Tag Archives: Topaz

*The Entire Topaz Collection on crazy sale! $249.99 for all 15 Topaz Plugins

by in Postprocessing techniques, Software tutorials / reviews and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

 

topaz complete photography collection sale black friday cyber monday discount code

Topaz Labs is cutting the price of their complete collection, normally $430 to $250 for the next four days HERE!

Let it rain, let it pour.  Black Friday has become synonymous with hoards of shoppers jostling to get that $20 dvd player while normally ignoring that there may be another (or many) human beings between them and said dvd player.  Then came Cyber Monday (this next monday) where on line retailers and web based deals come out in force.  As those of us stateside crawl out of our food based comas, the inevitable deals begin to materialize.  For those outside of the states, you might be able to see this as a good opportunity to capitalize on our bizarre seasonal shopping traditions.

Personally, I’m kind of an opportunist shopper.  I store products away in my brain, a mental wish list as it were, and if I see those products go on sale at a deep enough gouge, I tend to jump.  If you’ve hung out on the fence regarding the Topaz plugins, this my friends, might just be one of those times.

Topaz is offering all 15 of their plugins for $249.99 HERE – Use code “BLACKFRIDAY2014 ” at checkout

Great news for those of us that already own one or more of the Topaz plugins.  Click the link above, and if you sign in before checking out (using the email that you’ve had your activation codes sent to for previous purchases, and would have any new ones sent to) you get further discounts as you won’t obviously need to purchase them again, unless you want to.  This sale runs through this Monday, December 1st, so the window is short, but oh so potentially sweet.

All plugins, if purchased individually would total $869.85!  The complete Topaz Collection normally discounts this down to $429.99, so cutting this down to $250 is pretty substantial.  Taking into consideration that Impression alone is $99.99, DeNoise is $79.99, ReMask is $69.99 and Clarity is $49.99 (which are all amazing plugins) the deal is killer.  Add to that, Black and White Effects, Adjust, Clean, Detail, and then 7 more products…  Well, you get the gist.

Come on in for links to my reviews on many of these amazing plugins, and more clarification on how much you save if you already own some of the Topaz programs.

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*Happy Halloween! Using ReMask, Clarity and AS Exposure for some holiday fun.

by in Photography tutorials, Postprocessing techniques, Software tutorials / reviews and tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

happy halloween

 

Halloween is upon us.  We’re only a week away from discounted bags of little candies and the beginnings of Christmas decorations adorning every retail outlet.  With Topaz currently offering their cool photo enhancement plugin Topaz Clarity at 25% off until this Friday Oct 31st (Click HERE and use code “octclarity”), I thought it would be fun to use it as part of a little tutorial.  Last year, when Topaz ReMask went on sale, I used my jack o’lantern as my muse and replaced my head with it.  After fielding inquiries about my penchant for replacing my head with pumpkins, cameras and various other objects over the last couple years, I thought I’d take the opportunity to show you how easy it is, while creating a fun family portrait in the meantime.  I’ve set up links to download free trials of all the plugins used if you’d like to try it yourself.  Come on in…

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*Been waiting for this one. Topaz Clarity on sale!

by in Postprocessing techniques, Software tutorials / reviews and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

P1070930Ever since Topaz Clarity came out last year, I’ve fielded inquiry upon inquiry about my thoughts on it, and if I knew when it would possibly go on sale…  Well, come on in for a few of my thoughts, and yes, it’s on sale now through the end of October for 25% off HERE via Topaz Labs (use code “octclarity ” at checkout to get 25% off making the normal $49.99 a paltry $37.50).  If you want to see what Clarity offers, why not try downloading the full, free trial via the link above.  It’s a good one… Continue reading →

*I thought my way was easy… Hair Masking made ridiculously simple, and remarkably effective.

by in Postprocessing techniques, Software tutorials / reviews and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

topaz remark does it again!

I get a lot of email trying to promote, or sell me stuff daily.  Deals on this, or sales on that.  Discounts on memory cards, or steep cuts on camera kit prices.  Normally, I quickly scan them and toss them as my time and energy is pretty minimal these days.

As any readers will know, my enjoyment of the Topaz plugins run deep, and although I only started to use ReMask last year, it has been a revelation for me, especially when it comes to meticulous selection tasks, like hair.

Imagine my surprise when up pops an even simpler hair masking tutorial from our friends at Topaz Labs showing that you can turn a task that without ReMask has taken me up to an hour or more into an even more remarkably time saving step of about 3-5 minutes at the most.

Seriously.  If you use photoshop, and you ever have had to select something like hair, you’ll know how tedious it can be even with the best techniques in Photoshop.

Oh yeah, and on top of this killer tutorial, they’re offering ReMask for 20% off (click HERE to download the free trial, or buy ReMask on Sale using code: “hairmask20”)!!!  It’s a little, unofficial sale that I didn’t see coming.

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*Congratulations to Billyburg! Our first semi-annual Flickr Photo Blog Challenge Winner.

by in Photo Blog Challenge and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Evening Glow by billyburg

 

“Evening Glow” by billyburg (visit and see more from billyburg HERE)

Our first giveaway winner has been decided by you guys.  With a combined effort between my site and Heather and Mat’s site Mirrorlessons (visit them HERE), billyburg has compiled the most votes, and is your first semi annual Flickr Photo Blog Challenge Winner.

Congratulations billyburg, and thank you to everyone who voted, and submitted over the last six months.

Billyburg has won a custom built T&T Garda wrist strap (see more HERE) as well as a Topaz Plugin of his  choice!  We hope to continue to build our community through these fun, free monthly challenges, and if you’ve not yet submitted, you have a chance monthly.  The winner of each month’s challenge gets to choose the theme for the next month while getting exposure both here and on Heather and Mat’s site.

Find us on Flickr:

TRP Flickr Group

Mirrorlessons Flickr Group

Thanks again to Heather and Mat for a fun and successful hosting of 6 months worth of challenges.  Here’s to our next 6 months and beyond.

All the best, and happy shooting!

Tyson

*Brand New Topaz Impression, for artistic exploration.

by in Postprocessing techniques, Software tutorials / reviews and tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

ImpressionFullblog

Through the photo industry insanity that seems to come along every time Photokina shows up, it’s easy to let other announcements fall through the cracks.  Topaz has quietly announced yet another brand new program, and it is awesome.  Topaz takes aim at the digital painting software realm with Topaz Impression.  On sale through September for 25% off as an introductory offer (use code SEPIMPRESSION at checkout) CLICK HERE, it may be the creative kick you’ve been looking for.  Come on in to see more…

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*MacPhun Tonality Pro. The new king of B&W conversion?

by in Postprocessing techniques, Software tutorials / reviews and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

macphun tonality pro software plugin

If I were to ask you, which black and white software do you feel is the best out right now, what would you say?  NIK Silver Efex Pro?  Alien Skin Exposure 6?  OnOne Perfect B&W?  Topaz B&W Effects?  While I can, and would make arguments for a couple of these, I have to say that this question for Mac users just got a whole lot harder.

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*Time to vote! Choose the Champion

by in Photo Blog Challenge and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

challenge6month

Hello and welcome to our first, semi-annual giveaway vote, where you can choose who has provided us with the best overall image from our first 6 monthly challenges, is granted our undying adoration and given some free stuff as well.  Over the last 6 months, Heather, Mat and I have coordinated a monthly, dual blog challenge here and on Heather and Mat’s site Mirrorlessons where a theme is presented at the beginning of each month.  Anyone can submit an image into our theme specific Flickr group discussion threads for consideration.  At the end of the month, Heather, Mat and I choose an image that we each feel best exemplifies that theme and open it up for a vote.  The winner of that vote then gets to choose the next theme, and we begin again.  It has been a fun way to get to know and interact with many more photographers here and through Flickr, hopefully also translating into inspiration for many of us.  When we started this, we’d merely hoped that we could find a way to further build a community while gaining and hopefully providing some fun inspiration as a way to share our images with a wider audience.  It has been working and we’re thrilled with the connections made and beautiful imagery we’ve seen presented through these monthly challenges.

This brings us to our first giveaway vote!  The fine folks at Topaz Labs, creators of many very awesome software programs and plugins, have offered a free program of the winners choice.  I will also be building a custom Garda Wrist Strap for said winner with a few different color choices, not quite yet available for purchase and the title of our first, Semi-Annual Challenge Champion.

Let the vote commence!  Please come in and vote for your favorite image.

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*Time to vote! Vote for the winner of our sixth monthly Flickr Photo Blog Challenge; Animals

by in Photo Blog Challenge and tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Below are our three chosen images for the 6th monthly Flickr Photo Blog Challenge.  The vote runs until Friday, September 5th.  You can see each image, and their creator by clicking on the links below each image which will bring you to their Flickr stream.  The poll is below, so vote for your favorite and stay tuned for new challenges and our Semi-Annual giveaway!

Evening Glow by billyburg

“Evening Glow” by billyburg 

"Fido the Puggle" by ganjocson

“Fido the Puggle” by ganjocson

"Call of the Goats" by AnggaPJ

“Call of the Goats” by AnngaPJ

The winner whose image gathers the most votes between the poll here and HERE on Mirrorlessons.com (don’t forget to vote for your fave on both!) will not only choose our theme for September’s challenge, but will be entered into our semi-annual giveaway.

The previous 6 monthly winners of each individual challenge will be put up for a new vote soon.  We will all get to vote for our favorite overall image with the winner receiving a Topaz Plugin of their choice, and a handmade T&T Garda Wrist strap.

With September’s challenge, the cycle starts again and in 6 months time, we will have 6 new monthly winners vying for free prizes.  There are no restrictions on participating in our monthly challenges.  All you need to do is submit an image in the TRP Flickr Group and Mirrorlessons Flickr Group discussion threads as they open for the particular month.  Vote and stay tuned for our next challenge.

*More Free Filters for Topaz Adjust!

by in Postprocessing techniques, Software tutorials / reviews and tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

o-retrostyleV

 – Retro Style V –

If you missed it, Topaz is offering their popular plugin Adjust for half off through the month of August.  I’ve already shilled for it, but this morning I got the Topaz newsletter which included 20 new, free presets for Adjust users.  I’ve downloaded and played around with them and they’re a great bundling of retro/vintage filters.  I ran this portrait through each of them and I’m impressed with more than a few.  If you’ve not yet checked out Adjust, you can download the full trial for free HERE (click on ‘buy adjust’ and find the trial link at the bottom of the page).  If you want to purchase it, you can do so HERE and enter “augadjust” to get it for 50% off (now $25 through the end of the month).  If you do choose to buy it, or already have it and didn’t get the newsletter, might I suggest going to the Topaz Newsletter HERE to download the 20 new, free filters (button at the top right) and follow the easy instructions to add them to your library of filters for Adjust (at the bottom of the article).  Come on in to see more versions, showing a few more of these cool filters.

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