We’ll start with this original shot of the Shasta Lake in California. Click on each image to see them in full size. If we compare photos from a fairly new post-processor’s point of view (mine) and not that of a professional trying to sell you their product, some things become fairly evident. The layer on top says Color Efex Pro was applied with a Contrast Color Range effect The layer will also have the name of the effect applied, which is neat. Both launch relatively quickly, though Nik Software appears slightly faster because it doesn’t launch a new application.Īdjust directly modifies any image by making changes to the existing layer, while Color Efex adds a new layer – this is a huge plus, because you apply filters without losing direct access to the original image. On the right side of both applications you get to make minor adjustments to the effect and its strength.īoth Topaz Labs and Nik Software act as Photoshop plugins that let you apply effects as filters straight from Photoshop. You certainly do end up twiddling around with more of them in Adjust. Color Efex categorizes its filters into “Portrait”, “Landscape”, “Stylizing”, “Traditional”, and “All” while Adjust bins them into “Classic Collection”, “Vibrant Collection”, “HDR Collection”, “Film Collection”, and some more. Color Efex boasts 55 filters, while Adjust has twice as many “presets” – we’ll find out that quantity doesn’t always bring quality, however. This is the view from the Nik Software UI – it runs a bit off the screen and can’t be made any smaller on my 1280×800 Macbook Pro displayĬolor Efex will set you back about $80 at minimum, while Topaz Adjust alone is $50. Nik Software has been in business since 1995, whereas Topaz Labs has a much shorter history, having been founded in 2005. Note I am using an older version of Nik’s Color Efex Pro (3 instead of 4), so I some things may have changed in the newer version. While each has a multitude of applications, I will be comparing their flagship products, the Color Efex Pro on Nik and Topaz Adjust. Granted, using it feels like using Instagram, but it seemed like a quick and easy solution to reimagine some of my photos. I found out about Topaz Labs at MacWorld 2011 and was pretty impressed by what it could do. Since I just found out about Google’s acquisition of Nik Software I figured I’d write a quick comparison of the that and the tool I have been using up to now, Topaz Labs.
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