It is strange to be 20-30 miles of course and see Monarch butterflies and passerines. We had two purple finches and a 2 white throated sparrows hitch a ride with us. Happy birds will circle boat a few times and take off. Birds in distress will land and rest. The sparrow in the pic sat right under my legs for quite some time.
I have to agree 100% with what you say about both Topaz and DxO (though I use DxO PL as a standalone application rather than PureRaw). Topaz was once a pretty good denoising and sharpening tool, and Gigapixel the best upsizing. Since going over to AI, you have to work hard to remove the artefacts it introduces. PS beta has a generative upsizing tool, from which I posted images comparing it with Topaz, and found fewer artefacts. $37/month is plain ridiculous for renting the software.This is what I have to say about this sort of software correction. Topaz Labs products have gone down the toilet, they turn everything into mush now. I won't promote them on the site anymore. Their new subscription model is insanity. They think they're Adobe or something, and even Adobe annoys me.
If you want something to deal with noise and all of that. DXO PureRAW 5 is the ticket. There is a fully functional demo on their web site. Everyone should have PureRAW. If there is nothing else you buy in software, buy that. No affiliate link, I paid full price for my license.
As for the photos, it looks like you're shooting in the evening when all the contrast is gone. Once the "golden hour" leaves, it's time to put the camera away. You also need to get closer.
Stop shooting JPG only. You need RAW files to get the best out of software.
Just downloaded the new Topaz Photo to try out the Wonder mode. But, it was going to take 107 minutes to process the first image from RAW and the same for a jpeg on my MacBook Air, which is the latest model. How long did it take on your computer?
After selecting Wonder, this window (minus the red rectangle) appeared:
I was offered the choice and chose computer. I repeated this morning using the Cloud but gave up after several minutes with RAW, a full-size jpeg then a tiny crop. Each even took a minute or so to upload. Maybe there are problems from over here but it is clearly not practical for me even to test. Topaz has always been amusing with its almost daily updates and have to download 20 gb each time.
I was not amused that I had to wait 3 months for PhotoAI to support the R5 Mk II raw files.
At the time Topaz told me that they had to wait for Libraw library for R5 Mk II. After Libraw support for the R5 Mk II became available, it took Topaz almost 2 months to release PhotoAI. They went from a Pay once, to pay every 12-18 months, to pay every month. The quality of their products declined with every step.
I never used Topaz on RAW. If I needed it, I would just apply it to an exported jpeg from DxO.
I use PhotoAI sporadically, usually for photo’s where the sharpness is a little off. At the time Topaz Denoise was good, the results from PhotoAI are usually over-sharpened. Animals and birds look like someone has combed their hair or feathers.
