Topaz B&W Effects Review – Truly Amazing

I’m not sure if there is photography software that I like as much as the Topaz Labs bundle.  Well, besides my forever “can’t live without” it Photoshop of course!  I saw a picture of a girl with a Photoshop toolbar tattooed on her forearm the other day and instantly got it.  But I digress. Topaz B&W Effects is truly amazing.

Topaz B&W Effects Review

In this post I am going to just demonstrate a bit of what the Topaz Labs B&W Effects plugin can do.  Before I do so however, here is a screenshot of an image open in the software.  You can click on it to view the full-size version:

screenshot Topaz B&W

I chose three vastly different photos to work with, with the intention of demonstrating the almost limitless variety of image outcomes that you can create.  This first image shows how a portrait can quickly be transformed into an authentic appearing vintage photograph.  It’s amazing how realistic the old film tones are.  Each of these images is a result of a single preset with no additional tweaking of the sliders.

Original Aged Effect 2 Cerulean Cambridge Chocolate Classic Black and White Quad Tone Red Quad Tone Redscale 4 Sepia 4 Tea Green Falloff Wenge

With this second photo, I took things a step further and made additional adjustments after choosing a preset.

 

Original Warm Tone with Transparency Raw Umber with a Touch of Transparency Quad Tone Redscale 4 Classic B&W Cerulean Dynamic Cartoon Color with Simplify Adjustment and Transparency Albumin Chocolate with a number of Adjustments

Like the second photo, I first chose a preset for each image and then adjusted the sliders to my liking.  I really love the way that Topaz B&W allows you to bring back some of the color of the original photo but keep the gorgeous vintage film tones.

Original