Block Topaz Labs A.I. Gigapixel Software That Specializes

Similar in purpose, Topaz Labs Gigapixel AI is a standalone software that specializes in upscaling images through the use of machine learningartificial intelligence (AI).

Gigapixel AI has been around since 2018 and is by all accounts the best and most popular product for the job.

As a bird photographer, I will tell you that heavy cropping is an accepted practice as its more ethical to not disturb avian routines and also because 600mm doesnt mean nearly as much as you think when your subject is a few inches tall.

To that, Im excited at the prospect of being able to enlarge the apparent size of my subjects and maintain quality while also not trimming so many pixels away that Im left with a finished image the size of a postage stamp.

Comparing the overall software design between the Super Resolution panel inside Adobe Camera RAW and Gigapixel AI, there are clearly differences in philosophy.

While Super Resolution can only double the length and width of an image, users in Gigapixel AI can choose to upscale any custom amount up to six times the original size.

It also has various A.I.

Standard photos, Architectural, Compressed, and Art.

As a standalone application, the preview window is also much larger than that of Adobe.

Theres a drastic difference in processing time when exporting out an image.

Fortunately, the previews in the application were mostly accurate to the final result, so be sure to use them and get things right the first time.

This is a camera that can create some great images, but not crop friendly as is.

This difference alone makes it impressive to me that Super Resolution is buried away in the expansive Adobe toolkit, whereas Topaz Labs sells it front and center as the primary feature of an entire application and it is still way behind in terms of speed.

In addition, there will be a basic scaled demonstration in the side-by-side comparisons that is effectively just an enlargement of the photo in Photoshop with no tricks involved.

For this photo, I had shot it with the Sony A1 and cropped it in for the edited version.

Between scaling and Super Resolution, theres a slight edge to sharpness with the latter.

Then between Super Resolution and Gigapixel AI, its Gigapixel AI that seems to have a more noticeable effect.

While I find Gigapixel to better clarify the beak and eye, its not without adding some unsightly artifacts in the 100 percent crop.

Again, what I find is an edge toward Super Resolution as it is slightly sharper than the basic scaling, but the difference is not nearly as apparent as I would have thought.

Then its Gigapixel AI who takes it up a notch but at the cost of being a little too aggressive for my taste.

After running through the three variations, its clear that Super Resolution beats scaling in retaining detail, and Gigapixel AI beats Super Resolution is overall sharpness and noise handling.