Topaz Photo AI and DXO Photolab 6 (with DXO Viewpoint 4)

 Topaz Labs which makes the apps I use for denoising, sharpening and enlarging photos released a new product which, a nice surprise, was considered included with the apps I already had so I got to download it for free. It's basically a more automatic and less powerful version of the other apps rolled into one. 

I would say it's a great product, it's easy and does pretty much what you need for most photography issues that are not extreme in nature. You can quickly take away pixel noise, sharpen the image and enlarge it in one place instead of three apps. The other software isn 't useless, it's more powerful and when you have a very low light situation or and old photo that is too small to use or too blurry it can make them relevant again for print or other work. If you don't have the other products, this would be a good way to get the basic benefits of Topaz AI without spending a lot of money or taking up space on a laptop. 

DXO Photolab is my "Lightroom" replacement or to be honest, my Adobe Bridge replacement since I never used Lightroom. It's limited compared to the Adobe products in how many formats it can handle... basically just JPG, RAW and Tif and I think this new version has some ability to open video but I haven't looked into that yet. Version 6 sees an update the denoise function which was already maybe the best out there. I also added the DXO Viewpoint add-on which integrates itself  into the normal functions of Photolab and can be opened as a stand alone. The update price, in CAD, was 150$ and money not well spent. 

It's not the the software hasn't improved or that Viewpoint is't great to have integrated directly into the workflow. The problem is the updates are mostly minor and Viewpoint is pretty much identical to the NIK plugin that does the same thing, in the same way but only as a standalone app. I should have know better since the last couple of NIK updates were not worth the price either. 

If you don't have any of the DXO/NIK products I highly recommend them but the updates, while arriving often, are not anything to pay more for. The NIK plug-ins are just updated to the new interface, a fantastic interface, but you are paying for a full upgrade for only a couple of them and then again a year later for a couple more. That should have been done in one paid update to be worthwhile. 

IN USE all this stuff is great.The photo above was taken on my morning ride on my far from great iPod touch phone. I was able to improve it to the point it could have been taken with my DSLR, something ithtthat I do not always have with me on rides. 

Software: Sketchbook Pro and Procreate

 Lately I have been using Sketchbook Pro a lot more. I had almost thought that I would be using Procreate exclusively on the iPad and forgetting about Sketchbook but as I got back into ink portraits, I found I liked Sketchbook's ink brushes much better and while the interface is weird, no double tap to undo for example, I would it handled palm rejection perfectly and the button that moves pretty much everything out of your way while drawing was super helpful. It also lets you transfer over to the desktop version and I really appreciate that. I finish off most of my drawings on the 27 inch 5 k iMac because it's suck a great image and the size lets me really see any problems. 

Procreate has been really good with architectural drawings, the way it handles making straight lines is far superior to Sketchbook which uses a visual ruler you drag the pencil along to make a straight line, it also has other tools to visually make shapes with. It's very much like using those plastic shapes I would draw with on paper back in the day... cute, traditional but also an extra step or more. Working in colour with Procreate takes some getting used to and I'm not there yet but I find it easier than Sketchbook. The interface is a little in the way at times but it takes advantage of the iPad Pro power in ways other programs haven't yet. 

It seems like I'll be using both for the time being. Sketchbook is now owned by users who took it over from Autodesk and they have been making improvements especially on the desktop version including really nice new brushes. If i can get my head around colour workout it the fact I can go between iPad and desktop might convince me to put Procreate on the back burner, but I am nowhere near there yet. 

I like to work with the least amount of applications possible so I don't have to learn a million things keep track of a million updates, not to mention the cost (though Procreate is one time fee and Sketchbook is free) but I also want to use the best tool for the job so for now these are my iPad preferences and Krita is my desktop preference.