Ok I do not have every single Topaz product but I do have a few and they are all awesome. I will edit this review over a couple of days but here are the basics. Topaz Products
The ones I use and own are InFocus, B&W Effects, Adjust, Detail and DeNoise. All of them are download only and work as plugins for Photoshop, Aperture, Photo Elements, and Lightroom. In the case of Aperture, Lightroom and Photoshop Elements you also have to have the plugin Fusion Expres installed to acces them, but it is free and works seamlessly. I use them with Aperture and the plugins appear as external editors.
First and foremost I put B&W Effects, DeNoise, Detail and Adjust in one view. They use presets that are very good and are on the left side of the screen. On the right side are additional sliders where you adjust the preset settings for tone, color saturation etc away from the presets. So far for these three products this is the process I have been using and like.
In the case of InFocus it is not preset oriented but has the sliders on the right. I will be adding some recommended settings today or tomorrow.
Ok now for some brief descriptions. B&W effect is obvious and is the newest of their plugins and works very well with lots of fun presets to try and and keep playing with until you hit OK on the bottom right and then it puts a new TIFF file into your workflow (ie old one still there yeh). InFocus is really a super smart sharpening or anti-blur tool. It will not fix an out of focus shot but it does an amazing job of crisping up HDR shots or many items far away in landscapes and at the same time superbly managing artifacts (ie code for eliminating). DeNoise is also pretty obvious; it removes noise and compared to built in NR is pure genius, heaven etc. It has presets for JPEG and RAW and various levels of NR cleanup and you get to flip around until you are happy with results and level. Adjust is sort of an interesting picture spiffy up or single shot HDR for dummies. That is perhaps a little harsh but it does allow you to create an HDR like ton map effect with a single shot and best to start with the presets again and dialin with the sliders on the right. The other thing that is super cool is it does allow you to bring back some of the color pop lost on a real multi exposure bracketed HDR shot. Last but not least and the one I have the least experience with is Detail. It basically improves fine details and add depth. I have used Detail mostly with B&W (& some color) and I was very happy how it pulled up small details to add the the depth of a shot.
Now I am also able to offer anyone who uses my Coupon Code - "ABWPHOTOS" - a discount from Topaz when purchasing their software.
Topaz Infocus Used on this moon shot
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