Topaz lens effects review manual#
Topaz lens effects review software#
Topaz lens effects review professional#

All in all, these effects are grouped into 20 categories, each one with customizable settings and well-defined presets.Ī really nice feature of the plugin is that it includes the option to save, import and export settings. While most plugins of this type concentrate on one or two specific effects and provide a number of tools to customize the final result, Lens Effects actually supports a wider variety of filters – including bokeh, fisheye, pinhole, vignette and even prism effects. In addition to Photoshop, Lens Effects is also compatible with Photoshop Elements, Paint Shop Pro, Photo Impact and Serif PhotoPlus.

Topaz Lens Effects is one such plugin, and it’s definitely among the best in its class – especially considering its price. There are several Photoshop plugins that focus on this type of image manipulation, with each one giving varying types of results.

Topaz lens effects review software#

Although some diehards might frown at this suggestion, one way to experiment with different lens effects without going broke at the camera shop is to use “virtual” lenses – editing software which lets you digitally apply filters that mimic the look of these effects. Once you start experimenting with different ones, it’s easy to get hooked – but it’s a pretty expensive addiction to feed.

Topaz lens effects review professional#

Creating selective blurring on images with more complex foreground to background relationships that do require precise depth maps is likely to still be a challenge.You don’t have to be a professional photographer to become addicted to camera lenses. The focus and blur effects that don’t require a complex depth map all produce very good results. It provides very good results for many of its offerings (the weakest in my opinion are the pinhole and toy camera effects). Lens Effects is a useful plug-in for those who want a wide variety of lens effects easily accessible in one place.

Topaz lens effects review manual#

The interface and procedure for creating and editing these masks is very promising, but on some images I found myself wishing that I could make fully manual edits to the depth map to address errors in the automated process (the edits you do make are user-directed, but the program computes the change, so the tools aren’t totally manual). Overall, it does a good job at defining these areas and creating a mask of gray values from foreground (black) to background (white), though there are occasional inaccurate edges. There are several presets for many of the effects, or you can create you own presets.įor the Bokeh – SLR Lens and Bokeh – Selective effects, you can make a depth map to define what areas should be in focus. The interface is very Lightroom-esque with effects and presets on the left, a center preview area, and specific controls for each effect on the right. Lens Effects is available as a plug-in for Photoshop, as well as Lightroom and Aperture. This includes bokeh effects (shallow depth of field, blurry backgrounds) tilt-shift or creative blur (think Lensbaby) toy camera-like color and focus deficiencies graduated neutral-density filters or modifications like fixing geometric distortion, adding grain, or simple vignettes.

Topaz Labs recently released Lens Effects, a plug-in that offers the ability to add a wide variety of lens-type effects to your photos. Photoshop Plug-in Mimics Lens Blur Effects