Topaz Labs, makers of photo editing software for Lightroom and Photoshop, announced a few days ago that they’re running a special on the newest version of their Adjust plugin. I’m a fan of plugins in general, and have found other Topaz products to be pretty cool, so I downloaded Adjust and have been exploring and testing. Here are some examples of what the plugin can do, using a photo of an old church from my recent visit to San Blas on the Riviera Nayarit coast of Mexico.
The photo above shows the image just as imported into Lightroom (v6/CC). The sensor in my Nikon D750 did a great job of handling the contrast in this scene – the histogram shows no clipping in either blacks or whites, just a nice mountain range from shadows to highlights. In Lightroom’s Camera Calibration panel I tried the Camera Standard profile, but chose Adobe Standard instead because the histogram looked a little better in the shadows.
I applied several Lightroom adjustments to bring the image more to my liking. These included light to moderate movement of the sliders on Color Balance, Exposure, Whites, Shadows, Clarity, Vibrance and Saturation. I wanted to bring up the shadows a bit, add a little mid-tone contrast, and bring back the slight amount of warmth from the late afternoon sun.
Next I opened the photo in Topaz Adjust. My first test was to try the presets in the HDR Collection. I’m not really into the heavy HDR look, but I often find that I like what happens when I apply a very small amount of HDR processing. Judging from the quick previews that Adjust provides, the Light Pop Smooth preset looked like it might be suitable. I like what it did with adding a little more definition to the clouds, and also that it opened up the deep shadows in the bell tower a little.
Then I went back to my basic Lightroom-adjusted image, opened it in Adjust again, and played with some of the presets in the Classic Collection. Most of these are designed to make minor adjustments and improvements, which is what I was looking for. A click on Simple Pop produced an image very similar to the HDR Light Pop Smooth, but on close examination it appeared that mid-tones in the latter were slightly smoothed out and toned down compared to Simple Pop. Both versions added a little bit of punch to my photo, which I think improved it over what I’d produced in Lightroom.
Going beyond just some improvement in your basic photo, if you want some help in producing an image that will get across your feelings or your interpretation of the scene you were photographing, or if you just want to get, as a photographer friend of mine likes to say, “Artsy-Fartsy”, Topaz Adjust gives you some excellent options.
I had fun hitting my basic LR-adusted file with some of the many additional presets in Topaz Adust, just to see what happened. I’m fairly conservative in my image processing, so went Yuck! on some of the previews, but several of the presets generated a Like! A nice feature of Adjust is that you can save the presets you like, and even ones you create yourself, to your personal Favorites collection.
In my tests, I just went with the default slider settings for each preset. Adjust does give you the ability to modify the preset (and save as your own) and fine tune your photo to a very fine degree. I’ll be working on that more in the future.
Some photographers make the argument that it is possible to do anything that apps like Adjust can do in Photoshop or Lightroom. I’m not so sure about that. I think the folks at Topaz know some special voodoo. Okay, expert-level Photoshoppers may be able to produce similar results, but personally I’m a big fan of plugins and presets that quickly and easily improve and enhance my images, especially when I can run my mouse over the preset options for an instant preview.
Topaz Adjust can be used with both Lightroom and Photoshop. In Lightroom, Topaz plugins require a separate little app, Topaz Fusion Express, that generates a TIF for editing. I do most of my processing in Lightroom these days, so I access Adjust by going to Photo > Edit In > Topaz Fusion Express; at that point I select options for working on the original file or a copy (always a copy!), then open in Adjust. It’s a little simpler and quicker working from Photoshop, just go Filter > Topaz Labs > Adjust.
Topaz has a very good intro video on the features and use of Adjust that will get you up to speed with the plugin in no time.
Two things I’d like to see Topaz work on for the next version of this program:
(1) The preview images don’t look sharp if you have the zoom set to Fit and the size is something like 16.7%. Viewing at 50% and 100%, the images were sharp. Depending on your monitor size and resolution, you may be able have your preview at something like 25% and get a sharp image.
(2) Topaz Adjust only works with TIFF files, so if you usually save your files in the PSD format, you’ll have to convert or save a copy in TIF format.
Overall, I’m quite impressed with Topaz Adjust and I’m happy to include it in my set of tools for photo editing. If you’d like to explore the possibilities yourself, download the free trial here: www.topazlabs.com/adjust.
Topaz is running a special promotion on Adjust through July 31, 2o15. They’re offering a discount of 40% off ($20 discount), reducing the price to just $29.99. That’s a darn good deal. Use coupon code: JULYADJUST.
Disclosure: that link just above is an affiliate link, so if you decide to purchase Adjust, Topaz will reward me handsomely. But it won’t cost you a cent more, so go ahead and click the link. 🙂
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