PS plug-ins Topaz and Nik Collection

Blade Canyon

Senior Member
I have searched on here for Topaz and Nik, and many folks seem to use them for noise reduction, but I'm curious about things like Topaz Adjust and Nik Color Correct. Does anyone use them here? I already have Photoshop, so it seems like these plugins are not doing anything I could not otherwise learn to do in Photoshop. Still, if they are shortcuts to great looking photos, the money would be better spend on them than on new gear.

The Topaz site is really good, where as Google's Nik Collection site doesn't even tell me the price before asking me to set up an account to buy them.

Any experience with these?
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
I use both... The Nik collection is a complete suite...but you can buy the Topaz plug-ins one at a time... I use Topaz' B&W more that it's Adjust... and I use the Nik's noise reduction and sharpening... The Nik's use of control points is it's brilliant feature... I rarely want to "punch up" the whole image, maybe just a single area/element...the control point feature is great for that... It has a better granularity than using LR's gradient and brush tools...
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
I have searched on here for Topaz and Nik, and many folks seem to use them for noise reduction, but I'm curious about things like Topaz Adjust and Nik Color Correct. Does anyone use them here? I already have Photoshop, so it seems like these plugins are not doing anything I could not otherwise learn to do in Photoshop. Still, if they are shortcuts to great looking photos, the money would be better spend on them than on new gear.

The Topaz site is really good, where as Google's Nik Collection site doesn't even tell me the price before asking me to set up an account to buy them.

Any experience with these?
NIK is pretty popular around here I'd say. I can think of a few of us, at least that use it and I think there are several of us, actually... That being said, I'm not sure what you mean by NIK Color Correct, unless you mean Color Efex Pro? But, to answer your question, I use NIK Tools a LOT, on at least of 80% of my photo's and probably better than 90%. I consider the $149 price tag nothing short of a steal. Seriously, NIK Tools (or NIK Collections, same-same) is just *THAT* good. Indispensable is another word I would use. There's a learning curve to it, but once you get the hang of "Control Points", and what they can do, you'll never want to process without them. NIK Collection is, in my opinion, a Game Changer, second only in my mind to Adobe Photoshop itself.

I also have some of the Topaz plug-ins, namely ReMask, ReStyle and BW Effects 2.

ReMask:
I don't do a lot of masking but ReMask does make it stupid freaking simple. Not sure what else to say about it.

ReStyle:
ReStyle is very, very good but know that it comes with a learning curve to it that I have yet to master. The default settings in ReStyle tend to be a little overwhelming for my tastes and I find myself dialing them back significantly. You have very (very!) granular control over pretty much everything when using ReStyle and for me, this is both it's greatest strength and it's greatest weakness. Sometimes though the default settings are exactly what you want and it's just superb. Don't count on this happening, though.

BW Effects 2:
By far the easiest to master (at least IMO, thought I don't mean say I've done so) is BW Effects 2. Lots of options, lots of very granual control like you have in ReStyle. What I do like about BW Effects is that it breaks down the processing into four menus on a panel on the right. You start with the broader effects, apply more localized adjustments and apply finishing touches. It's a very helpful approach.

Hope something in there is helpful...
....
 

Blade Canyon

Senior Member
Turns out I could download the demo for two weeks, so I am playing with it. Clearly I need to watch a bunch of tutorial videos, though I love the "Super Pop" effect on certain photos. It's also great the way Color Efex can immediately give portraits that dark and gritty look. I'm still curious if I could do the same things inside PS with some similar amount of training. As you said, $149 is a great deal. There's no piece of kit I could buy that would make as much difference.

I have Athentech's "Perfectly Clear" on my Samsung S4, and love how it immediately and automatically cleans up photos. I was hoping for something like that in a PS plug-in, but can't get the Athentech demo to load on my PC. (I also tried it on my work PC with PS CS5.1. Every time I try to open the Athentech filter, PS shuts down immediately and will not re-open without a reboot.)

I'll post some examples when I get home tonight.
 
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Felisek

Senior Member
BW Effects 2:
By far the easiest to master (at least IMO, thought I don't mean say I've done so) is BW Effects 2. Lots of options, lots of very granual control like you have in ReStyle. What I do like about BW Effects is that it breaks down the processing into four menus on a panel on the right. You start with the broader effects, apply more localized adjustments and apply finishing touches. It's a very helpful approach.

How does it compare to Silver Efex Pro? Is it worth investing in BW Effects if I already have the entire Nik suite?
 

Blade Canyon

Senior Member
Okay, here was some very quick and easy work in Nik. I shot this of a friend at the NASCAR race in Charlotte last weekend. (And this was with the opacity of the gritty layer reduced...)

Original:

Nik1.jpg

Nik Color Efex:

Nik2.jpg

Of course, he and his wife both hate this version...
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
How does it compare to Silver Efex Pro? Is it worth investing in BW Effects if I already have the entire Nik suite?

They're very close... I started with Topaz, and then Nik... so I acquired NIK after I had BW Effects, and Effects 2... They're fairly close... Topaz has 2 or 3 times more pre-sets...

If I had it to do over... I'd skip Topaz's BW... and look at a program named "Tonality Pro" for BW conversions... It follows the old Zone System in mapping BW... which is closer to where my eye wants to be... (I started with film in the '60s)
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
How does it compare to Silver Efex Pro? Is it worth investing in BW Effects if I already have the entire Nik suite?
Tough call... I do like them both, and I do use them both.

The best way to decide is to download the free trial and see what you think. If you're tempted to buy do a search for "Topaz Coupon Code" or "Topaz Discount Code" first; you should be able to find codes good for 30% off the regular price easily while I know discount codes good for 50% off are out there if you can find one.
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