This is my quick review about Aiarty Image Enhancer, an AI powered upscaling tool from Digiarty Software. A company that specialises in AI tools to improve images and video. As a photographer I’m worried about what AI will do to photography as a profession and passion. But besides the AI tools that might replace traditional photography there are also AI tools that can improve your photography. Aiarty falls in the last category as it is a Image Enhancer that can improve images and offer impressive upscaling. In this review I’ll try to tell you more about the functions and the results.
AI and privacy
Aiarty is an AI tool and this might lead to questions about the security of the data you process in the app. The makers are quite clear that Aiarty can work completely offline and local. It does download AI models after installing and in some cases it might ask to download additional models to improve quality (although you have the option to only use local models). But I’ve tried Enhancing images with my internet connection disabled using only local data and can confirm it still works without a problem. I do have to add I’m no networking and privacy expert, so I can’t do any deeper analysis about the data the app might share.
Installation and interface
Installation is straightforward on a Mac, you install it as you would any other app. After installing the app will download the most recent AI models and after that you are ready to go. The app has a modern and easy to use interface. You add images by clicking the big plus button and from there you can start enhancing the images using the various tools. The interface loads the local models an indicates ‘waiting for inference’ while processing the image. After that you immediately have a before and after image that shows the result of the chosen filter with a slider and 100% zoom option.
On the right you have the option to choose the used hardware (all, CPU only or GPU only) and you can choose the different AI models. You also have the option to upscale the image from 1-8x the original size or input a custom resolution. You can also add ‘face restoration’ to increase improvement of faces. In the the right bottom you can change the output settings and choose if you want to export a single image or batch.
Exporting is quick on my Mac Studio with M1 Max processor. When processing I can see the software using both my CPU and GPU in different phases of the processing. For a large number of files or using a slower PC you can choose to automatically shutdown your computer when finished.
AI models available
There are 3 major AI models available in Aiarty, and it will download additional models when needed. All the major models have their own strengths and use case, but the naming could have been better/ easier to understand. These are the explanations Aiarty gives for the different AI models:
- Real-Photo V3 – Better fidelity, more clarity, restore original, deblur and denoise. Designed for high-quality images and photo’s.
- AIGCsmooth V3 – Improved support for AI-generated images (AIGC). More clarity, smoother and better quality.
- More-Detail GAN V3 – Gen more details, more clarity, more sharpness, deblur and denoise, better skin and hair. Better perceptual quality.
In some cases you can use an extra AI model for a 2nd pass to double-process an image. This gives you the option to use different models with different strengths in one processing action.
Results
The results from Aiarty can be very impressive. The supplied sample images are a great place to start and see the results of the different models. But in all honesty the results of all models are roughly the same. Yes, there are nuance differences, but choosing the wrong AI model will not result in an unusable image.
When using my own images you see that the software can’t work miracles. Sometimes when data is gone it is gone. But on the other hand it will still greatly improve the base image. And it will do so without turning a real photo into a flat AI image without soul. To really test the software I’ve downsized a photo I’ve taken recently with my Nikon Z6III to 1024×683 pixels and then used the software to clean it up and upscale it back to 5,4k. The preview was already looking promising:
The resulting 5,4K image is quite usable for online use or smaller printing. And it looks less over-processed than it appeared in the preview. The software also quite effectively removes noise. You can download the resulting AI-improved and 16MB big JPEG image here. Please do not publish, copy or otherwise use these images besides evaluating the results or Aiarty.
Results – using an image from an old digital camera
In a second stress test I’ve decided to use an unedited photo I’ve taken in 2005 using my Minolta Dimage Z1 camera. While it was a good camera for its day, the Minolta Dimage Z1 had a 3.2 megapixel sensor. So it creates images that are very small by modern standards. I’ve used the More Detail GAN V3 option and asked it to upscale the image to 8K. In the preview you can see what to expect:
The result is very good and usable. The resulting JPEG file is in 8K resolution and about 16MB in size. You can download it here. When zooming in to 100% the smallest details may look a little artifical. But the resulting image will still be very usable for printing or online use.
Conclusion
Aiarty is an easy to use AI tool to improve your images. The results are very usable and I believe it offers a quick and easy way to get impressive results. You might be able to get similar results when using the new (AI) functionality in Photoshop, Luminar Neo or DXO Photolab 9. But with Aiarty you don’t have to use a complicated photo editor to get good results. So if your main goal is to enhance an image without doing full editing a tool like this might be right for you.
Aiarty is available as a yearly renewing licence for 75 dollar or a lifetime licence for 99 dollar. Especially the lifetime option is a affordable alternative for people that need a tool to improve and upscale images but don’t want or need the hassle of a full photo editor.