This has been a long time coming. I need to publicly express how I feel about photography, what […]
Category Archive: News
Since last January, I have been using Topaz Labs software as a regular part of my workflow. I still use Luminar for my RAW decoder and as a catalog and I still use some of my custom presets that I made for Luminar.
Several people have contacted me about how I make my photo paintings. It starts with a traditional bird photo and then I mask out the bird using Topaz Mask AI. Then I add a texture, a background or both and blend them in. Lastly I use Topaz Studio to create the painting effect.
Every few months I plan to give you a quick update on Topaz products. I have been using these products since January 2020, and I have come to rely on them for almost all of my post-processing needs once I get things organized and give each image a quick fix in Luminar 4.0. Then I move to Topaz for things like noise reduction, sharpening, enlarging, painting and more.
Here is some exciting news.
Topaz Labs has released an update to Sharpen AI. This major update includes a new auto-detect masking tool to generate base masks. It can detect 20 different types of subjects, including people, cars, planes, and various animals. This feature can be accessed by clicking the “Masking” brush button to the right in the file list and then “Find Objects” in the left corner.
Olympus has released official guidance on the sale of the camera division to JIP. Rather than read rumor sites, you can visit Picturemethods and be confident you will find actual facts.
Topaz Labs released a free update to Gigapixel AI. This update includes a model improvement for better results, a new single-image preview view, new zoom options, and the new “man-made” mode to better enhance the details in cityscapes, typography, and other images with clear outlines and sharp edges.
Gigapixel AI from Topaz Labs just got an update and it’s free for current users. New users have just a few days to save $20 on an introductory pricing package that celebrates the new release.
We had our first contest last year and gave away a bunch of gear to happy photographers. (Read about it here – https://picturemethods.com/2019/07/31/announcing-the-first-picture-methods-camera-giveaway/) Now we’re gonna do it again.
In our second gear giveaway, we’ve got great prizes for PictureMethods readers and listeners.
