OntheRez Offline Upload & Sell: On
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I've used both NIK and Topaz for sometime. Each has strong points, but in my opinion neither is a complete plugin solution. I find NIK's Viveza and SilverEFX to be excellent. I don't see anything that really competes with SFX. Other programs in the suite aren't as useful. ColorEFX seems to work as advertised but I don't find it that useful. Their noise and sharpening tools aren't as good as other solutions. Topaz's programs seem less polished and slower than NIK and several are just trivial - like deJPEG or Stars. DeNoise is useful, as is Adjust and Clarity.
It seems to me that unless one is highly skilled with PS that there are other programs that do specialized things like HDR, panorama stitching, distortion correction, etc., work better. I've tried onOne and didn't find it compelling enough to add to or replace NIK and Topaz. What I haven't found anywhere since NoiseNinja became an editing program is a truly good NR program. Like others I'm also concerned about what NIK will become in the hands of Google.
Trying to be dispassionate, I'd say all of the add in collections have useful tools but their value varies. In other words I haven't found one that did everything well.
Robert
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