Processing IR with Topaz Adjust 5

[f7.1, ISO 100, 10" exposure]

I went for a walk yesterday and the fall colors were beginning their blaze of glory.
I started up my driveway and looked at the trees and the sunlight.
I wondered exactly what would happen if I used the Hoya Infrared R72 filter I'd gotten.

I processed the shot in Corel AfterShotPro and it really didn't look very impressive, it looked flat.  I could have edited the Histogram and gotten a bit more depth, but I thought I'd try Topaz Adjust 5.

That ended up being a bit more like it.  White foliage [which was actually yellow] and nice contrasts to the tree trunks and shadows.

I used some of the presets in the Toned portion of the plugin and played around with the sliders.

I was using an old camera and actually not following all the 'rules' out there on the 'how to' sites for using an IR filter.

I had to deal with a longer exposure to bring out the light and dark in the heavy canopied forest so there was some movement in the ferns and leaves in this shot.

[f5.6, ISO 100, 13"]

I used the 'pink' toned filter for this one and had to adjust the details.  I just felt it looked prettier with the fallen leaves a bit soft.

[f7.1, ISO 100, 4"]

With this driveway shot I went for the sunlit highlights.  Where the sun shined and reflected, the color was nearly white.

[f7.1, ISO 100, 5"]

I wanted a 'cool' effect for this shot.  Finally, I had white leaves and the sunlight coming across the tops of the trees in the distance.  The sunflowers in the garden with their drooping heads were bright white.  
The blobs in the distance are mules feeding.  
I don't think this is a fantastically composed shot, but I do like how it came out.

And my favorite of today on my trip to a county park was the following.

[f10, ISO 100, 10"]

I don't even mind the sun flare on the lens in this shot.

However this was spectacular in color and deserved to be shown off as such.

Topaz Annouces Clarity ~ Clarity Review.

Topaz Labs announces Topaz Clarity!

Well okay.  It is hard to really get much better than there products I use most often which are:
Topaz Adjust 5
Topaz Detail 3
Topaz ReMask
Topaz Simplify 
Topaz B&W 2

Here is an untouched photo of the sky.  It is not a stellar shot, but I wanted to see what Topaz Clarify would do with a fairly mundane shot:

Clarify on Clouds II preset

Adjust with Classic preset:

Then Topaz B&W Classic preset [with 'red' filter]:

If you already have Adjust 5, I'm not sure what Clarify will do for you.  It has some great new bells and whistles that allow you to do 'masking' without leaving the Topaz plug in.

For the above photos I just really hit presets just to get a quick feel for it.

Here are some samples comparing Clarify and Adjust 5, side by side.

Less Halo effect in Clarity without the added work in the above sample.  Richer greens without the extra effort.

In this Hawaiian sunset, the Clarity preset was faster and easier to choose and work with.
With a bit more experimenting the average user could get some fantastic results.

But I am a user of Adjust since the very first version Topaz created...and can quickly achieve the same results.

Clarity clearly has some advantages.  But for me I don't think at the moment I will be able to add it to my Topaz Plugins as I can rapidly get to the same point quickly with the Topaz products I have.

However.  
If you are not one that wants to mess with all of the other plugins, this would be a steal.
Right now Topaz Labs is offering this plug in for $29.99.

On June 1st it will be $49.99.