixel AI to enlarge just the portion wanted. I have not tried this yet, but will. Hope to report back more tips and tricks to using this software after I have tried out a few more pictures. Have a great week…..Digital Lady Syd

Digital Lady Syd Related Blogs:
The Best New Software Around – Topaz A.I. Gigapixel!
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