I also got the trial. Still playing with it, although I don't see it will do anything better than can be done with some Photoshop skills. I've got all the other Topaz plug-ins, so I'll probably get this one as well. At the introductory price it's a no-brainer, and I do like to support Topaz.
Yeah it was a great price. Already seen it pirated on the web!!!! but I wanted to support them too. If you don't support them they can't afford to develop new software
Was hoping someone would ask this question. Has anyone done a comparison between Clarity, LR4's clarity slider, what can be achieved using Topaz' Adjust and Detail, and Nik's Pro Contrast, Tonal Contrast, Detail Extractor, and structure sliders?
I'll download it soon to try it out but it seems like a combination of exposure and clarity/contrast adjustment.
Ho1972 wrote:
I'd like to see a large(ish) before and after sample, say 1600 pixels on the long side (or full rez if someone has the hosting capability).
I'm thinking there's nothing it can do that can't be done with rudimentary PS skills, as harrygilbert said above.
Perhaps you could download the trial and let us know if you can match it with rudimentary PS skills?
Ho1972 said "I'm thinking there's nothing it can do that can't be done with rudimentary PS skills"......
The gift of filters such as Clarity is speed and time saved. I can make more money if I have more time that is not spent on slower tools. I need PS but am grateful to Nik and Topaz for the ease they bring to specific tasks, while I am in PS. And PS didn't always have great sharpening/blur/effects/etc tools until 3rd party developers came in with pre/post/midtone sharpening/etc products. In no way connected with Topaz but they really offer effective tools at a great price. If you have more time than money then PS is all you need. Otherwise $29 is a bargain.
Still waiting for the B&A... and Actions run pretty quickly.
I don't care how many plugins anyone uses -- they're just another tool. My preference is to not spend money on tools similar to what I already have.
FWIW, I'm not trying to pick a fight over this topic. This isn't DPReview...
No fight or offense intended. I was just suggesting that it would cost you nothing, other than time, to do your own comparison. We don't know your process so it's a little difficult for us to respond to your request.
Some people don't have the photoshop skills to produce similar results to plugins. For these people they are extremely useful. Some people like myself spend most of their time taking photos and really need a fast processing workflow to enable use to get the finished images to clients within in a given deadline - for example last week I did a job which resulted in 14 images - I had two hours to take the photos and get the finished images uploaded to the client.
John Barcay's tutorial via the Topaz site today was very good. Not only did he lucidly explain and demonstrate Clarity with "clarity", but also discussed how the program integrates with Detail and Adjust. Also, he compares it to the LR4 sliders and explains why he believes the program to be a "game changer".
I use LR4 extensively (tho far from an "expert") and see where Clarity exceeds considerably its LR4 counterparts. He also notes and focusses on the new and apparent state of the art masking features in the program which he states are a game-changer. I would suggest that when his presentation hits UTube (probably within a week or so) it would be a worthwhile take.It will be responsive to some of the observations on this thread.
Like most of the Topaz programs, it's not for a quick fix which you have to get out to a client post haste. From my vantage point, it's more of means to hone and craft an image (e.g., a landscape image) where you have all the time in the world to craft it in the way you want to, and do a big print or prints. For a "dash and go", it's a 10 second (at the most) gig with LR4.
I bought it and I think it provides some unique effects and enhancements that you might be able to create in PS but not without a LOT of work. That's my opinion and I've been using Photoshop since version 2.0 on a Macintosh IIsi.
