It's Bonkers - Where is the Creativity

It seems every day there is an update to one of the AI products. Day after day so much effort goes into maintaining them. Products that have some use, yes, but products that really are not entirely necessary as they are covered adequately by other editors that include them as standard. Let’s face it, we could manage without them.

Topaz used to make filters that no-one else made, exciting and creative filters, that cemented their reputation in the world of photography and fed the imagination of those that used them. But not any more, there has been nothing in the way of progress in this area for a couple of years. Instead they have entered a very competitive market where there are lots of alternative options but limited scope for creative photographers.

They have abandoned their strengths and poured all their effort into a market where there can be little return when measured against all the players who are already milking that particular cow. Imagine what they might have achieved if all that effort had been put into what was once their core product, the creative side of photography. It’s very sad.

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I’d like brushes inside the Impression Adjustment in TS2

There’s a long list of things for Studio but it seems to have slipped down behind the fridge.

My sentiments exactly. It was their creative apps that drew me to Topaz many years ago. IMHO the AI world will always be a world of playing “catch me if you can” and I fear they will never get back to focusing on the creative side of photography. I still use the legacy apps as well as TS1 and TS2 way more than the AI suite.

I’m inclined to agree. The current AI lineup is great and all, but its all really just geared towards basic processing workflow. I’ve only been using Topaz Studio 2 for four months now, but I can already see it has massive potential for creative edits. Underused potential.

I think if Topaz made a standalone and upgraded version of AI Remix, it could get a lot of attention. It would at least get a lot of use out of me. Realistically, the only base-level parameters on the current AI Remix are low/medium/high resolution. Allow us to adjust the noise shapes and parameters, luminosity curves, color palettes, texture scaling, etc… Maybe even import our own textures/images to train our own filters. Make all Looks savable like TS2 and you would have something that would be pretty desirable for creative image restyling.

Early on in the development of what eventually became Remix we tested something similar to what you described. We were able to apply any image’s characteristics to our image. I think it was called AI Enhance but it never made it out of beta and moved on to Remix development…similar but different. Remember that one Mond?

Just checking…do know you can play with the blend modes and luminosity masking for Remix in TS2?

I still use TS1 all the time which provides more options than TS2. We all thought that eventually TS2 would provide all the features of TS1 but sadly development has been at a standstill. TS1 is free and still available although not supported. If you can install it on your machine give it a play.

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Yeah, I vaguely remember that one. It was all so exciting back then. AI is about the dullest thing on earth. Worse than eating couscous.

For me, the Apply and Layer functions in Studio are essential ingredients, I use them all the time to build my creative images. They were promised for Studio 2 but never made it. Maybe somebody else will pick up the baton and take Studio on, like they did for Nik filters.

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That’s interesting! I have tried out TS1 a little bit, but I don’t own any of the extensions, so I mainly stick to using TS2.

Yes, I have been having a ton of fun using the different blend modes w/ Remix. Especially luminosity, like you mentioned. Blending really is the trick that turns AI Remix from a gimmick into a impressively useful filter.

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I agree with those positive comments about Studio 2, it has a lot going for it, if it had Apply and Layers it would be a killer app. I sometimes use it initially but come up against a brick wall when I want to take it further, that’s when I turn to Studio 1. Mostly I don’t really know what I’m looking for until it happens and Studio 1 makes it happen.

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