Hi everyone, yesterday I download a 30 day trail of topaz photoshop plugins. Does anyone else use them? what do you think?
I had a little play but I am not sure yet what to thik about them. I don't want to waste my money, so I want to be sure they are great plug ins to use.
Feel free to share any images you have used topaz plugins on.
the only one I've used that I really like, and kept after the trial ended was Topaz Adjust. I liked Lens Effects too, but didn't use it enough to warrant shilling out the big bucks for it.
@tracywilliams , i have topaz adjust and use it often. i waited until they had a sale and got it for 30% off.
I tried a few of the others when I had the free trial and i like the B&W effects too. i may get that one later.
enjoy your free trial!
@jsw0109 Thanks Jeff, I tried the adjust on a couple of beach shots and while it looked great in the topaz screen once I saved the picture a put it on screen alone the grain was reall full on. I checked the image iso and it was at 100 so that shouldn't be. Maybe I just don't have the knack of it. The lens effects are pretty cool.
@tracywilliams in the various adjustments, one of them is noise. click on that, then slide the suppression to the right until the grain goes away. The adaptive exposure and the one for color will add grain to your picture... you get rid of the grain by suppressing the noise.
@tracywilliams no problem! as creative and artistic as you are, adding Topaz Adjust to your arsenal of tools to elevate your photos to art will pay off. I always look forward to seeing what you upload.
@tracywilliams , i waited about a month or so. they continued to send me emails with coupon codes even after my trial had ended. I was glad I held out for 30% off:)
Topaz Adjust is a great piece of software & one that I use a lot - though usually as a PSE layer so I can mask areas or lower the opacity of the effect. I also have Topaz Clean, which I use rarely, but when I do, it is the perfect tool for the job it does (usually on shiny surfaces like cars). I enjoyed the B&W Effects tool, but as I already had Silver Efex Pro, I didn't go on to purchase that one.
@tracywilliams Nik Software also do a range of plug-ins similar to Topaz. Silver Efex Pro is the best in field for b&w conversion IMHO. Their equivalent of Adjust would be Color Efex Pro. Nik's software tends to be more expensive than Topaz though.
Hi Tracy, I am a big fan of Topaz, and probably use it in one way or another for most of my major processing tasks. The Denoise is excellent, and Lens Effects offers a great deal of control over the filters. The trick with all of the Topaz filters is to remember to duplicate the image first, then you can really control the amount of the effect of the filter by using a normal layer blend mode at 25-50% or so. I have also just started to apply the filter & then use layer masking so that only certain areas display the effect.
It takes a bit of time & practice to learn what each of the adjustment sliders do, but just like HDR tonemapping - every image needs it's own settings for the best outcome, and I rarely use the pre-sets without making any adjustments. I have now saved several of may favoured 'reduced effect' presets into the plugin, which saves me time.
You can find some useful presets to download, or save your own from online tutorials.
I have enjoyed trying the drawing & painting effects such as discussed here and this is my WWYD attempt:
The Topaz blog site also has some very easy to follow tutorials - I used their cartoon tutorial from here for this WWYD challenge.
Tracy, I am also a fan of Topaz. It is a reasonably priced set of filters. They also do free upgrades. I mostly use adjust, detail (sharpening) and remask. I have denoise which is very good but I have used noiseware for years and usually default to it. They also have sales when they introduce new software. Right now their PhotoFXlab is 29.99 till the end of the month when it will go up to 79.99.
I also have Color Efex Pro which is a wonderful program but is more expensive.
Here is an original photo of street lights.
This is after processing with Adjust, Chrome filter
I am usually too lazy to keep track of all of my processing so can't remember what I did to most of my photos. I just finish this one and all I did to it was noise reduction and topaz detail.
I agree with Lyn. I always work on a duplicate layer. Because a lot of filters cause noise, especially in solid backgrounds, I use layer masks and paint sections out.
@lstasel I started doing the trial of PhotoFXlab but it would crash anytime I tried to save my work.... so if it isn't going to work properly, I don't care if they lower the cost to $10, I wouldn't purchase it.... and if saving your work on the trial is something they don't let you do, that should have been indicated in the info with the trial, but the info I got indicated you COULD save your work while using the trial. *sigh
@tracywilliams Hey, Tracy! I use Topaz all the time and I love their product! They also have a great support team with a ton of free live tutorials.
I did the free trail of the bundle and I use quite a bit of them. Adjust, B&W, and Lens effects are really cool! I use Denoise almost every time I process! Its very important to have 100% noise free pics if you plan to sell your work or use them as stock shots!
@paulaag Paula, I have not purchased it. It is not a set of filters but an organizing system for topaz filters that you already own. I just downloaded it today so will see if it is worth $30.
@jsw0109 Jeff, did you download the trial when it first came out. They had some pretty serious compatibility problems and pulled the program from the market for 2-3 weeks to fix.
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I tried a few of the others when I had the free trial and i like the B&W effects too. i may get that one later.
enjoy your free trial!
It takes a bit of time & practice to learn what each of the adjustment sliders do, but just like HDR tonemapping - every image needs it's own settings for the best outcome, and I rarely use the pre-sets without making any adjustments. I have now saved several of may favoured 'reduced effect' presets into the plugin, which saves me time.
You can find some useful presets to download, or save your own from online tutorials.
I have enjoyed trying the drawing & painting effects such as discussed here and this is my WWYD attempt:
The Topaz blog site also has some very easy to follow tutorials - I used their cartoon tutorial from here for this WWYD challenge.
I also have Color Efex Pro which is a wonderful program but is more expensive.
Here is an original photo of street lights.
This is after processing with Adjust, Chrome filter
I am usually too lazy to keep track of all of my processing so can't remember what I did to most of my photos. I just finish this one and all I did to it was noise reduction and topaz detail.
I agree with Lyn. I always work on a duplicate layer. Because a lot of filters cause noise, especially in solid backgrounds, I use layer masks and paint sections out.
I had a proper play with topaz today.
I did the free trail of the bundle and I use quite a bit of them. Adjust, B&W, and Lens effects are really cool! I use Denoise almost every time I process! Its very important to have 100% noise free pics if you plan to sell your work or use them as stock shots!