Topaz BW Effects Review

Conclusion

Who is the Topaz B&W Effects for?

If you already have an imaging program like Photoshop CS5 with good features for conversion to monochrome and if you do not want to create a vintage film grain or photo paper look, then Topaz B&W Effects might be overkill.

But if you want to create monochrome images that looks like vintage photos, or if you want to be really creative with the conversion, Topaz B&W Effects is a good choice. It's price is reasonable, it is easy to use and performs well, and you can even try before you buy - the 30 day free trial version has full functionality.

We tested this This Topaz plug-in with Photoshop CS5 and it performed fairly well on 16MP images from the Pentax K-5 even on our dated Pentium D 3 GHz computer with Windows XP. It can, however, take a painfully long time to open an image because the plug-in applies the previous conversion to the new image before it displays the desktop with the new (converted) image. We wish this initial conversion could be turned off so that only a very basic conversion would be done upon opening a new image.

There is no history list in Topaz B&W Effects and we did not miss it. Instead it is possible to save snap shots of the adjustments as you go and revert to any earlier snap shot. This is perfectly adequate for this plug-in unlike for Topaz Adjust, where we missed the history list due to the plethora of adjustments offered with that plug-in.

What we did miss was preset color filters, matching the filter types that were offered in the film era. With the two sliders that Topaz B&W Effects provide there is no way to know when you actually "hit" the standard filter (like a Y2 for example) that you try to simulate.

Topaz B&W Effects comes with a somewhat terse User's Guide in pdf form which is available from within the Help menu of the plug-in. It gets you started with the plug-in but not much more. A video tutorial is also available, but that is also just at the overview level. Topaz is working on some in-depth tutorials so if you purchase this plug-in you may want to check their web site from time to time for availability of better training.

Pros and Cons

Rating