The AI Image Enhancer I Didn’t Expect to Be THIS Good

AiArty Image Enhancer: https://tinyurl.com/muke8cjc

In this video I show you the remarkable results the Aiarty Image Enhancer can produce. I put it through its paces, working on Landscape, Woodland, Seascape, and Architecture photos of different size and quality, and I found that it's the perfect tool for print preparation.

I also compared it to On1 and Topaz and in my opinion, Aiarty produces much more pleasing results. But see for yourself. In the video we do a lot of pixel peeping.

★☆★ Woodland photo editing tutorial ★☆★

https://www.mibreit-photo.com/tutorials/woodland/

★☆★ other In depth video tutorials ★☆★

https://www.mibreit-photo.com/tutorials/

★☆★ equipment I use (Affiliate Links) ★☆★

https://www.mibreit-photo.com/equipment.html

#imageenhancement #photoediting

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Closed Caption:

Hello and welcome to a new foot editing
video. This time I want to show you a
new piece of software I've been using
for the past two weeks and it
drastically increases the quality of my
photos. The discovery of this software
was a similar revelation as back when I
started using Dixo Pura to preprocess my
raw photos. Starting to use Digopura was
like upgrading my camera. And the
software I show you today has a similar
effect as you can see in this before and
after comparison of a photo I took more
than 10 years ago in New Zealand. That
evening, I somehow managed to produce a
slightly blurry image. But as you can
see, I was finally able to rescue the
photo, which I failed to do a couple of
times in the past. Well, thanks to AI
and the image enhancer by AIRT, the
photo now shows the perfect amount of
detail and sharpness. And the best
thing, I didn't have to do any manual
cleanup as there were none of the
typical artifacts you get from many II
image enhancers. In this video, we'll
now do a ton of pixel peeping and also
some comparison to other image enhancers
so you get a good idea of what this
software can do and why I think it's the
perfect tool for print preparation.
Okay, so before I show you how the
software works, let's have a quick
comparison also to topass and on one. I
was able to use the top pass sharpen
here in Photoshop. You find it in the
newest version under AI sharpen. And at
first I thought great now they have this
directly in Photoshop. I'll use it all
the time but not so fast. you can just
use it a few times a month and also it's
not very transparent when it stops
working. So most of the time when I try
to use AS Photoshop I just get an error
message that it doesn't work but yeah
finally I was able to use it here on
this image. So let's just compare and
also for on one I just downloaded the
demo version and played around with it
trying to get the optimal result. Let's
directly go here to 200%. So this is
before anything applied. So the base so
we have a lot of pixelation here. This
is something you should look at very
closely. We have some fringing and all
in all it looks not very sharp. Now
let's see what more detail did. So it
cleans the pixelation, makes everything
look sharper and more detailed. So look
at this grass here
before and after. So this looks very
nice and also here for the rocks.
Beautiful detail. Now let's see what top
pass sharpen does and compare it some
more detail here. This is what a does
this to pass sharpen and to pass sharpen
also does a lot. So see before and after
but it doesn't remove the pixelation. It
looks in parts even worse than before.
Other parts looks more detailed but here
a has a much more natural approach which
is in my opinion a big advantage. It
might not be as detailed in some areas
as what you get out of topass sharpen
but also it looks much better. So this
is the best sharpen at 200% in my
opinion overprocessed maybe that's the
setting in Photoshop and here a so with
IT my experience so far I don't have to
go through the image at 100% and try to
fix artifacts I usually don't find any
so I can just use it and here also for
on one tech sharp result is very similar
to what I get from top pass so I still
have when we zoom in here 200% let's go
back here again we still have the
pixelation here. Similar to what we have
with topass sharpen it looks sharper but
on one same as topass still pixelated
and kind of overprocessed although I
tried to use the sliders to get an
optimal result but in the end for me a
comes out as the winner here just
because for its much more natural
results which mean much less work for
me. Now before we look at some more
before and after comparisons let's have
a look at the software itself and how it
works. So I'll open up AIRT. So when it
opens up, you're presented with this
view here and you can just drag and drop
images onto this area here also multiple
images and do some batch processing. Now
some important things first of all up
here you can just say download all
models or they will just be downloaded
as you use them. So whatever you do
hardware check you can do this but for
me for example I have an Nvidia GeForce
RTX 3050. So my laptop here is 4 years
old and it still works very good and
also very fast. Now there are some
limitations to Z festival. As input, you
best use TIFFA's 8 bit sRGB. So they
don't yet support other color profiles
and also not 16 bit. Which is why in my
opinion this software should be used at
the end of your editing workflow. For
example, for me in the beginning I use
the exopura to get the most possible
detail out of my raw files. Then I do
all my editing and in the end I decide
how I publish my image. So for example,
if I publish for web, I don't need to
use a software like Art because the
image is downscaled. But when I want to
print, I usually have to do some
resizing, some upscaling, and this
requires additional sharpening. This is
where ART shines. So if you already have
relatively good images, high quality,
which look detailed, don't have much
noise. You can use it as a one-click
solution. It will just improve the
image, add more detail, and make it
ready for print. If you have noise, it
will also remove noise and do many other
improvements to the image which we're
going to look at. But yeah, let's just
pick an image and I'll show you how to
use the software. So, as you drop a new
image here, it will directly start
processing it with the settings you have
here. I'll just abort it for now. First
want to show you what you can do.
Initially, you see before and after.
There's one thing you'll notice though,
the before preview is not very detailed.
They're currently working on this.
That's what they told me. So, this will
get better. And this here is still
grayed out because it's not yet
processed. So here on the right side at
the top what you can do you will first
select a model and I find if you don't
want to do any upscaling and if your
image doesn't contain too much noise and
what you're looking for is added detail
for print the more detailed G version 3
is the best model to use. There are also
some others for example AIGC smooth and
you can read up on those what they're
intended to be used for. I find this
produces a little less detail and then
you have real photo which is the most
natural looking. I would use real photo
if you have to process an image that
also contains some noise still although
more detail will also work on the noise.
I find real photo would be the better
model to use as an initial step because
down here you can do two pass
processing. So what you could do you
could first do the real photo and
afterward you can select the more
detail. So this way you get a
combination of the two. And this
combination real photo plus small detail
I found works very well if you have an
image that contains slightly more noise.
But for this image which is already
processed and edited doesn't contain
much noise. I just want to use the more
detail here. Now what I could do here is
upscale it. And this is a great thing
about this software. You can really
upscale it a lot. So if you use the top
pass tools in Photoshop, your upscaling
will be limited. So you can't upscale
beyond total of I think 55 or 60
megapixel. At least I wasn't able to do
so which makes the upscale functionality
from top pass as it is integrated in
Photoshop uninteresting for me. Here I
can go four times eight times which is
too much for an image like this which
already has like 50 megapixels. So my
typical workflow would be upscale the
image maybe 1.2 two times or 1.3 times
in Photoshop for the proper print size
and then just use the 1x which will just
apply the image improvements,
sharpening, debluring, and everything
that this model is great at to the
image. So, this is what we're going to
do now. The rest here, the strength,
just leave it at one. And down here,
those color enhancements, you don't need
to bother with those. This is better
done in Photoshop. It's just if you want
to do everything here in the software,
they also include some temperature
settings, exposure, and all that stuff.
But usually I won't do this. So let's
click on start. If you run it the first
time, it would download the models and
then you have it on your hard drive.
Next time it will not have to download
it. And now it does the interference. So
my machine it's pretty slow. If I do
such a sharpening into a pass in
Photoshop, it takes a minute or so. So a
lot of time here with ART this is
actually pretty fast. So on my machine
usually around 30 seconds, sometimes
more, sometimes less. Now once the
processing is done you directly have a
preview here and you can scroll around
and you already see how detailed it
looks here on the right side. Now next
step is to export it and also here are
some limitations. Currently they just
support JPEG PNG 8 and 16 bits. So
usually I use PNG 16 bits and if you set
the level to zero this means it will be
the highest quality. I already talked to
them and they're planning to add TIFF
export which will make it perfect in my
workflow. But as I said, you can also
load a 16- bit PNG into Photoshop. So,
you just click on single export and it
will export it to a location which you
can specify in the settings. Next, let's
quickly open the original and the
processed file in Photoshop and have
another look. Now, one thing you'll
notice immediately with nearly all the
images that went through a art, they are
a little bit less contrasty. So usually
the shadows are opened up a bit and
sometimes also the colors get a little
softened which if you prepare such an
image for print is actually what you
want to do. When I do print preparation
I usually raise the shadows a bit just
to keep the detail and yeah this happens
here per default when you apply most of
the a models. So now let's move into
100% and just have also look at this
image. So here the foreground you get
much more detail here but without any
artifacts also here for those rocks
before and after. A very pleasing very
natural result. Also here just look at
this rock face before and after. And now
let's look here at this rock.
The best thing is here we don't create
any fringing with the sharpening. So
that's something which often happens if
you use normal sharpening tools. You get
fringes at the high contrast edges. This
doesn't happen with a art. What it does,
it even removes fringes if they exist in
your images. So overall a very high
quality result. Now if I wanted to, I
could now do a little bit sharpening on
top depending on which size I want to
print. But here, this looks perfect out
of the box. Now for the next example, I
did some upscaling. So here's an image I
shot more than 15 years ago on the Canon
US4D with a mediocre lens, I'd say. So
it's not very detailed. It looks good at
this size, but if you go in at 100% and
this is already now what I show you
upscaled with the default Adobe
preserved details in Photoshop. So just
twice the size going from 4,000 to
8,000, it's not very detailed at 100%.
So here I have now different things to
compare. First, what I did, I used to
pass sharpen in Photoshop to put them
sharpening on top of what we did with
the preserved details. So, let's have a
look. So, it definitely looks more
detailed, but you still have a lot of
pixelation going on, and it's not a very
pleasing result. So, in most areas, it
doesn't look much better to what I could
have done with a normal sharpening here,
I'd say. Now next I did the real photo
which remember I said is the one that's
most natural and also not as detailed as
for example the more details which we
used before. Let's have a look what it
does. So again it softens the contrast a
bit bringing up the shadows. So see the
before and after. So definitely we have
more details but without the artifacts
we just saw but it's also in my opinion
not enough yet. So very natural look and
what I would need to do is add some
sharpening on top of it. And also here
in those areas, let's just have a look
at this one before and after. So it
looks better, but I think we can do
more. So let's have a look now at the
more details. The one we used before
when we were working on the other
images. So just again focus on this
area. If we use the more details,
suddenly there's a lot more details, but
also without any artifacts. But here a
word of caution. So if you have images
like this one which in the original have
a lot of areas that don't show much
detail to start with then even with ART
you have to be a bit careful and look
for artifacts because if you don't have
anything the AR can work with it has to
make stuff up and this can sometimes go
into the wrong direction. You have this
a lot with top pass in my opinion with
AR not so much but still you should pay
close attention but here just look at
this area before and after how much more
detail we have. But here in this area
looks a bit strange. So before and
after. So this would be something where
I would maybe go in and reduce the
effect a bit. Let's also look at some
areas that are prone to artifacts. So if
you have such high contrast areas here.
So before
and after.
So dealing with it very nicely. And yeah
what I did so if this is not yet enough
because it still looks very natural you
could just add some normal sharpening on
top of it. So just a touch giving the
image more detail. So no AI sharpen just
normal sharpening and I think this is a
very good result. Also look at this area
where we started
and now with the more details and a bit
of sharpening on top. Now we can also as
I showed you two pass in a RT. What I
did here I applied twice more details.
But in my opinion this didn't work so
well for this image because yeah it
messed up the colors a bit. So they look
a lot more reddish. So before and after.
I think here the sweet spot is just
using more details. Single pass and then
just adding a little bit of sharpening
on top and you get a very good detail
throughout the image compared with where
we started at. Now also want to show you
what we can do with top pass gigapixel
in Photoshop. So be prepared. Definitely
looks sharper but also a lot
overprocessed and we also have a lot of
noise. And just look at this area here
where we have some strange artifacts. So
this is what we get with more details
from ART and this with the Photoshop
integration of Gigapixel. And this is
where we started. So that's what I said.
There is not too much detail to begin
with. And that's often where those AI
tools go a little bit overboard and it's
not very pleasing. So here I would have
to go in and do a lot of cleanup work
versus here with Art. Yeah, I can nearly
use it out of the box. So for me, for
this image, it's again Art is the
winner. Also, I would have loved to
compare the latest versions of Gigapixi,
so the full version. But I had a look at
the homepage. I didn't find any trial
version. And also, they moved to some
ridiculous pricing now where you pay
more for the monthly subscription than
you pay for Photoshop and Lightroom. So,
this really out of question for me. So,
they disqualified themselves right there
with the pricing for such a test here.
So, talking about pricing, let's also
check what AD charges. So, first of all,
here you can also do a free trial. But
if we go to buy now for the image
enhancer, which is what I've currently
tested, you see they also have a
standard license, a yearly license,
which is much more reasonable to what we
saw with Topass. But currently what they
still have, they have this lifetime
license. This currently even discounted.
And that's what I got. And in my
opinion, this is something to get now
because I'm sure in the future as
everybody is moving away from such
lifetime licenses, they might also go to
something where you can't get the
software with all the updates with just
a single purchase, which is what you can
currently get. I think it's pretty
reasonable now. But now let's have a
look at some other images. So you can
see some more examples how ART works.
for example, on woodland images or also
on cityscape images because there are
also some very nice improvements which I
want to show you. So, you might remember
this image from my last video. It went
through my complete woodland photo
workflow. I have a tutorial on that on
my homepage if you're interested. Just
€15. Well, this image started with the
exopura. So, I already got nice detail.
So, let's just look here. This area 100%
but this is not yet prepared for print.
So for print usually have to add more
detail. And now let's have a look what
more detail does. So again you see just
look at those leaves here. This area
especially we get nice detail
throughout. So it just looks much more
crisp here before and after. And again
since this is already a detailed image
to start with I don't have to worry
about artifacts in those areas because
it will just improve the detail. Also
just look at this area here where we
have those branches against the bright
backdrop
before and after. So you see that in
those areas it doesn't do too much
because those areas are already very
sharp and it recognizes that which is
very nice. But also if we go up here so
those areas on the other hand. So the
before and after.
So they get more detail but it's not
overboard. So it just looks better.
Let's see some difficult areas here
before and after. So you see here
becomes more detailed. All in all, a
very nice result. And also let's look
here at the branches and the trunk
before and after. So an image that was
already high quality to start with was
improved to a point where I can just use
this file now for printing. And for the
final example, I have a cityscape here
from Chicago. For this image, I did a
custom upscaling in ART. So, I went from
8,500 pixel width to 14,100 something
because I want to print this at 120 cm
at 300 dpi. So, here I used the custom
up sizing. You not only have the option
to 2x, 4x, or 8x the image. You can also
use a custom resolution, which is pretty
nice for such specific up sizings. And
let's just zoom in and have a look here.
But also the original image was already
processed and very detailed. But here
for example for this area you see the
before just the Photoshop upscaling and
then how much clarity we get here. Also
here this area just have a look before
this was already very detailed. So here
we don't get any additional sharpening
because it's not required. So the AI
decided this is good enough. Down here
get better detail. And then also here
this is where a train went past. So
those lights, they now look much more
detailed. Also, let's look at some of
the brick work here. So go in at 100%.
So the before and now the after. So you
get much more detail and it looks very
nice here. Other than that, just look
here at those lights. Let's go in 200%
and also here this little text. So
before and after. A remarkable
improvement. And yeah, this image before
and after is now perfect for printing at
a large size. And with that, we're at
the end of the video. I gave you a
complete walkthrough of the software,
showed you many examples, but ultimately
you really need to test it yourself. So
if you're interested, just get the trial
version and play around with it on some
of your images because that's always the
most important thing. Don't just trust
what you see on those videos, especially
because the resolution in YouTube videos
is always a bit limited. So, you don't
really see the differences sometimes.
It's better to do a test on your own
machine with your own images and see how
the software fits your workflow. I'm
convinced, so I'll now use it. And I'm
also very interested to see what comes
next. So, those are version three models
I used now. And as I understand from
their homepage, they weren't necessarily
trained on cityscape and landscape
images. So on the images for which I now
used it. So if in the future they extend
their training data to include more of
those images, I think we're going to see
even better results. But yeah, as I
said, just test it yourself. And now see
you in the next video. Five.