John Nack on Adobe : A pair of cool new Photoshop plug-ins

March 24, 2008

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]

Posted by John Nack at 11:08 AM on March 24, 2008

Eric — 9:54 PM on March 24, 2008 Reply

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.
russell — 4:01 AM on March 25, 2008 Reply

I’ve always found Varifocus from Andromdea Software to be very useful for selective blurring
Steven Erat — 12:59 PM on March 25, 2008 Reply

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.]