Topaz B&W Effects
We all love black & white photos – the simplicity, artistry, detail and raw drama all combine to make photos of exceptional beauty and elegance. Black and white photography does a great job of enhancing contrast, shapes and lines in your photos but sometimes the editing process can just be frustrating and confusing.
I have been a Topaz user for some time and have been favorably impressed by the power and ease of use of their products. In fact, I routinely use Adjust, Detail and DeNoise in my post processing technique. Not long ago, I received an email update from Topaz informing me of their new product – I have been a B&W Effects and I immediately decided to give it a shot. I have been playing around with the software for a week now and I couldn’t be happier with it.
The Review
Topaz B&W Effects is a plug-in that is compatible with Lightroom, Aperture, Photoshop CS5, Photoshop Elements, iPhoto, Paint Shop Pro and more. Like all Topaz products, the interface is extremely simple and easy to use. Once you load the plug-in from the filter menu you can select from Traditional, Toned, Stylized, Cyanotype, Albumen, Van Dyke Brown & Opalotype effects and find the the preset you like!
Once you’ve found an interesting preset, use the sliders on the right to fine tune your image. The basic and adaptive exposure menus let you adjust all the basics like contrast, brightness, blacks, whites, details and shadows. Select the color sensitivity and color filter menus to adjust color tones, balance and hue of the overall image allowing you to a create a truly unique looking image.
One of the best things about BW Effects is the local adjustment panel. Choose one of the 5 tools – Dodge, Burn, Color, Detail, or Smooth – and set your brush size and opacity so you can selectively apply these effects anywhere in the image! To make things even better, Topaz has included advanced Edge Aware Technology that really makes it easy to brush only the things you want.
Topaz B&W Effects is one of the most versatile tools I have used for black & white conversion and enhancement. I find the user interface organized and simple to use whether you’re a casual photographer who’s interested in having some fun with your images, or a pro photographer who is looking for a truly unique look for your portfolio.
For a limited time, Topaz is offering 50% off the product price using the coupon code “bwandbeyond”. I also recommend checking out the full Photoshop bundle while your’re there and try out some of the other great Topaz Products like Adjust and Detail.
The Final Product With Topaz B&W Effects:
Other Photos Processed With Topaz B&W Effects
About 
Beautiful conversion! Love the details in the rocks! Thanks for sharing the review.
Chris DeAngelis recently posted..Water Under the Bridge
Love B&W Effects myself! Still in the learning process of processing photographs and of course I’m not up to snuff on it yet, but this program offers so much power in such a little box definitely worth it – especially for 50% off!
Great selection of samples Jason!
John recently posted..Looking Up Out of Hell
Very nice review Jason. Love the bridge shot. Great composition.
Len Saltiel recently posted..Quiet Time at Dead Horse
Looks like it does a pretty good job. I’m partial to Silver Efex but I don’t think it would hurt to give this a try. They more toys I have the better I guess
A.Barlow recently posted..Island Bells
Thanks for the good review Jason.
Marty Cohen recently posted..The Osher Rainforest
Great review, I might have to give them a try as well.
Jon Stolarski recently posted..1998
Very nice! I may have to give that a try!
Steve Beal recently posted..Audubon Greenwich
Thanks so much for the review! I’m glad I saw your tweet about it. I’ve been wanting to do a B&W conversion plugin but hadn’t quite gotten around to it. I think this was the little push I needed to get me moving.
Teresa recently posted..iPhone Camera
After this review, I am going to have to give this a serious look. I could use something to give my b/w street shots a bit more sprucing up!
Chris Nitz recently posted..Snack Break
Thx Jason for a great overview.
I’ve been using Nik for awhile; however I made it a point to learn more about BnW this year and try to improve by work on that end of the spectrum. I was the guy that would pop the image into Nik, hit some presets, find one a like and go to town. After improving my learning and realizing that BnW is more about color than one could ever imagine in that its really managing the collision between red, blue, and green channels.
One would be of great advantage to learn some of the “hand” conversions like LAB, Gradient and most importantly using the Channel Mixer conversion technique in CS5 (most closely approximates the old school approach of hand mixing your emulsion). Once you have more control over this color channel collision you can elevate your BnW game. Does this mean forgoing the use of Nik and Topaz. Not at all. In fact after Channel mixing you can then take the image into one of these packages and use their available even more granular controls and then blend very specifically with your original BNW conversion. The results are awesome. I will even then take that image and go back into Nik for some toning and vignetting as a final touch.
Some great resources to learn more are photographer Vincent Versace. He has some tutorials on the web, his web site and a Kelby Training course. Check out his work and use these tools along with other methods and the game can be taken to a new level and enjoy BnW even more.
Outstanding review Jason! I’ve got to get this before the price goes up.
Curt Fleenor recently posted..The Road Ahead
Nice review!
What’s your thought when you compare it with Topaz Adjust? Because personally I wasn’t too impressed by that one… But at this introductionprice I guess I should just download it, especially since I will have some $-Euro conversion benefit as well…
Stephan – I actually use Adjust a lot and quite like the effect. I use it in conjunction with Photoshop however so I can lesson the effect on the image in places. It’s hard to compare it with the two however because each of them are for different purposes. The interface and layout of B&W Effects is very similar to Adjust but it allows you to do local adjustments which is not possible with Adjust. If you let me a little more background as to what you don’t like about Adjust I can give you better feedback.
Great review Jason… I bought the Topaz Photoshop bundle a few months back, and soon as I received their email regarding the B&W plug-in I was quick to order!
As you rightly say, their software is excellent… and it plays a regular, if not daily role with my workflow!
Simon Morris recently posted..Walking the plank…
Great job Jason. Wonderful review!
Thanks for the review. I may have to give this a try.