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March 24, 2008
A pair of cool new Photoshop plug-ins
- People are raving about Nik Software's Viveza plug-in for color correction within Photoshop. The tool uses Nik's unique U-Point technology for placing a control element onto the document, then tweaking hue, saturation, contrast, etc. on the canvas. Here's a quick video intro to the basics. Scott Kelby loves it, and the plug-in picked up a Best of Show from Macworld at PMA. It's $249 diretly from Nik.
- onOne Software, publishers of tools like Genuine Fractals and Mask Pro, have announced Focal Point for selectively blurring images, adding vignettes, and more. I've mentioned ways to simulate lens blur & tilt-shift photography using Photoshop, but Focal Point goes further in offering an interative "lens bug" widget for fine control. The plug-in is scheduled to ship next month and will cost $159.95. [Via]
Comments
Frankly, I'm not all that fond of control points as a concept. They are too blunt an instrument for me in their application of adjustments. They ignore edges compared to the way I work. I've given them a try a couple of times, and can't bring myself to use them. Not even if they were free!
With Photoshop, layers, quickmask, modes and other tricks, I find much more precise control over my images. To me (let me be clear about that) they just don't cut it as a useful tool.
I've always found Varifocus from Andromdea Software to be very useful for selective blurring
I've been following the Dave Hill discussion lists, and I loved Scott Kelby's blog entry on how to create the grungy look in Photoshop / Lightroom.
When I saw that Color Efex from Nik Software had such a wide range of useful filters, including one to produce a similar grungy / edgy effect called Bleach Bypass, and had the ability to selectively apply filters with the U Point technology, I knew immediately I must have it.
On the following image I performed some basic beauty retouching, skin smoothing, and then applied the Bleach Bypass to create a hard, edgy look that I love.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevenerat/2335983397/
[Cool, thanks for sharing this. --J.]