PhotoWalkPro

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I recently downloaded the latest version of Topaz Labs’ Topaz Adjust 4 and I have to say that I am digging some of the new improvements to the plug-in.  The GUI (that’s Graphic User Interface for those of you that don’t speak-a da geek) has been greatly improved.  First take a look below at the ver. 3 interface.

You can see that, while functional, it lacked a certain organizational structure.  It also wasn’t very pretty with all those sliders just hanging out there at the bottom of the screen.  Now take a look at the new and improved ver. 4.

As you can see, everything is very well laid out and it has a much more polished look to it.  There are drop-down panels on the right side of the screen for all of the adjustment sliders and the presets have been totally re-done.  In ver. 3 there were small thumbnails of the image for each preset with a rendering of that effect on the image.  In the newest version, not only are there a lot more presets, there are no longer individual preview thumbnails.  Now when you mouse over a preset, it will display the effect on the small preview window above the preset list.  This is very reminiscent of the way that Lightroom displays its presets in the Develop Module.  I have been playing with some of the new presets including the HDR Settings.  They aren’t really HDR but they give a very similar look to the image.  Here’s a before and after shot using Topaz Adjust 4 with one of the HDR presets.

So here’s the good and the bad on this latest version.

The Good -

First off, if you have already purchased version 3, then the version 4 update is absolutely free.  How cool is that.  If you have yet to purchase it, it can be had for only $50 (if you are a NAPP member, you can get a discount off of that price by going to the NAPP Member Discount pages).  If you purchase before March 15, you can get 20% off the price by using the code on the Topaz Adjust website.  There’s even a free 30-day trial so you can play around with it and really decide if it’s worth your money. As long as I am listing the good, I think it’s worth noting that the plug-in is available for both Windows and Mac. I have to say that I have been a user of Adjust for some time and it is one of my all-time favorite Photoshop/Lightroom Plug-ins.

The Bad -

Unfortunately there are still a few bugs rolling around in the new version and I have been hearing of a few different problems from different people.  My issue is that it won’t open using the Topaz Fusion program from Lightroom (check out my review of Fusion here).  One of the great things I loved about Ver. 3 was being able to go to Adjust directly from Lightroom, but when I launch Fusion and select Adjust 4, it just kicks me right back to Lightroom.  If I open the plug-in from Photoshop I have no problems and everything works as it should.  Someone else told me that they were getting bizarre colors in the Adjust window when they used the plug-in with Lightroom.  One other person told me that Adjust had crashed their Photoshop 4 times when they tried to use the plug-in.  This kind of thing happens with a lot of new software releases and I expect that some bug-fixes will be rolling out fairly soon.

So the bottom line is that you might want to wait a little longer to upgrade to this version (like until they have some of these bugs ironed out) but that aside, it is a plug-in that you will certainly want to have in your bag of tricks.  And did I happen to mention that it’s also compatible with Photoshop Elements, Aperture, and iPhoto?

Thanks for your patience while I worked out my small video issue.  So today I am going to give you a quick guided tour of the Viveza Plug-in.  I tried to hit most of the major features to show you how you just how quickly you can can use the powerful features of this software.  If you would like to learn more about Viveza 2 and all the other great Nik Plug-Ins, check out the Nik website and give their 15-day free trial a spin.

UPDATE -

I forgot to include this in the video but there is one other feature in the Viveza 2 plug-in that really kicks butt.  If you turn convert your image into a Smart Object in Photoshop before using the plug-in, Viveza 2 will act like a Smart Filter.  This means that after you apply your changes, you can go back into the Viveza dialog box and rework them if you desire.  How cool is that?

I was reading a comment on the blog yesterday from Piet Osefius who told me about his blog that’s all about the Lumix LX3 camera.  The blog is written for the Dutch population but lucky for me, Piet has a language translation feature so, instead of brushing up on my Dutch, I just converted the page to English.  He had some great info on the Lumix but something else on his blog caught my eye.  It was a post by Piet about the PTLens program for correcting lens distortion.  After doing a little research I found that the PTLens program will work as a stand-alone application, a Photoshop plug-in, and a Lightroom external editor.  If you are on a Mac, you can also use it in Aperture and iPhoto.

I installed the application for use in Lightroom, which was quite easy.  All I had to do was drag the program to my Applications folder and then set it as an additional external editor in my Lightroom preferences.

Once set up, all it takes it a right-click on an image to select PTLens and open up the lens correction program (the application requires the creation of a duplicate image, which is then stacked with the original when you return to Lightroom).

When the program opens, you have several options for correcting distortion, vignette, and chromatic aberration.  The thing I really like is that the program reads the metadata from the image and automatically applies the proper distortion correction without having to touch a single button.

There is a grid overlay that can be adjusted to any grid size you wish, which comes in handy when doing perspective corrections.  Also, if the program can’t read your metadata you can select your camera make, model, and lens from the drop-downs in the Barrel-Pincushion section.

Overall, I found the program to be extremely easy to use and it does a fantastic job at correcting lens distortion, even better than the Lens Correction filter in Photoshop.  The price tag for all this useful correction is $25.  Not a bad price for so much functionality.  To get a better idea of the capabilities of PTLens you should check out their website and while you are there, take a look at the Examples page.  You can also download a trial version, which allows you to correct 10 images.

Take a look at my before and after images from a wide angle shot of a doorway in Malacca.

Check out the distortion in the frame of the door.

Here's the image as corrected by PTLens.