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...
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