Playing with Topaz

A few years ago, I downloaded a trial version of Topaz Impression and had a lot of fun playing with it. I created one particular image that I loved -- and was loved enough by someone else that they wanted a full-sized canvas of it -- and then my trial version ran out. It was a bit pricey for our single-income family at the time, so I opted to wait to buy it. And I waited and waited -- until this past fall when I did some photography work for someone and got a few extra dollars to spare, and decided that my time to purchase Topaz Impression had finally arrived!

Excitedly, I purchased it... installed it... and discovered, to my great dismay, that our computer was incapable of running it in a way that made it at all usable. The newer version was just too much for our system. So when we had to upgrade our computer (somewhat unexpectedly) this winter, I was elated that our new system can now run Topaz without blinking an eye. (Not that computers blink, but you know what I mean.)

I haven't done a lot of shooting recently, but I have enjoyed some 'plays' with a few shots, so I thought I would share a couple of things on the blog, all fairly different from one another and a little extra fun for me. Hope you enjoy them! I'll include the regular edits after the painterly Topaz edits, so you can compare! Let me know what you think!

(Continued apologies for some of the pixelization of these images. Resizing for this blog continues to be a source of consternation for me!)

Heather, Topaz edit

The first one is a favourite; I love the feeling of this, an image of heather turned into something much more soft and painterly.

Heather, original edit

African Violet Petal, Topaz edit

African Violet Petal, regular edit

Autumn's Invitation, two very different Topaz edits

This one is my favourite because I'm a sucker for colour (which is why I rarely do black and white conversions!).

In spite of my love of colour, I like this second one for its moodiness. It feels a bit more like a mysterious and slightly foreboding walk through the woods!

Autumn's Invitation, regular edit

Multiple Exposure Play, Topaz edit

This one is considerably different, and I don't really have an original edit to show you because it was made by taking multiple exposures of some grasses using intentional camera movement in different directions, then stacking them on top of one another and then playing around with the image very very heavily in Topaz. It turned out pretty cool!