So what's your preference?
To do what? I have a lot of the Topaz and the NIK. They do different things.
I now hate them both. Try SmartPhoto :-)
Ok but Silver efx is almost okay...better than Topaz.
I think that Topaz prices are way high for just filters.
On1 will give you a free trial so I suggest you try it, too.
NCMtnMan
Loc: N. Fork New River, Ashe Co., NC
Topaz Studio is free with 10 adjustments, and their AI Clear adjustment (not one of the free ones) is just amazing with what it does.
I use and like all three. Topaz Effects is indispensable for my workflow.
...I'm an "all three" guy, too. They all have their good points, but the *really* good point is being able to use 'em in conjunction with Lightroom and Photoshop with ease.
Very different apps. For fine art I love Topaz Studio which is free but On1 is my go to DAM and post processor. Replaced both PhotoShop and LightRoom for me. And gets better all the time.
photoshack wrote:
I now hate them both. Try SmartPhoto :-)
Ok but Silver efx is almost okay...better than Topaz.
It is clear you do not know how to use them and havent taken the time to find out . I have been using nik since it came out with Nikon software it can do more than you understand , it is based on u- point technology and works at the pixel level . this is why you should work in raw . In raw the pixels are not locked , unlike Jpeg you can now tell pixels to be brighter , darker , sharper and change tone , color etc ,to a degree not achievable with Jpegs.... As for Topaz again you must not have spent any time with them at all I use it daily to take Jpegs to new levels in size and sharpness I work on images for other artist to print from small Jpegs from cell phones usually cant be printed very large without any degree of detail and devoid of pixelization . in Topaz is a engine called" clean 3 "this program there is a sub program style called crisp it has an uncanny ability to smooth out pixels maklng the image to look more painterly coupled with the sharpness slider it can clean up an image to be much larger than the original . When printed on gallery wrapped canvas people love them and buy them . These filters are tools the more the merrier the more tools you have the more services you can offer . Dont buy one over the other . This is why I go to great lengths to keep a windows 7 computer running with both Standalone 32 bit and 64 CS6 so i can keep these filters active I dodnt need to upgrade them they work fine as they are .. when I need speed I will work on a faster MAC with EL Capitan . Then do filter work on the PC...
I, too, have all three – but just learning...
My biggest question right now: Which is best for upsizing smaller file (RAW) images? Topaz 'Clean 3' engine, as NikonBrain mentioned? Does anyone else have preferences? I will be doing some tests - will let you know my (non-techie) findings.
CapeScapesCoastal wrote:
I, too, have all three – but just learning...
My biggest question right now: Which is best for upsizing smaller file (RAW) images? Topaz 'Clean 3' engine, as NikonBrain mentioned? Does anyone else have preferences? I will be doing some tests - will let you know my (non-techie) findings.
ON1 Perfect resize genuine fractals setting ..... I do not use clean 3 for resizing I use it to clean the image up to resize it ..I resize in Perfect Resize..sorry for the confusion
3 apps I know of for resizing images - PhotoShop ($10/month includes LightRoom) , On1 Resize ( $79), Topaz Gigapixel AI. ($99, but on sale right now for $79). I’ve tested all 3 and they all give me the same results most of the time. I left adobe when they went to subscription pricing plus I’m not a professional photographer and PhotoShop is just too complex. Topaz doesn’t have a Data Asset Management app. They just sell a lot of different apps which standalone or are plugins. All of them are resource hogs requiring the latest hardware with lots of ram and graphics ram. I use Topaz Studio 2 for artistic photos effects (not free anymore) but it was the worst implementation of a new software ever with 14 updates in first month. It’s pretty stable now. I also use Topaz Sharpen AI. It allows me to recover some images that aren’t sharp (On1 does as well) or unstable , or out of focus. It’s the last two where it does something On1 doesn’t. On1 is my platform product as it is a Data Asset Management as well as great non-destructive post Processing software with hdr, pano, stacked focus, resize, great printing facilities etc all in one app. The Data Asset Management can be a catalog but also it can work as a browser based Data Asset Management using the file structure of your os. It is the fastest app. For instance, just last week Topaz put out a new version of Giga.. so I downloaded a trial and tested it against On1 resize on a raw image of 24 mb. Giga took over 5 minutes to process the image. On1 about 15 seconds. I resized them 500%, looked at both a difference comparisons zoom levels and could tell the difference. Anyway, those are my results. I’m on an iMac btw.
At some point in time, I have purchased all 3. I use Topaz and the Nik collection almost every time I am doing serious work. I have not kept up my coverage of OnOne products and do not plan to do so. I have used OnOne once in a while, but the other 2 are used consistently, separately or together in workflow.
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