P: Shake Reduction crashes

> The problem with your analysis, Cristen, is that Shake Reduction doesn't exist, at least in a working environment.>

> But there are lots and lots of sharpen features in all the various other image editors, and while any one of them is better than a feature that constantly crashes, they're still not fully interchangeable.>

I didn't leave it out of my analysis. I am not arguing with anything being good enough when it's constantly crashing.  I'm not even saying don't use Sharpen AI if you're willing to pay for it, rather than use another sharpening feature you may have already access to. I'm only saying the two are not completely interchangeable according to my tests of Sharpen AI, unless, as I stated, you only do normal sharpening with Shake Reduction. I don't use it for that, as I also stated.

So yeah, go ahead and buy Sharpen AI if you want. If/when Adobe fixes Shake Reduction, you might stick with Sharpen AI, or you might find, as I have, that there are some photos that Shake Reduction helps with better than Sharpen AI.

Though actually, I'd use Gigapixel AI, even if I barely enlarged the image, for the way it finds and sharpens details. I am seriously impressed with that standalone plug-in, and have seen many enlargements  with before and afters from others, and their results are impressive, too. From very small enlargements to 6X larger, Gigapixel AI has done a stunning job. I'm sure it won't be much for every photo, but that's why so many of us have more than one option for what we're trying to do.

The problem with your analysis, Cristen, is that Shake Reduction doesn't exist, at least in a working environment. Every couple of weeks, looking for a miracle, I try to use it and PS crashes. Every time Adobe sends an update, I try and use Shake Reduction and PS crashes. If you can't use a function in PS then that function doesn't exist, and I won't use one that constantly causes a full product crash. As slow as Topaz Sharpen AI is, it's faster than rebooting PS and then checking the image on which I was working.  A limited function such as Sharpen AI is better than a function you're unwilling to work with at all.

>Maybe I should take another look at Topaz, much has changed over the years.

Topaz Sharpen AI has changed, but I don't see it as a replacement to Shake Reduction, at least to rescue the photos I've used Shake Reduction with. I don't use Shake Reduction as a normal sharpening feature, but specifically for the way you can deal with motion blur and restrict the results to particular areas, as well as the granular control over the results.

It's not an easy, "intuitive" feature to use. There's no AI, just you tweaking the settings and having a lot of patience to get the best results on photos that don't have sharp focus, but are irreplaceable, for whatever reason, to you (or your client).

You won't have very much control at all over Sharpen AI. I think Gigapixel AI is a genuine game-changer. It's worth the price of admission even on my older, slower computer. But while Sharpen AI is a decent, albeit slow, addition to Topaz Studio, imo, it's not special enough after all my testing on many images to say it could replace Shake Reduction. Problems with Shake Reduction need to be fixed, but it is still alone in its specialty.

If you've been using it simply to add some sharpening to a normal photo, well, maybe Sharpen AI will take its place. It does a pretty good job of finding and enhancing detail. I just wouldn't use it as a replacement for Shake Reduction. I'd like to see PS finding a way to make the interface easier to work with, or at least making it run faster on any supported computer.

But there are lots and lots of sharpen features in all the various other image editors, and while any one of them is better than a feature that constantly crashes, they're still not fully interchangeable.

I ́m also getting many crashes with shake reduction.

You should really check out Topaz Shapen AI. It is a completely new product, not an updated version of the old Sharpen plugin. Works much better than Shake reduction ever did! 

I tested Topaz Sharpen a few years back, and felt that because there were so many options, I just over sharpened way too much.

The beauty of Shake Reduction is that it doesn't Sharpen Noise, it Sharpens Edges.

Maybe I should take another look at Topaz, much has changed over the years.

AND I've abandoned Photoshop 2019, and went back to 2015.5 and haven't had a single problem since.

I switched to Topaz Sharpen AI -- it may be slow, but it works better than Shake Reduction and doesn't crash.

Constant crash with 20.0.4 mac. More than 75% of the time I use it.

I am using 20.0.4, and it crashes constantly. Reminds me of the ”B.O.” episiode from Seinfeld 🙂

My early testing revealed the problem may have gone away with 20.0.4 release. I needed to use it on 12 different images, and nothing happened. (Windows 10, and updated nVidia drivers) I will continue to monitor.