There’s a new layer-based editor in town. Topaz Studio 2 has officially launched and brings major changes to the image editing and effects software.
Topaz Studio 2 is now a one-time single purchase price that includes all the adjustments by default, whereas in the first version users would need to individually buy the effects they wanted. Inside the application, the entire user interface and workflow has been refreshed and streamlined to focus around the new non-destructive, layer-based editing support. Filters can be fine tuned with blending modes and opacity, and readjusted at any point in the editing process.
The new program also emphasizes the use of selective adjustments so that only desired parts of the photos are tweaked with effects rather than globally. These include edge-aware brush and spot tools plus a context-aware gradient tool, as well as being able to make selections based on color and luminance.
Topaz Labs has released a few quick tutorials to get you started with Topaz Studio 2 including how to boost blue skies, creating a soft pastel look, selectively saturate an desaturate photos, high contrast black and white edits, and how to save custom looks.
For the next two weeks, Topaz Studio 2 has an introductory price of $79.99, after which it will be raised to the regular price of $99.99. Free trials can be downloaded and used for 30 days. The new application is supported on both Windows and Mac as a standalone program or as an Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom plugin.
Shame on you promoting such a piece of crap.
Topaz makes some pretty amazing stuff. Sharpen AI and DeNoise AI are easily the best developments in post processing since NIK a long, long time ago.
I'm not sure what the problem with this is. I have no professional association with Topaz, but they are an integral part of my workflow. I may not use a third-party component to most of my retouching, but when I do, one of more of the Topaz products is my first go-to solution.
With their more recent AI introductions over the last year or so, I am also finding opportunities to clean up past work when a client needs it in today's expected resolution. Yes, some of the programs are so slow as to be almost worthless, but most of them do things that I can't begin to do on my own, and I'm a pretty good retoucher.
My biggest concern is that Topaz may later jettison some of their products. Their AI Clear product is the absolute single best one they offer, and now you can get to it only by going first to AI DeNoise and selecting the second option. At one point AI Clear was the cornerstone product of all their AI offerings. I would be lost without it and worry that Topaz may discontinue it to push people to other AI offerings.
Article sounds like an Ad. Does not focus on any of it' shortcomings, every software has them. To not even mention one, moves this into the Ad category, it should be labeled as such.
For Pete's sake, it's a product announcement not a review. Product announcements are news when they come from established photo editing software packages from established companies like Topaz Labs.
🦉 How does one access the DeNoise filter in Studio 2? I actually do own a paid version of DeNoise. All I see is AI Clear in the Filters tab.
Edit: There has been an update & a new Remove Noise filter included but this is similar to Camera Raw's Noise Reduction as it's simply way too fast at processing.
I went ahead & purchased Studio 2 using a 20% off code: Hazelweb719
I won’t pretend to know everything about Studio 2, but they do have a FAQ page that might answer your question: https://help.topazlabs.com/hc/en-us/articles/360030845652-Topaz-Studio-2...
In the example it looks like they suggest first running DeNoise separately outside of Studio for now. But it also says that in the first major update they will add plugin support so hopefully that’s included to streamline things.