It seems like everybody buys Topaz B&W Effects these days, so I thought, why shouldn’t I?
Obviously this is not a B&W image, but it is made with a B&W layer, one of their “Opalescent” effects, in soft light mode. The layer has a strong light vignetting, and as a result, the focus on the path gets even stronger than it is in the original image. Pretty nice effect.
Of course you don’t need a plugin if you want to create that effect, but I sometimes enjoy just fooling around and experimenting, and for that it’s great to have some canned effects to start with. And like with all Topaz plugins it’s not only presets either. The presets are a start, and from there you can modify the parameters freely.
The Song of the Day is “We Can’t Go On This Way” by Ella Fitzgerald. Hear it on YouTube.