Topaz Detail v3

[Jeremy Roussak]

Has anyone used this? Impressions? There's a discount at the moment.

Jeremy

[bill t.]

I reminds me of some of the old luminance layer sharpening techniques I used to use.

Bottom line is, for a lot of newbie users Detail 3 is going to take the art of digital printmaking to heretofore undreamed of levels of ugliness.

But OTOH when used with the greatest delicacy, Detail is good for things like pulling out modulation in textures such as fields of grass, bringing out tonal variations in shadow areas, and possibly brightening up highlights and texture in rather flat bright areas.  In most cases you would want to use either Detail's masking, or work with separate layers, masking in certain areas from a Detail processed layer.

Everything Detail does can be achieved by cleaner means earlier in the post processing workflow, if you only one had thought to do it then.  It's best use might be to snap up already existing, flattened printing files where it would be just too painful to go back and work with the layered originals.  But I have had it in my kit for many years, and have used it once in a while.

Must say it's a worthwhile buy for the money, but it would be mistake to make it a routine part of one's post processing efforts.

[sniper]

It works well enough, lots of ajustments, and I must admit the de-blur works really well for adding some sharpening, it also does a sort of hdr (styilised) effect and various midtone contrast effects.

[Jeremy Roussak]

Thanks. That's pretty much the impression I'd gained. I think I'll continue to delude myself that I can do all that kind of stuff in LR & PS.

Jeremy

[bjanes]

Thanks. That's pretty much the impression I'd gained. I think I'll continue to delude myself that I can do all that kind of stuff in LR & PS.

Jeremy

LR and PS have tools to accomplish most of what reasonably needs to be done with an image now that they do offer some sort of deconvolution. In some cases, dedicated deconvolution tools may work better. Topaz previously offered InFocus for this purpose. I bought it on another of these special offers but found the interface and options perplexing, and I no longer use it and it is apparently no longer offered. Now they want to sell me Detail. No thanks.

Regards,

Bill

[Fine_Art]

I think it is wavelet based sharpening. Wavelets are basically the same as USM for specific frequencies. Try sharpening with the free registrax, it heavily uses wavelets. It will probably look the same.

[mdijb]

I have used this filter a lot and like the results--no halos.  However the comment regarding Delicacy is accurate--it is easy to overuse and then the image starts looking funky.

However the main benefit is the ease of use and being able to separate out different tonal ranges.  It's like Clarity in LR but with more flexibility and control.

It can also be used for ouput sharpening.  I watched a video on their website and it works well in my opinion.

It's worth downloading a trial version for your evaluation.

MDIJB

[sniper]

I think it is wavelet based sharpening. Wavelets are basically the same as USM for specific frequencies. Try sharpening with the free registrax, it heavily uses wavelets. It will probably look the same.

It said on one of the videos (by topaz) that they used deconvolution sharpening, but I'm not sure if that was just in detail/deblur or if it's all of the topaz sharpening tools.

[quismond]

It said on one of the videos (by topaz) that they used deconvolution sharpening, but I'm not sure if that was just in detail/deblur or if it's all of the topaz sharpening tools.

I believe that it's in Topaz Infocus where they use (mostly) deconvolution sharpening.

[Fine_Art]

I believe that it's in Topaz Infocus where they use (mostly) deconvolution sharpening.

Yes, different product.

[Drazick]

I think it is wavelet based sharpening. Wavelets are basically the same as USM for specific frequencies. Try sharpening with the free registrax, it heavily uses wavelets. It will probably look the same.

I don't think it is based on Wavelets.
It is something more like an advanced Edge Preserving Operator.

[Peano]

I've been using it for several years. At the regular price of $40 it's been well worth it. If they're discounting it, get it. Topaz Detail and Clarity are the plug-ins I use most often.

[Jeremy Roussak]

I've been using it for several years. At the regular price of $40 it's been well worth it. If they're discounting it, get it. Topaz Detail and Clarity are the plug-ins I use most often.

The discount was available three years ago, when I started this thread.  The thread died a natural death; I don't know why someone chose to resurrect it.

Jeremy

[Peano]

The discount was available three years ago, when I started this thread.  The thread died a natural death; I don't know why someone chose to resurrect it.

Jeremy

Thanks, I didn't even notice the date. Others, however, might find the comments about Topaz helpful.

[mdijb]

I have used both Detail and cCarity a great deal.  I have made many comparisons putting these two up against other filters, and other methods inside photshop but keep coming back to the Topaz options.  If used GENTLY, I get excellent results with no Halos or other artefacts.  I often run Detail first to enhance the detail in my image and then run Clarity to improve local contrast.  THis combo has yielded very good results for me.

MDIJB