How to Fix Topaz Photo AI Color Shift Problems

If you export a raw-format photo (e.g. Nikon NEF and also Adobe DNG) into Topaz Photo AI for editing, it will often ruin the red colors. Ironically, opening up the same raw-format shot from inside Topaz Photo AI works without any problems. This color-shift problem only happens with my Nikon Z8 and Z9 cameras, using either raw with lossless compression or raw with the HighEfficiency formats. Using raw format on, for instance, my Nikon D500 camera, the colors are fine.

This problem doesn’t seem to be the fault of the photo editor you use, but with Topaz itself. I recreated the same issue using both Capture One and Lightroom. When I tried On One Photo 2023, however, the problem wasn’t there!

Others have reported color shift problems to Topaz regarding the Nikon Z8, but the problem hasn’t been resolved, at least through version 1.6.1 of Topaz.

A raw-format loaded directly into Topaz Photo AI looks like you expect

The red/orange feather colors look just exactly like they should when a raw photo is directly loaded into Topaz Photo AI.

Topaz Photo AI ‘Open’ dialog to edit a photograph

The dialog shown above demonstrates browsing for a photo to open directly inside Topaz Photo AI. You could also just drag a raw file onto the Topaz desktop icon to run Topaz Photo AI with the desired shot.

The raw-format photo inside Capture One looks just fine

Using “Edit With”| Process with Topaz Photo (Studio)

Using the dialog to send the NEF file into Topaz after converting into the DNG-format is shown above.

Disaster! The red/orange colors are ruined inside Topaz Photo AI

As shown above, the DNG-format file sent into Topaz Photo AI is ruined. The colors are wrong. The view above is now inside Topaz Photo AI.

Using “Edit With”| Process with Topaz Photo (Studio) as TIFF

Instead of choosing DNG format, tell Capture One to convert the raw photo into 16-bit TIFF format before sending it to Topaz Photo AI.

Colors look correct when sending a TIFF file to Topaz from Capture One

As shown above, using a non-raw format photo such as TIFF will yield correct colors inside Topaz. You can then export the edited file from Topaz, retaining the TIFF format.

DNG file sent into Topaz via Lightroom: ruined colors again

From inside Lightroom, using the command:

File | Plug-in Extras | Process with Topaz Photo (Studio)

You end up with the exact same color problem as seen when using Capture One with raw-format shots. The same ruined colors happen when Topaz opens up the raw-format DNG file that was sent from Lightroom. Using TIFF, the problem goes away.

I have seen this same problem in every version of Topaz Photo Studio (latest version 4.0.4) and Topaz Photo AI (version 1.6.1).

The simplest fix to this issue is to merely drag your raw-format shot(s) into Topaz or use the “File Open” dialog from inside Topaz and perform any desired editing/exporting there before opening the edited file in another photo editor for further processing. This procedure lets you keep using raw format (via the exported DNG) in subsequent editors.

If you don’t mind using TIFF, then that format has no color-ruining issues while using Topaz.