Better image with Topaz Adjust

[golympio]

Hi everyone,

So here's the before shot:



And after:



You have to see it large to see the effect better.

I had fun on the tourniquet, with the camera on a tripod, but the tourniquet was wobbly and the camera kept toppling over...

Anyway, Here's the post process I did:

- Import in Lightroom, reduce the chromatic aberrations

- Send to Photoshop for modification

- Duplicate the background layer, apply a very large noise reduction. I set the adjustment to 10, with minimum detail, and did it twice (I'll get back to that later)

- Apply the Topaz Adjust filter. I used the preset called "Detailed", and tweaked the exposure, details and colors to get a result that it highly unrealistic and "cartoonish"

- Set the layer opacity to about 50-60%

- Duplicate the background layer, put the new layer on top of the stack with "hard light" blend mose. The Topaz Adjust filter brings out a lot of unwanted detail if you don't apply noise reduction before, so on this layer we'll bring back the details to the picture.

- Convert to a dynamic layer. It allows for quickly tweaking the details later.

- Apply noise reduction again, but just mildly to get rid of the actual noise.

- Apply a high pass filter, I set the radius to about 5 pixels. For a more cartoonish look you can a apply more noise reduction and set a higher radius to the high pass.

- Adjust the opacity to likeness, usually for the high pass layer I leave it to 100%.

- Back in Lightroom, I added sharpening, got rid of the last chromatic aberrations (the exposure adjustment in Topaz brings them out, just like HDR treatment) and adjusted the saturation and tweaked the exposure a little bit.

Enjoy!

As always comments and questions are welcome.

[windrider86]

That arm looks painful. lol Dont you just love TA! Now you have to get Simplify 2
What is Dynamic Layer tho?

[Snowdust]

Thanks for sharing all the extra steps. Noise was an issue I had when I tried TA. Will file this one away.

[teedlepeep]

That looks so good. I have never used my TA on a people shot .. but I think I will have to now. Have you tried the cleaner ?? I downloaded that the other day, but the one portrait I tried it on, I got a weird skin texture.

[windrider86]

The cleaner? Do tell what is it?

[teedlepeep]

It's another one from Topaz. I think it is Cleaner 2.. From what I have seen in my playing with it, it works a lot like simplify (which I love) only this one has a portrait preset for use on skin. But if you look in the thread I put up here a few days ago entitled "Opinion Needed" (or wanted) you will see that it puts a weird texture on the entire shot.

I did use one of the other presets on one of my flower macros and I liked it. The great thing with TA is you get a full working version during the 30 day free trial !

[wulf]

What Topaz doesn't fix is the blown sky. Did you think of pasting something in from another image to mellow that out?

Wulf

[manu4ever]

Thanks to Golympio for the steps...I did it with CS2 only but still curious what the dynamic layer is.
Here is my pics
before



After



I hope you like it...cc are welcome

[golympio]

Originally Posted by wulf

What Topaz doesn't fix is the blown sky. Did you think of pasting something in from another image to mellow that out?

Wulf

In this case, with the motion blur I don't think the blown-out sky detracts too much the attention from the rest of the picture. Either way, the sky at that moment was almost uniformely grey so you don't lose anything!

To Windrider86: I don't know in which version of Photoshop it was introduced, but by clicking right on a layer you can choose to convert it as a dynamic object. It allows you to use several filters, and come back to the first one you did, for example, and modify the settings.
It's a little taxing on the hardware sometimes, but I do find this feature useful when I'm too lazy to use multiple layers.

[windrider86]

ah probably why I havent heard of it. I dont use Photoshop. at least not very often