HD Preview (Studio)

Curious if anyone activates the HD Preview in Studio and how you use it. The image changes quite a bit when activated–vs the normal preview–so I’m tempted to leave it on throughout an edit session. But, the HD Preview view doesn’t seem to really reflect the actual output result doing a “save as.” I’ve directly compared a saved TIFF output opened in PS, at the same zoom level, and the views don’t look the same; close, but not the same. Therefore, I’m left wondering what the HD Preview is good for?

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Interesting point we were just talking about hd preview here

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Some people have stated that their image becomes de-saturated when going from Studio back to a host program. I suspect it may be because of using the normal preview which will often make the image look more saturated and even look different. This needs to be fixed by Topaz, if possible. Using the HD preview is much more accurate but takes longer, which matters on some effects (AI Clear being one). However, once processed in HD you can zoom and move the image around without re-processing. One problem is I can forget to turn HD preview on.

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@Artisan-West, so, if your computer can handle the overhead of having HD Preview always ON, would you say it’s best to work that way. I’ve got a pretty beefed up Windows computer so I think it could handle it. Since I use AI Clear, first, on nearly every image I’m thinking I could run that first with normal preview, switch to HD Preview, then complete my editing. Does that make sense?

I have already suggested that Topaz put in a check box in the Preferences of Studio to default with HD preview on, so it can be selected. There is a problem (bug) however, if you apply the effects then apply another set of effects and have HP Preview on, when selecting one of the applied thumbnails, the picture won’t show. You have to turn off the HD preview to get it back.

If you run AI Clear in normal preview then switch to HD, it will run again. I think normal preview is running on a reduced size version of the picture.

The workflow I’m using at the moment is to open a raw file, apply AI Clear, turn HD Preview ON, and then complete the image with various adjustments. That works pretty well, except there is some weird anomaly where the preview “blacks out” for a second with some adjustments, then returns. Very strange indeed; probably related to the bug you’ve mentioned. Another workflow I was playing around with, yesterday, is to turn HD Preview ON only for those adjustments where I think it critical to properly see the actual result; such as Precision Contrast and Precision Detail. I don’t think adjustments such as the Tone Curve, HSL, etc, require HD Preview. But, I will continue to experiment. Hopefully, Topaz will figure out the bug and/or anomaly I’ve mentioned because it is a bit startling during an edit session.

It happens to me as well but sometimes the picture won’t come back until I turn off HD Preview. This primarily happens on a version that had an adjustment applied. I agree with you that it is the same bug. With HD preview off, you should notice that it takes longer for AI Clear to operate on a picture when zoomed in than when it is fit all into the window. With HD Preview on, it should take about the same time either way, which indicates it is working on the whole picture, not a reduced size. If you use AI Clear first, you can apply it and then use other adjustments on the applied version.