12 Photo Effects You Should Know About

Photography Tips

When a program contains over a thousand photo effects, the thought of choosing just one might seem like a daunting task, unsuited for the indecisive. The modern day dilemma of choosing between the filters like X-Pro II or Valencia extends to a wide array of choices for various types of photography in Topaz ReStyle.

Restyle contains around one thousand photo effects, if not more. To create these special filters, a cutting-edge process was used to map the color and tone statistics from various source images into effects composed of five colors. Although ReStyle contains an assortment of effects to choose from, at Topaz they’ve sorted through the masses to present to you the twelve photo effects that you should definitely know about.

(via topazlabs.com)

1. Forest Fire

• Found in: Landscape Collection
• Effect colors: Golden earth tones: sepia, raw umber, yellow ochre, cream
• Best used on: Nature and landscape scenes. This effect will darken your image, so you’ll want to take into consideration lowering the opacity. Also try using ReStyle’s masking tool to lighten the effect in areas that are too dark.
• Avoid: Images already deeply saturated in color, portraits, indoor scenes.
• Tip: Try using a color blending mode to add warmth without darkening the image.

2. Cream and Midnight Blue

• Found in: Fashion Collection
• Effect colors: Tan, cream, midnight blue, dark purple
• Best used on: The tans and cream within this effect makes this one suitable for portraits. The darker blue and purple compliment the warmer tones within the effect, making this filter suitable for high-fashion photography.
• Avoid: Images predominant in green, which will only be washed out by the dominating blue and purple tones rather than enhanced.
• Tip: Don’t rule out applying this effect to only portraits; try it out on other types of photography, like a landscape or architecture shot, to add mood and drama to your image.

3. Teal Skies and Setting Sun

• Found in: Landscape Collection
• Effect colors: Teal, blue-grey, light-grey, tangerine
• Best used on: The complimentary balance between blues and orange with a hint of grey makes this effect a keeper for daytime scenery. Try it out on a scene with lots of greenery and light skies.
• Avoid: Night shots, darkly lit scenes, images without any cool tones.
• Tip: Try reducing the opacity of this effect to around 30-50% and then slightly increasing the saturation and structure sliders to make the image pop. If the image has become too cool or too warm, use the temperature slider within the basic adjustments to control this.

 4. Sporty Chic

• Found in: Fashion Collection
• Effect colors: Steel blue, sea glass green, light grey-pink, navy blue
• Best used on: Perfect for portraits taken in daylight; expect to infuse the midtones of your image with beachy blues.
• Avoid: This effect lightens the image so avoid night and darker scenes.
• Tip: Reduce the opacity of this effect for a sheer blue color cast. If the effect has lightened your image too much, use a color blending mode to apply the effect’s tint without brightening the image.

5. Old Hollywood Beaches

• Found in: Seascape Collection
• Effect colors: Rustic tones: khaki brown, charcoal grey, robin egg blue, cream
• Best used on: Intended for coastal scenery, but can also be used to add a vintage look to other types of photos.
• Avoid: Since the effect contains a proportional amount of white it may not work well with darker scenes.
• Tip: Increase the structure slider to help define and add depth to the subject in focus.

6. Blue Dreams

• Found in: Fashion Collection
• Effect colors: Blue-grey, red-grey, black, blue, brown
• Best used on: Portraits and scenes where you want to add blue into the midtones and shadows.
• Avoid: Predominantly warm toned images; the blue and darker tones within this effect might clash with warmer colors.
• Tip: Using masking when needed. In the above image, the blue from the effect looked unnatural in the model’s blonde hair and skin tone, so masking within ReStyle was used on the model’s face to lighten the effect in that specific area.

7. Soft Pearl

• Found in: Street Collection
• Effect colors: Off-white, grey, cream, slate teal
• Best used on: Images with neutral tones, like the street scene above.
• Avoid: Images with deeply saturated colors, as this particular effect will wash away intense hues.
• Tip: Try this effect with a luminosity blending mode. If it lightens your image too much, reduce the opacity.

8. Vermillion Stain

• Found in: Architecture Collection
• Effect colors: Chocolate brown, sky blue, slate grey, coral, light yellow
• Best used on: This effect introduces a decent amount of color into your image, so it’s best used on images with lighter tones that are more susceptible to color staining (as opposed to darker images with rich tones that may clash with this sort of effect).
• Avoid: Portraits, unless you want a face that looks sunburnt!
• Tip: This effect is potent in color, so for a more natural look try lowering the opacity and using a hard or soft light blending mode.

9. Cambridge Battleship

• Found in: Moody Collection
• Effect colors: Ivory, khaki, dark grey, light grey
• Best used on: Like the Soft Pearl effect, this one contains neutrals, so it’s better suited for images with predominantly lighter and neutral tones.
• Avoid: Images rich in color, which will only be washed out by the neutrals in this effect.
• Tip: When using with a neutral toned image, try increasing the saturation slider just a bit to bring out any subtle color within the image (such as the yellows and blues in the example image above).

10. Tomato Red and Acid Green

• Found in: Graphic Collection
• Effect colors: Raw umber, goldenrod, orange, violet-blue, green
• Best used on: Lighter images more susceptible to color staining. This effect is a crazy one, so there isn’t really a right way to use it. Try it out for a fun, artistic application.
• Avoid: Portraits—your client probably won’t be too happy when they see you’ve turned them into an alien.
• Tip: Adjust the hue, saturation and luminance sliders to get the colors exactly how you want them.

11. Guite Tiger Lily

• Found in: Nature Collection
• Effect colors: Sea glass green, navy blue, coral, slate blue, baby blue
• Best used on: Nature shots; flowers work really well with this effect.
• Avoid: Architecture, street shots, anything not nature related or that doesn’t contain green.
• Tip: Reduce the opacity of this effect for a more natural transition.

12. Vanilla Sunrise

• Found in: Landscape Collection
• Effect colors: Camel brown, dark sea green, dark-grey, light-gold
• Best used on: Nature and landscape scenery; can also work with architecture depending on the given tones within the scene.
• Avoid: Night or darker scenes
• Tip: Use this effect to add warmth to your image.

Learn more here: Topaz ReStyle for Post-Processing