My friends over at Topaz Labs have done it again with the latest release of Topaz Impression, their plugin for adding artistic effects to photos.
I didn’t get a chance to review this product the first time around, so I was delighted to be able to check it out this time and play with all the presets on some of my photos. I had a blast seeing what kinds of effects looked good on different types of images.
What It Does
Topaz Impression uses intelligent drawing technology to add painting effects to your photos. There are over 140 painting presets in 7 collection to choose from.
You can simply pick one, as I did in all the examples below, or you can further customize the preset using sliders. You can adjust a variety of settings such as the brush stroke, brush size, and the number of strokes, as well as other aspects of the preset such as colour hues, lighting effects, and textures.
The Interface
The interface is very intuitive to use. On the left side you will see your photo with the preset applied to it. In the example below, I have split the left side so it shows the before and after versions of the image.
On the right side, you pick one of the collections from a drop box at the top, and then all the presets within that collection are shown as thumbnails below it. This is a very quick and easy way to see how each of the presets are going to look on your photo. You simply click a thumbnail and the preset will be applied to the preview on the left.
You can then customize it if you want, or choose a different one. When you are finished playing around with the presets and have your photo just the way you want it, you click “ok” and your photo is rendered into a painting.
If you want to customize a preset, you just click the slider icon and all the sliders will pop up allowing you to made all sorts of adjustments.
Making these customizations is totally optional. I actually didn’t customize any of them in my examples below, I just picked presets and used them just as they are out of the box.
Examples
For these example images, I selected a variety of images at random including animals, flowers, and landscapes. I then opened each of the photos in Topaz Impression and then chose the preset I liked the most for that particular image. I didn’t try to pick one from each collection or anything, I just picked ones I liked.
Butterfly
Before
After
Cave Dweller Preset in the Ancient Collection
Trona Pinnacles, California
Before
After
Liquid Lines III Preset in the Modern Collection
Estuary in Campbell River, British Columbia
Before
After
Cezanne II Preset in the Impressionistic Collection
Zebras in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania
Before
After
Liquid Lines II Preset in the Modern Collection
Budir Church, Iceland
Before
After
Chiaroscuro II Preset in Painting Collection
After
Da Vince Sketch I Preset in Ancient Collection
Joshua Tree National Park, California
Before
After
Charcoal II Preset in the Charcoal and Pastel Collection
Pelicans at Salton Sea, California
Before
After
Impasto Fingerpaint Preset in the Impressionistic Collection – WOW! This one turned out a bit different, but I like it 🙂
Skogafoss, Iceland
Before
After
Van Gogh II Preset in the Impressionistic Collection
Yucca Flower
Before
After
Georgia O’Keeffe I Preset in the Painting Collection
Bluebonnet
Before
After
Chalk Smudge Preset in the Pictorial Collection
Overall Impressions
I have to say, I’m extremely impressed with Topaz Impression! Every time I try a new Topaz product I think I’m not going to like it as much as Clarity, Adjust, or ReStyle. But I’m totally sold with this one. I absolutely adore what the Van Gogh preset did to my Icelandic waterfall, and the bluebonnet just above turned out amazing in my opinion. I don’t think I will be using on all of my photos because I still like the natural look, but on certain photos I know I will be running them through Topaz Impression and seeing what kinds of effects I can get.
Important Note: Impression 2 requires Windows 7+, Mac OSX 10.9+, and a GPU with OpenGL 3.3 or higher. It can be used as a stand alone program, or as a plugin with Photoshop CS4+, Photoshop CC, Photoshop Elements 12+ and Lightroom 2+ (I actually used it with Photoshop Elements 9 and it worked just fine.)
The best way to find out if you like how it looks on your photos is to give it a try. You can pick up a free trial version of the plugin and test it out on some of your own images.
Thanks for the review! It is very cool
You are most welcome John! It is pretty cool 🙂 I am still playing with it!
everytime I learn some new tricks from even I take pictures for many years
thanks
Thanks Mordehai, I appreciate your visit and comments!
Thank you so much for telling us about the Topaz Impressions. I have used Corel Painter Essential 5 for a long time until I upgraded the computer and now it won’t work. I am doubly delighted to find this which, after a day on the trial one, I think will suit me very well and give lots of fun. I shall be buying before 7th July. Many thanks for the tutorial on photographing flowers too, most useful. Best wishes, Wendy
Hi Wendy, I used to use Corel Painer too, a long time ago. I liked it, but I remember that it took forever to render the picture. I would pick a setting and start it, and then go make a coffee or go for a walk while it worked away. Topaz Impression isn’t like that, it renders the pictures very quickly. Thanks for your visit and comments!
you took some really nice photos and destroyed them with a cheap shot short cut. except the yacca, thats better. at least if you did work on them you could call them digital graphics.these plugins would best be served on your unusable photos. if you ever had any. love your work!
Well done Anne on my the leap in the RV.
Are you aware of any commercially successful photographers using the impression plug in.
I love it, it’s addictive.
Cheers,
Peter
Love your work Anne….if you have a travel blog I will follow it online of course!
You’re on it Gail! 🙂 This particular post is a review, but all my travel posts are here as well. Glad you enjoy it!
Anne,My husband and I sold the farm and bought a 70 foot motor yacht, lived aboard for 4 years, traveled 16,000 nm’s and visited 13 countries. Campbell river, BC is one of our favorite places. we have stayed both in the big marina, April Point and later we trailered our little aluminum shore boat up and kept it in indoor storage, visiting often enough to go salmon fishing We ended up selling the boat in Victoria where we wintered over. It was a fabulous experience. We then bought an RV and enjoy driving that around the country. Was very interested in Topaz. Have used Photoshop extensively to “Paint” my photo’s.
Hi Leslie, wow, I would love to do that one day. I keep telling Ray it would be just like RVing, except on the water! Fingers crossed 😉 Hope you’re enjoying the RV life now.
When I bought Impressions a year ago, I was really impressed with it. After paying for it via email, Topaz sent me the”key” to unlock the application on my computer, but it has been lost…hence I cannot run it. I’ve tried to contact Topaz to get a “key” without success. In your dealings with Topaz, would you be so kind as to give me their telephone and address?
I love your website.
Thank you, for your help,
Don McKercher. .
Hi Don, You can go here and submit a support request ticket: https://support.topazlabs.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
Another thing you could try is to go go topazlabs.com and see if you can sign in. Sometimes when you purchase, you set up an account along the way, and if you did, you might be able to sign in and find your key. I hope this helps!