Topaz Labs worth it?

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The trial is 30 days... Give it a try and let us know what you think. I would be really interested to see what someone that is good at LR thinks. I admit, I just pressed the easy button !
 
While I was at it I ran a quick before and after comparison of a blurred throw away shot run through Topaz Sharpen in the Stabilize mode set to Auto. This was captured a couple of weeks ago out on the Washington coast as this little Sanderling flew past. The amount of blur around the eyes would have been tough to deal with using only the LR slider and even with things like Highpass sharpening, Smart Sharpen or an Unsharp Mask on a Luminosity blending mode layer.

Again, it's easier to compare by clicking each image in turn.

OriginalAfter Topaz Sharpen, Stabilize Mode, Auto Settings
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I've certainly heard of Steve, but no I don't know him personally.

If you ever get out this way you might also check out Mike Jackson's website. Mike is a friend I've shot with over the years but he gets out a lot more than I'm able to: https://www.bestofthetetons.com/2020/11/01/november-2020-daily-journal-for-gtnp-jh/
We visited Yellowstone and Tetons in June 2018. I recall Mike's website was of considerable help in planning our trip. Pass along my thanks. Our time there was too short.
 
Last year I bought Topaz Labs Denoise, Sharpen and Mask AI
To be honest I didn’t use the apps much because we moved from Belgium to France, our new estate asked for a lot of work and time aso.
I noticed Topaz is regularly updating (almost annoying) and today when I fired up the app I got the announcement of an update and the fact my license has expired.
Like I said I didn’t really use the software, but I’ve read about issues with current software (slow, artefacts and such)
Should I update and pay for next year? Or do you think I’d better go anoher path like DXO? (And which path would that be?)
I’ve been waiting for this question. Thanks for asking.
 
I have topaz Studio, DenoiseAI, Sharpen etc.. I am kind of on the fence. I don't really like using denoise that much. I do like the sliders in Topaz studio- precision contrast. Clarity AI does a good job in moderation also.
The constant updates to Denoise AI are very annoying to me. That said, I will keep it and use it occasionally.
 
Last year I bought Topaz Labs Denoise, Sharpen and Mask AI
To be honest I didn’t use the apps much because we moved from Belgium to France, our new estate asked for a lot of work and time aso.
I noticed Topaz is regularly updating (almost annoying) and today when I fired up the app I got the announcement of an update and the fact my license has expired.
Like I said I didn’t really use the software, but I’ve read about issues with current software (slow, artefacts and such)
Should I update and pay for next year? Or do you think I’d better go anoher path like DXO? (And which path would that be?)
It is my understanding that the updates are minimal and generally improve the speed of the processing rather than the quality of the image. It would appear that if you are happy with the results you are currently getting, you can ignore the updates and stick with what you have.
 
I have Topaz Denoise and Sharpen, but have seldom used them after my initial experimentation. I did not find the results significantly better than what I was getting in LR. I will not be extending my license anytime soon. Also, apparently the old license still works until there is a major version change. I'd suggest making sure you have the latest version your license supports before paying for a new license! That said I recently upgraded my DXO Photolab to version 4 specifically for the prime noise option. The results I was able to get on raw photos blew me away!
 
Okay guys! Thanks for your input, I’m still not completely sure wether I really should update, guess we all agree the software is at least usefull for everybody allbeit at different levels of satisfaction.
Going to update since I read the actual updates are better than the former version.
I promised to myself to suspend future updates untill reading they are really an improvement.

Thanks again, appreciate it.👍🏻
 
You could download the free trial version and test it. If you see significant improvements respect your version you can pay for the update (it is about half price respect the fist intallation), otherwise just wait until major improvements occur
 
Personally it's a time thing for me...while I can achieve similar results (up to a point) in Photoshop it takes longer. for correcting small amounts of motion burr Topaz is fantastic IMHO. again this can be corrected in photoshop, however it's very time consuming... Topaz just makes it faster and in some case much faster.
 
I have almost all of the Topaz products and I have to say that I am underwhelmed by their performance. Compared to Lightroom/Luminar, I just don't see any point in using them.
 
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