Garry Black Photography

WORKSHOP NOTES

Topaz Adjust

BEFORE

AFTER USING ADJUST

Topaz Adjust in a Plug-in for Photoshop (Windows and MAC), that in my opinion is a must have for any photo processing or enhancing. The results can range from subtle to artificially exaggerated. In the above examples I've brought detail back into the skies and in the top image I've lightened the shadow detail. These were created from one single exposure, which is just incredible. It's not an HDR image that requires the combination of several images using different exposures; under, normal and over exposed images.

The workflow that I use for Topaz Adjust is:

1. Create a copy of the Background in the LAYERS palette or use the keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl + J) Windows or  (CMD + J) MAC. This Background Copy is the layer that I'll use for running the filter on.

2. Go to the Filters menu and launch Topaz Adjust.

3. Go through the presets to find the one that looks like it's achieving the effect that looks like what you're looking for. I might click OK at this point or I may make minor adjustment to the EXPOSURE and DETAILS tabs and then click OK.

4. With the filter now applied to the background copy I might like the look as it is and would then flatten the image. But it's more than likely that I'd change the opacity of the layer and I may also erase some areas of the filtered layer as well. I might not erase the layer completely, it depends on the effect that I want to create. There isn't a set formula that you can use, each image is completely different.

You can download a free 30 day fully functional trail of Adjust at the Topaz web site. Other programs from Topaz that I use are DeNoise and Simplify, they are also availble for free 30 day trials.

 15% DISCOUNT

To receive a 15% discount on the purchase on any Topaz product, use the discount code garryblack . Enter that code on the Topaz web site at Checkout when making your purchase.

Topaz Adjust comes with 21 presets, but you can download additional presets here. The one that I find most usefull is the HDR presets. Downloaded these files and unzipped the "TPP" files to PROGRAMS > TOPAZ LABS > TOPAZ ADJUST 3 > PRESETS. These additional presets work with Windows, but I'm not sure if they work on Mac's though. For further information there are some tutorials on the Topaz web site and there is also a FLICKR group for TOPAZ here.

Topaz Blog - Lots of good instructional, technique and product information