Must admit, I still prefer the first. The second image almost looks a bit HDR-ish to me. Tons of detail in the original, but it still looks "organic" whereas, to me, the second looks like a laboratory shot, somehow more clinical. YMMV
@ Brian: I just used one of the presets with no tweaking. The shadows are too muted in the second image -but I think I can compensate for that in the plugin.
@ Kenny: I'm using the plugin in Elements.
@ GillR: Agreed -the original shot looks more "natural" -if I can even use that word to describe a scene that people can't naturally see. I think I could tone the effect down some and still use it as a sharpening tool.
I've been playing around with the Topaz plugins lately also. I must say they seem very powerful and very nice. Once one learns how the sliders affect the image, the level of affect on the image is controllable from subtle to comic-bookish. I'm not a fan of the hugely processed images and while the Topaz plugins can do that, you don't have to let them. I am not highly experienced at PS nor at Topaz, but it seems like I can get much better detail, sharpening and noise reduction with Topaz than with photoshop alone. Playing with the Detail plugin and the detail part of Adjust, I feel like the details have depth added, rather than just halos. I know it does not quite work this way, but its as if actual sharpness and three-dimensionality are added to detail rather than the perception of that. Hard to explain what I mean but hopefully that makes sense.
I am finding that Adjust plugin is great all round and gives good detail, noise and exposure/shadow/highlight adjustments. The Detail and DeNoise plugins seem to be an enhanced version of those already built into Adjust. Topaz gives a free 30 day full evaluation by applying for a license directly on the site. Seems automated and is emailed to you in about 1 minute. Price seems reasonable also, imo.
Dalentech, I like both versions and there is a lot different between the two. The second feels a little to bright and shadow reduced for me but I like how the extra detail is rendered.
@ Mark: I like the first frame as well, but the second shows my weaknesses at post processing...
@ Dennis: I couldn't agree more with what you've said. After experimenting with both I like Adjust better than Detail. Detail to me seems to be geared toward an image that needs a lot of help but Adjust seems to be more subtle -like it was meant for a photo that just needs a little tweaking.
Adjust is also fantastic for recovering highlights and highlight/shadow detail. I played around with it some more today and it seems like the detail pulled from areas that the histogram tells me don't exist is quite amazing. There is a lot less noise in these areas also after recovery.
I only wish two things: first that the sliders were less "delicate" and second that Topaz would make a slightly larger version of Topaz that handled my Raw files and also cataloged like Ligthroom.
Sorry to sound like a salesman.
Dalentech, try this:
No preset, Exposure: exposure to 0.1, Highlights 0.07, Regions 2, shadows 0.05, others to 1 Detail: strength 1, threshold 0.14, Sharpen 1.66, boost 1 and radius 11.5.
I sharpened a bunch but then reduced the highlight effect by changing the threshold. For exposure, a basically brought up the shadows just a tad and reduced the highlight a tad. This adds a little color pop and enhances the sharpness detail w/o making it look to processed.
Another thing to try if you have layers in your image processing software is to merge the original layer with the Topaz adjusted layer at some percent opacity. This allows finer adjustments and may get you exactly the effect you're looking for. You might also want to play around with the blend modes.
A further refinement is to add a hide all (black) mask on the adjusted layer and paint (with a soft white brush) in only the details you like to the degree that you want while keeping the other areas of the original. This works with sharpening, etc as well.
BTW Dalantech I love your work ... it's really inspiring!!!
