Editing comparison: Capture One Pro 21, Topaz Ai (Sharpen, Denoise) and Luminar
 

I was messing around tonight with a few programs and thought I would share my results.

The first image is the full - out of the camera - image processed in Capture One Pro 21. I posted a cropped version of it here a while back. I was cleaning out soft shots and was about to trash this when I thought I would give some AI programs a chance.

I am running on a 2019 iMac Pro with Big Sur (MacOS) Developer Beta.

This is the full-frame uncropped image processed only in Capture One Pro 21.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...68e83ef1_k.jpg

This is a crop of the bird from the above image, you can see it is a very soft image:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...67099a05_k.jpg

This is a crop of the full-frame above processed in the Topaz Giga Enlarge AI (4x increase in resolution), De-Noise AI, and Sharpen AI - a significant improvement, but I think a tab over-processed.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...19e97553_k.jpg

And this is a crop of the full-frame image above, it has been processed by the Topaz Enlarge AI (4x increase in resolution), and Luminar AI.

To me, this image looks much more "natural" (ignoring the high contrast and saturation, that I prefer).

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...e7ff01f_3k.jpg

I bought denoise, But now when I try and use it says I have trial version and watermarks my pic,Screw them if I can’t do it with adobe elements or snapseed f em again...Cie la vie

Did you create an account with them. They have a strange way of activating your purchase. You have to launch the app, find the "activate" option (I think it is in Help, maybe Preferences), and select that. Then it will ask you to log into your account. Once you log in, it will be "activated". I agree it is a "stupid" way. I prefer they simply send me a license code I enter. But Cie la vie!

You can do it in Elements. I think the real "magic" takes place by doubling the resolution first. There are Youtube videos on how to do that. It helps a lot with noise reduction and sharpening.

I use a very similar set of workflow apps and am very happy with my results. I don’t up-res, but Capture One 21 is my primary app, with Topaz DeNoise and Topaz Sharpen when needed. Often with high dynamic range landscapes I’ll shoot a 5-frame exposure bracket and process in Aurora HDR to see if I like it better than what I can do with C1.