If it's like Nik tonal contrast, one unexpected use I've found for a plug-in like this is to find those hard-to-see dust spots that usually don't show up until I've printed.
if that's the case, you can add a solar curve for *free* in either photoshop or gimp for that.That's a new one on me! I looked it up and created a solar curve and on the the whole it works for dust bunnies, but it does miss any spots located on the peak of the curves. On my screen those areas are close to white, and the mid-tone-contrast-on-steroids-plugin works much better. See screenshots:
I guess LR will do that as well.
That's a new one on me! I looked it up and created a solar curve and on the the whole it works for dust bunnies, but it does miss any spots located on the peak of the curves. On my screen those areas are close to white, and the mid-tone-contrast-on-steroids-plugin works much better. See screenshots:
However I can see a use for such a curve to check my edits.
Plugsnpixels, thank you for the link. I guess LR will do that as well.
There are infinite number of Solar Curves that you can create on the fly depending on the need. How many did you tried in your case?One.
LR5 has a spotting pre-visualization option...
And clarity! Do the job at the raw processing stage if you can!
As I understand it, the LR Clarity control is basically a mid-tone contrast boost, maybe with a preference for a certain level of detail. It is applied in post-processing.
Applied "post processing"?
After the Raw conversion, everything is post-processing of the RGB data.
Right, but want makes you say Clarity is post processing?everything after demosaicking is postprocessing
everything after demosaicking is postprocessing
OK, fair enough. So the same moves in the raw processor produces the same quality and flexibility doing it after the rendering in the raw processor? Or there's no difference?it certainly depends... it might be that doing something in a particular inner working colorspace at a certain stage in raw converter's processing pipeline after demosaicking will be better than doing that in some image editor after you save/export something from that raw converter as 8bit jpg sRGB file w/ a strongest lossy compression... but who says that ACR/LR have the best ever "clarity" (quotes intended) vs alternative solutions (including specialized plugins beyond Topaz) provided that we have sufficiently good material after the raw converter (not necessarily LR/ACR) ?
but who says that ACR/LR have the best ever "clarity" (quotes intended) vs alternative solutions (including specialized plugins beyond Topaz) provided that we have sufficiently good material after the raw converter (not necessarily LR/ACR) ?
Right, but want makes you say Clarity is post processing?
If one were to apply ... contrast adjustments prior to demosaicing, that would create huge problems.such as ? just curious...
Here is a demo video (http://lightworkshops.com/blog/2013/5/22/topaz-clarity-demo-top-five-features) that does a reasonable job of showing the different features.
Thanks, very interesting but it begs the question: why do the original's or 'before" look so ugly and in need of contrast fixes? The landscape image is flat, flat, FLAT, who rendered it from raw so poorly <g?
Masking controls with brushes are very cool! Seems worth $30 although I'd still attempt to do all this work parametrically in my raw converter.
I agree, although one could also say that it is perhaps somewhat possible to make a silk(ish) purse out of a sows ear after all ;) It would certainly help to produce a better Raw conversion as a starting point, although it is also a matter of speed.
And with the masses now wondering about their future use of Photoshop, doing more outside that product and earlier in the workflow might be a good idea on top of the other reasons above.except some poor souls who want ACR and that means having (and being shoved to subscription model) PS (unless you agree w/ more limited ACR in PE).
except some poor souls who want ACR and that means having (and being shoved to subscription model) PS (unless you agree w/ more limited ACR in PE).
Bart,
Thanks for sharing the video link. Very impressive. The range of control & masking make it very attractive.
Enter Topaz Clarity. The question many of us have is whether it is better than Tonal Contrast. My early answer is that I can get very similar effects from both.
Clarity has many more controls (34 sliders in all!) which means that it could give 'better' or more varied results - it is on the other hand harder to use imo and requires a longer learning curve. For instance it controls Micro/Low/Medium/High contrast separately - I am struggling to refer those to specific areas in the image.
I am also not a fan of the existing presets, which I found myself tweaking a lot to get the desired result.
The built-in Hue Saturation and Luminance filter is nice (don't we have that in ACR?) as is the masking capability (a toss with Control Points, which I think I prefer).
Despite the fact that I am a big fan of Topaz Plug-ins (InFocus, Denoise, ReMask and B&W Effects being often used favorites) I can't help thinking that at other times they try to do too much in one plug-in, and that they would be better served breaking them down into smaller, easier to understand and use, narrower purpose units (like CEP4 does?). BTW, Tonal Contrast is the only filter of the Nik Collection I use.
Contrast is everything in photography. An image with no contrast contains no information. So the ability to control contrast is key to a photographer's ability to convey his/her message. TC does a decent job quickly. Topaz Clarity could perhaps do better job but with a lot more work. I need to play with it on many more images before I decide whether to buy it or not.
There is some overlap in functionality between some of the Topaz Labs plugins (although Clarity is pretty unique), but that also stems from their business model. They need to attract new customers, and hope that those customers will also buy (some of) the other plug-ins once they get a taste of some of the features for which a more in depth solution exists. This is also caused by their policy so far, to supply update and upgrades to new versions for free to existing customers. They need to grow their customer base. That also means that they need to keep on innovating in a customer focused way, I mean really innovating! I'm more than willing to stimulate that innovation by my humble monetary contribution.
Enter Topaz Clarity. The question many of us have is whether it is better than Tonal Contrast. My early answer is that I can get very similar effects from both. Clarity has many more controls (34 sliders in all!) which means that it could give 'better' or more varied results - it is on the other hand harder to use imo and requires a longer learning curve. For instance it controls Micro/Low/Medium/High contrast separately - I am struggling to refer those to specific areas in the image. I am also not a fan of the existing presets, which I found myself tweaking a lot to get the desired result. The built-in Hue Saturation and Luminance filter is nice (don't we have that in ACR?) as is the masking capability (a toss with Control Points, which I think I prefer).I'm big on using Nik's Pro Contrast filter myself and I've been thinking of trying out Topaz plugins. I always thought that one of Topaz's selling points was the ease (mainly through presets) in making photos "pop". It seems that it isn't the case here and that Clarity is actually harder to get desired results?
....
Contrast is everything in photography. An image without contrast contains no information. So the ability to control contrast is key to a photographer's ability to convey his/her message. TC does a decent job quickly. Topaz Clarity could perhaps do a better job but with a lot more work. I need to play with it on many more images before I decide whether to buy it or not.
Jack
I'm big on using Nik's Pro Contrast filter myself and I've been thinking of trying out Topaz plugins. I always thought that one of Topaz's selling points was the ease (mainly through presets) in making photos "pop". It seems that it isn't the case here and that Clarity is actually harder to get desired results?
I will download Clarity to try it out, but based on your comparison it seems that Clarity isn't the revolutionary product it is claiming to be. To be honest, I probably won't spend the money if I can get similar results with Nik's Pro Contrast filter or Topaz Adjust pretty easily.
I used it some this morning and found a few quibles. I would like to be able to have a mask view so I could check the mask and clean up anything I missed. I would also like to be able to turn the mask on/off and a few other things.
Thanks for the samples BartvanderWolf. One question, did you use one of Clarity's presets? In every sample I've seen from the program tended to increase contrast by darkening the shadows and drawing out detail. Your rendering seems to have brightened things up (most noticeable when looking at the building).
I'm a big fan of plug-ins too and have all the Topaz and Nik stuff, although Nik products seem to be more in my workflow lately.
Question - where does Topaz Detail fit in the workflow now that Clarity is out (and what with the Topaz Adjust possibilities too)?
I just got back from a trip in the eastern Sierra's and have a ton of images to work on, so I'm looking forward to trying Clarity out. It'd just be nice to have a better understanding of how it fits in with my other Topaz products, not to mention things like Nik's Tonal and Pro Contrast.
The Topaz Clarity 40% off sale (http://www.plugsandpixels.com/clarity.html) ends today, 5/31 at midnight US Central time. Reverts to 15% thereafter.
You'll need to use the free Topaz Fusion (http://plugsandpixels.com/topazfusion.html). (I need to modify my description to include its support for Lightroom, but follow the More Info link.)
Topaz plug-ins can also be run on their own (without a host) using Topaz photoFXlab (http://plugsandpixels.com/photofxlab.html), but I believe it will need to be updated to accommodate Clarity.
I apologize. On the first screen it wouldn't take it and said it was expired but if you clicked through to the cart and applied the code it would-confusing to me. Thanks.