Topaz?

peterbj7 wrote in post #11503468
... various Topaz programs ... as an alternative or addition to PS12 ...

Some are a good addition to CS5. None are alternatives to CS5. I use Topaz Detail quite often. I've tried several other Topaz plug-ins but didn't find any others worth buying. I guess it depends on what sort of work you do.

colormaniac wrote in post #11962863
Hi, I haven't tired any plugin. I'm wondering if Topaz, which is now on sale, is suitable for me. I usually shoot portrait and nature. I know how to do skin touchup in PS, making layers, healing, surface blur, opacity, etc. I know how to do HDR, etc. I tweak around levels and the like. I also know a little about actions but I have not really made use of it in my touching up processes.

I usually just try to adjust to good-enough results in LR instead of going to PS for every picture. I feel like that it's too time-consuming to go to PS even though it may make the pictures look better. I may be that kind of people who are too lazy to make fancy masks and layers in PS. And creating new effects in PS out of the blue is not my kind of things. So, I'm wondering:

1. Do I know enough of PS that I should really just go through a few online tutorials instead of buying Topaz?
2. Could Topaz save a lot of time for me so that I am willing to use PS more and enjoy the great results?

Well it seems like you know plenty of photoshop. But the topaz plugins and a different approach to editing your shots, these would be used push those shots to the edge. I think you can try topaz before you buy it. See if it works for you. Im sure you can use them in your workflow.

colormaniac wrote in post #11962863
Hi, I haven't tired any plugin. I'm wondering if Topaz, which is now on sale, is suitable for me. I usually shoot portrait and nature. I know how to do skin touchup in PS, making layers, healing, surface blur, opacity, etc. I know how to do HDR, etc. I tweak around levels and the like. I also know a little about actions but I have not really made use of it in my touching up processes.

I usually just try to adjust to good-enough results in LR instead of going to PS for every picture. I feel like that it's too time-consuming to go to PS even though it may make the pictures look better. I may be that kind of people who are too lazy to make fancy masks and layers in PS. And creating new effects in PS out of the blue is not my kind of things. So, I'm wondering:

1. Do I know enough of PS that I should really just go through a few online tutorials instead of buying Topaz?
2. Could Topaz save a lot of time for me so that I am willing to use PS more and enjoy the great results?

For my real estate photography, I have a PS action I created that uses Topaz DeNoise, Topaz Adjust, Smart Sharpen, Save and then Close the image. I use this custom Action on every photo. There is no way I would spend the time trying to duplicate this with PS Layers....I would spend all day long on one home.

I took the Clarity (I think that is it) and tweaked it to my likings and saved the Preset. I also created a custom Preset in DeNoise as well. The fact I can take over 100 images from the day, batch process and work on something else is a huge time saver for me. The effects are subtle, but they make the image so much better.

Thanks! I downloaded it last night for trial. After trying with several landscape and portrait pictures, I was not very impressed. Most of those presets are not what I need and by themselves they don't really look great on those pictures. I imagine that, if I were to use those plug-ins, I still have to spend some time on creating layers and masking. Maybe I have not explored enough or I expected them to be doing more than what they are supposed to be. I have not yet figured out how to use ReMask, though, which I think would be quite useful for me.

colormaniac wrote in post #12007185
Thanks! I downloaded it last night for trial. After trying with several landscape and portrait pictures, I was not very impressed. Most of those presets are not what I need and by themselves they don't really look great on those pictures. I imagine that, if I were to use those plug-ins, I still have to spend some time on creating layers and masking. Maybe I have not explored enough or I expected them to be doing more than what they are supposed to be. I have not yet figured out how to use ReMask, though, which I think would be quite useful for me.

I don't think you gave it much of a chance then because I use Topaz Adjust as part of my daily work flow. I selected presets that did something interesting, and then I went into the sliders and made it what I wanted and saved new presets. The presets are just a starting point, not the end point. You have to play with the sliders so you understand how they work.

As for layers, you can use Topaz Adjust as a layer. Take your background, duplicate it, apply the Topaz Adjust, and then adjust opacity or paint in/out what affects you want or don't want. Sometimes a Topaz Adjust preset is great....for half the image. Use it as a layer, invert the layer, brush in where you want the affect. You aren't going to figure out how to use Topaz Adjust in one evening, just like you didn't figure out how to use PS Layers in one evening. It takes time to understand how to get these programs to do what you want them to do.

TGrundvig wrote in post #12007319
I don't think you gave it much of a chance then because I use Topaz Adjust as part of my daily work flow. I selected presets that did something interesting, and then I went into the sliders and made it what I wanted and saved new presets. The presets are just a starting point, not the end point. You have to play with the sliders so you understand how they work.

As for layers, you can use Topaz Adjust as a layer. Take your background, duplicate it, apply the Topaz Adjust, and then adjust opacity or paint in/out what affects you want or don't want. Sometimes a Topaz Adjust preset is great....for half the image. Use it as a layer, invert the layer, brush in where you want the affect. You aren't going to figure out how to use Topaz Adjust in one evening, just like you didn't figure out how to use PS Layers in one evening. It takes time to understand how to get these programs to do what you want them to do.

Yes, I kind of figured that I was expecting too much, in an unreasonable way, though the presets are not too different from what PS has offered as filters.

I'm wondering now if each of most of the sliders on the Topaz plug-ins is representing a lot of steps, like actions, in PhotoShop such that it still saves a lot of time.

colormaniac wrote in post #12007382
Yes, I kind of figured that I was expecting too much, in an unreasonable way, though the presets are not too different from what PS has offered as filters.

I'm wondering now if each of most of the sliders on the Topaz plug-ins is representing a lot of steps, like actions, in PhotoShop such that it still saves a lot of time.

My most used Topaz Adjust preset if the Clarify...or is it Clarity...LOL Anyway, I took the preset, tweaked it a bit, saved that, and I use it on every one of my real estate shoots. I also have another version of this preset I really like for most landscape shots. Like you said, it is like applying multiple layers in PS all in one step. If the preview is too much, I use it as a layer and adjust the opacity to soften the affect. You can create an Action to do that as well. I have one action for my real estate shoots that applies DeNoise, Topaz Adjust, Smart Sharpen, Save, and Close. I can batch process 100 images from the day all in a few clicks.

I think you mentioned something about portraits....not sure there is anything in the presets that I would like. You might want to play with the strength sliders and create a preset that softens the skin or something. Personally, I would use it as a layer, invert it, then brush it over the skin I want to soften. I have heard of people using the clone tool to soften skin....geesh, that seems like a long process. If you have a layer that softens, invert it, lower the opacity on the brush as well and literally paint the affect on. If it not strong enough paint over it again and it will get stronger. Most people I have spoken to never adjust the opacity on the brush. I think it gives you a lot more control that way. They just either paint in white or black, that's it. But, if you paint at 40% and don't like it, just paint over it again. 100% white or 100% black just doesn't work when one is trying to make minor changes.

Anyway, that is just my opinion.

Thanks, TGrundvig! Yes, one of the big concerns for portraiture is to smooth skins without overdoing it. And people sometimes would like to change the backgrounds. So, I was looking at presets for these. As I said, I haven't checked out ReMask yet. But for skin-smoothing-related presets, it seems that I could do it myself with a few steps (or an action). At the end, it still all comes down to layering, brushing, changing opacity, etc., which can't be skipped even if Topaz is used. (Previously I was dreaming that I didn't have to do this.)

Regarding Clarify (Clarity?), I saw that when you zoom in to 100% or more, Topaz added quite a lot in the pictures but it's not that clean. I guess, when the picture is viewed 50% or less, maybe people cannot notice that and the clarity seems increased.

One more question. How do to make various Topaz plug-ins in one action? Whenever I used one of the plug-ins, a new window was opened and I needed to make choices. Can an action in PS automate all these? (My knowledge in writing action is limited to just following 1-2 online action examples about watermarks and skin smoothing.)

colormaniac wrote in post #12007890
Thanks, TGrundvig! Yes, one of the big concerns for portraiture is to smooth skins without overdoing it. And people sometimes would like to change the backgrounds. So, I was looking at presets for these. As I said, I haven't checked out ReMask yet. But for skin-smoothing-related presets, it seems that I could do it myself with a few steps (or an action). At the end, it still all comes down to layering, brushing, changing opacity, etc., which can't be skipped even if Topaz is used. (Previously I was dreaming that I didn't have to do this.)

Regarding Clarify (Clarity?), I saw that when you zoom in to 100% or more, Topaz added quite a lot in the pictures but it's not that clean. I guess, when the picture is viewed 50% or less, maybe people cannot notice that and the clarity seems increased.

One more question. How do to make various Topaz plug-ins in one action? Whenever I used one of the plug-ins, a new window was opened and I needed to make choices. Can an action in PS automate all these? (My knowledge in writing action is limited to just following 1-2 online action examples about watermarks and skin smoothing.)

For the actions, you just create a new action, then go to filter, Topaz, pick your program, run it on the image, then go to filter, select topaz, select the next program, run it on the image, then go thru each thing you want to record and run it on the image until you are done, then select stop. I have actions that will apply a layer mask to reduce certain color casts and flatten the layer to bring me back to a single background image.

Figuring out how to create actions was a huge time saver for me. I have a lot of them for different things....everything from reduce a color cast to brighten using curves to reduce noise. One thing to be aware of is when you do all these steps in an action and do a batch process it applies the same affect to each image. This was most difficult for DeNoise because if you select 10 images and then select 'Light' in DeNoise you will find that the affect changes from image to image. So, for that step in the action I created a custom affect that is mild but works for all my images.

Clarity (Clarify) is too strong as it. I pulled the strength back and other things....can't remember off the top of my head. Looking at an image at 100% is not suggested. LOL

With the portrait stuff have you looked at Infocus or Detail 2? I have both of those as well, just got them recently so I am still learning how to use them. One of them has some really nice smoothing affects. I can't remember which one, but I would get those two if I was you and see what you think. They all have a 30 day trial, so I would try all of them. One of these two is probably better for you. Because they are under the filter section in PS, you can still create a duplicate layer, apply the filter, then use the opacity and brush to work it in just the way you want it. If I wasn't in my busy season I would have more suggestions about these two, sorry. It won't be until about Sept before I can really dive into them and spend some time playing with them.

The cool thing about Topaz is once you buy a program they send you discounts from time to time, like 50% off. I wait for those and buy the programs I don't have.

Thanks for taking time to answer my questions! I appreciate that.

You said that Topaz would send discounts from time to time. Now it has a 15% off the bundle. I believe, if I were to buy any, I would like to get DeNoise, Adjust, Detail
Clean and Remask. In your experience, do you think the current discount bundle is better than getting these one by one with future possible discount?

colormaniac wrote in post #12008505
Thanks for taking time to answer my questions! I appreciate that.

You said that Topaz would send discounts from time to time. Now it has a 15% off the bundle. I believe, if I were to buy any, I would like to get DeNoise, Adjust, Detail
Clean and Remask. In your experience, do you think the current discount bundle is better than getting these one by one with future possible discount?

No problem, glad to help.

I started with Topaz Adjust because it was referred to me by a portrait/wedding photog I know back in Atlanta. She tried it out and loved it. She was telling me to get the Nik Filter Software but then told me to go with Topaz Adjust. From there, I decided to give DeNoise a try because of the discount email they sent me. Then, I got an email discount for Infocus and it looked like something that could save a shot I would normally throw away. I haven't played with it yet, but looking forward to it.

When I look at the whole set I see stuff that I do not think I would ever use, so I just buy the software that I think I will use. I shoot real estate full time, over 400 homes a year. On the side, I love landscape/nature stuff but I don't have much time to go out and shoot it. So, first and foremost, I look for things that will improve my real estate photos. Second, things that may improve my landscape/nature photos. As you can see, what I shoot is a lot different than what you shoot. The affects I do to real estate shots would probably get you fired in portrait work. LOL If you crop in 100%, the images don't look great....but that is OK because they are not viewed at 100% and so what I do works. What I do for landscapes has to me more subtle because I have had people blow up prints to 20 x 30. Therefore I have different presets for landscape photos.

You know, you might want to Google for Topaz tutorials and see what people are putting out there. Specifically, look for their products in your line of work. See if you find something that didn't seem so obvious but allows you to up your game a notch or two.