Topaz

[Alex]

Hello,

I took this image in Chinatown in Bangkok recently. I tried to use a plug-in called Topaz Adjust. Has anyone used it. Not sure if the result is overdone?



Alex

[Murray Foote]

I've used it though more some of the other tools than adjust. I think that's a question you have to answer for yourself. In other words, what is your creative vision and have you attained it? It's the sort of theing that may be appropriate to use layers in Photoshop to generate an effect for specific parts of the image only. One thing I notice though, is that there are haloes around the wires which is not to me a good thing though may be easy enough to adjust.

[gstark]

As Murray says, what is the outcome you want from this image? Have you achieved that?

And yes, this appears to be a tad oversharpened.

[Alex]

Thanks for your responses. I don't mind the effects that can be achieved with this plug in. The issue I have is that the changes are destructive. They are not done on separate layers from the originals. What I dislike also is that I cannot actually see what is being done to achieve this effect. There are a lot of options within the plug-in which allow you to achieve similar high-contrast effects. You can try the plug in with a 30 day trial period.
Alex

[bigsarg7]

I've actually got the program, they were at the expo in Melbourne last year, i've got the full version for mac and pc. It seemed a good buy at the time and the presentation they gave was quite convincing but I too found out when using it that it never created a new layer etc, and the only way to make sure you didn't destroy your real image was to save it before using the program and saving it under a new name once you've made each change, but its quite annoying when you have made multiple changes to it! There are pro's and cons to the software itself, but i think on the right image it works well, but you've gotta find which images to use it with and in all honesty I prefer using my nik software now, but I do use Topaz -rarely now though. Thats just a little of my experience with it, but I agree about the halo's with the power lines, a bit too over done!

[Alex]

I've actually got the program, they were at the expo in Melbourne last year, i've got the full version for mac and pc. It seemed a good buy at the time and the presentation they gave was quite convincing but I too found out when using it that it never created a new layer etc, and the only way to make sure you didn't destroy your real image was to save it before using the program and saving it under a new name once you've made each change, but its quite annoying when you have made multiple changes to it! There are pro's and cons to the software itself, but i think on the right image it works well, but you've gotta find which images to use it with and in all honesty I prefer using my nik software now, but I do use Topaz -rarely now though. Thats just a little of my experience with it, but I agree about the halo's with the power lines, a bit too over done!

Thanks for sharing your experience. I feel I prefer to make my own changes in layers and at least I know what exactly is being doen to the image and can undo or vary it. I don't think I will go for the full version of this plug in.

Cheers

Alex