Luminous Landscape Forum
Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Digital Image Processing => Topic started by: LesPalenik on May 03, 2016, 01:39:47 pm
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From May 3rd through May 22nd, Topaz Labs is making available their complete collection of artistic filters and photo enhancements at 40% off. The entire collection includes 17 programs/plugins in total, some of them functioning also in standalone mode.
Here is the link:
TOPAZ COMPLETE COLLECTION (http://www.topazlabs.com/aff/idevaffiliate.php?id=861)
Use the following discount coupon to get the complete Topaz package for $299.99
SPRINGSUMMER2016
If you already own some of the Topaz plugins, use also the provided link.
Then you can sign on with your name and password, and you'll get a partial credit for the previously purchased single plugins. You will get the same 40% discount for the remaining balance, so the complete package price will be less than $299.99.
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This must mean they are going to revise almost all of them.
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This must mean they are going to revise almost all of them.
Not necessarily, they do this a couple of times a year, in addition to introduction discounts on individual upgrades, and seasonal actions. They also often offer discounts on the occasion of Webinars, and even give a free licence away to one participant.
I have purchased all my Topaz plugins at a discounted price, but then that takes time waiting for the discount to be offered. The full suite discount is a faster way, but may also include some plugins you will not use that often.
Anyway, with their lifelong free updates and upgrades policy, the investment gets better as time goes by. I've already have had several full new version upgrades for free since the initial (discounted) purchase.
Cheers,
Bart
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thanks for the heads up. Agree with Bart the ongoing upgrades are a real plus including some stand alone functionality (= independent of any particular raw developer pipeline
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I have several of them right now, and I've got to do an inventory to see whether there are any good ones that I'm missing.
I certainly don't need the whole set, but there are a number of excellent ones.
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I have several of them right now, and I've got to do an inventory to see whether there are any good ones that I'm missing.
I certainly don't need the whole set, but there are a number of excellent ones.
Hi Eric,
I haven't tried it (I have what I need), but sometimes the campaign discount code also works on individual applications/plugins.
For those of us who do a lot of layers and texture blending, the more recent addition of the 'Texture Effects' application (works both as a stand-alone and as a plugin) is quite interesting and very powerful and expandable with one's own collection of borders and textures and frames.
Most of the recently upgraded or new applications can also run as stand-alone application without Photoshop, so also on more modestly memory fitted machines, and don't require a monthly subscription. So they become very affordable instruments for creative work very quickly.
Cheers,
Bart
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For those who already have Topaz Collections in place, if you access "Products" thru your Topaz account (via the application) your discount will show up for individual products based on the product keys Topaz has on file for you.
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Thanks Bart and Pat. I'll check into that.
Now I also need to browse the Forum again to be reminded of which Topaz products have been most highly praised. I may be missing one or two.
If anyone wants to chime in here with your favorites, it might help others as well.
Eric
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Thanks Bart and Pat. I'll check into that.
Now I also need to browse the Forum again to be reminded of which Topaz products have been most highly praised. I may be missing one or two.
If anyone wants to chime in here with your favorites, it might help others as well.
IMHO, Topaz 'Clarity', and 'Detail' are must-haves for bringing your images to life, and if one requires such things, 'Remask' is pretty good.
'Denoise' is also one of the better denoising programs, alongside NeatImage and Noise Ninja which are also good but more expensive especially over time.
'Black and White Effects' is also very good. It's similar to Nik SilverFX which is now free, but will probably see no further development. Not sure if 'B&W Effects' will see much innovation in the future, because it's already very complete, but if it does, it will be a free upgrade.
If one has no other deconvolution sharpening tools, then 'InFocus' is very useful, but it could do with an upgrade and some suggested feature enhancements. It's on the pricey side, but it is good at what it does (if used with restraint).
Cheers,
Bart
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IMHO, Topaz 'Clarity', and 'Detail' are must-haves for bringing your images to life, and if one requires such things, 'Remask' is pretty good.
'Denoise' is also one of the better denoising programs, alongside NeatImage and Noise Ninja which are also good but more expensive especially over time.
I am in 100% agreement with Bart about his most frequently used plugins, I use them also all the time. However, it seems that when using both, Detail and Clarity on the same image, sometimes they fight each other, so now I choose one or the other, but not both. Maybe there is a method to use effectively both in the same image, but I find that either one improves the apparent contrast and pop.
Also, in the last year I have started to use the artistic filter Impression on some images. This plugin contains over 600 effects, ranging from B&W pencil and charcoal sketches to oil and watercolor treatments. I use mainly their oil and impasto filters, sometimes to a quite interesting and striking effect. For sure, this is not everyone's cup of tea, but I find that in some cases the abstract and blurred interpretation may result in a more appealing picture than the original sharp photographic image.
There is another similar plugin, called Simplify which overlaps somewhat with Impression, but Impression is a more substantial and feature rich program.
Both plugins can be found here: Topaz Labs Store (http://www.topazlabs.com/aff/idevaffiliate.php?id=861)
As an example, attached is one of my Havana images, followed by three different Topaz Impression renditions.
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I am in 100% agreement with Bart about his most frequently used plugins, I use them also all the time. However, it seems that when using both, Detail and Clarity on the same image, sometimes they fight each other, so now I choose one or the other, but not both. Maybe there is a method to use effectively both in the same image, but I find that either one improves the apparent contrast and pop.
I think about it this way, Clarity modifies local and global contrast, the effect of light and shadow, while Detail modifies surface structure. So for images that have a good lighting quality, then 'Clarity' is more important, but if the strength of the image lays in the amount of structural detail, then 'Detail' will have to do more of the heavy lifting. 'Detail' can also help with output sharpening, to pre-compensate for the yet to occur limitations of the output medium. They can both be used on either the whole image, or be restricted by its masking ability to only local adjustments.
Also, in the last year I have started to use the artistic filter Impression on some images. This plugin contains over 600 effects, ranging from B&W pencil and charcoal sketches to oil and watercolor treatments. I use mainly their oil and impasto filters, sometimes to a quite interesting and striking effect. For sure, this is not everyone's cup of tea, but I find that in some cases the abstract and blurred interpretation may result in a more appealing picture than the original sharp photographic image.
Yes, and it's amazingly fast, and it also does a better job than I can ;). Indeed not everybody's cup of tea, but there is a huge market for 'pretty images', and photo's sometimes have an abundance of detail (like your Havanna image) that can distract. A bit of abstraction can help such images.
Cheers,
Bart
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I like Clarity and InFocus. Also ReMask.
Jack
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IMHO, Topaz 'Clarity', and 'Detail' are must-haves for bringing your images to life, and if one requires such things, 'Remask' is pretty good
If one has no other deconvolution sharpening tools, then 'InFocus' is very useful, but it could do with an upgrade and some suggested feature enhancements. It's on the pricey side, but it is good at what it does (if used with restraint).
Cheers,
Bart
Hi Bart,
I looked at ReMask and while it does a great job I found I could achieve similar results in CS6 with Refine Mask and touch ups with an brush set to Overlay, but I have been restoring old photos for a long time now (and learned a lot from Katrin Eismann).
I use both In Focus and Detail and find defaults are quite heavy handed so I make my own presets and then tweak and apply on a separate layer with a edge mask. I wouldn't have even considered them if it were not for your discussions here. A while back you had a post showing how you set your Blend-Ifs on a Luminosity layer, would you mind sharing those again?
Regards,
Dave
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Hi Bart,
I looked at ReMask and while it does a great job I found I could achieve similar results in CS6 with Refine Mask and touch ups with an brush set to Overlay, but I have been restoring old photos for a long time now (and learned a lot from Katrin Eismann).
Hi David,
Yes, Katrin Eismann's books are a great source of information.
I use both In Focus and Detail and find defaults are quite heavy handed so I make my own presets and then tweak and apply on a separate layer with a edge mask. I wouldn't have even considered them if it were not for your discussions here. A while back you had a post showing how you set your Blend-Ifs on a Luminosity layer, would you mind sharing those again?
I also use my own presets. Moderate amounts work best for natural looking results.
Attached is a screenprint of a blend-if starting point for a sharpened layer on top of a background layer (or layers). The goal is to reduce the weight of the sharpened layer as the detail contrast gets very high, and clipping is likely. When contrast is very high already, less sharpening is already good enough to give a sharp looking impression, no need to overdo it.
Cheers,
Bart
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Thank-you Bart,
I will give those a try, my own Blend If's were set at 0/55 and 200/255 on the Underlying Layer set of course to Luminosity. These are for In Focus and capture sharpening.
Regards,
Dave
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I also find the Topaz plugins to be very useful. I have found Denoise works well, as does Detail, Clarity, Remask, and the Textures plugin are all quite useful. The painterly looks, Simplify and Impressions can both be useful Sometimes you can get some great results by first running Simplify and then running Impressions, they can work very well hand in hand for a more painted artistic look.
I have them all, I bought a couple then added the collection and have pretty all of them. They approach things differently and now that NIK is essentially a dead product line Topaz can really fill the bill so to speak.
Alan
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Just a reminder that the Topaz sale is ending tonight