New For Eye Candy 6

• Rendering engine -  Filters are much faster and can run on much larger images than before.
• Adaptive mode -  Adaptively scales filter effects to the current image size.
• Settings - Over 1500 carefully designed factory settings that handle a wide range of common design tasks.
• Fire – Fire filter now looks more natural. Sharp edges have been smoothed to look more like realistic gaseous flames.
• Panels – Photoshop CS4 panels are provided for starting Eye Candy filters with a single click and for quickly creating attractive buttons.
• Non-Destructive Editing – All filters have the option to draw their output on a new layer and can work as Smart Filters when applied to Smart Objects.
• Professional Features – Works with the 64-bit version of Photoshop.

Start with Settings
Each filter opens in a clean user interface, similar to the interface used in other Alien skin plug-ins that were discussed in previous posts.  The filter has tabs or buttons for at least “Settings” and “Basic”.  Under the “Settings” tab, try a variety of factory preset settings to obtain a desired look. The presets provide a great place to start, and often need little, if any fine tuning (saving time and money).  Fine tuning is easy using the :Basic:, and other tabs provided for each filter.

Efficient Panels
Enabling the two Photoshop panels provides one click access to the Eye Candy Filters and button tool.  Place the panel or panels in the Photoshop desktop to enable quick and efficient access.

Nondestructive Editing
Photographers and graphic artists often use layers for a nondestructive work flow.  Eye Candy 6 complements this work flow by creating a new layer for the filter output.  In a typical layer, the filter’s settings can not be changed.  However, when the layer is a smart object, Eye Candy 6 can output a smart object.  The filters settings can be changed as often as desired.  A very powerful feature.

Pros

• 1500 factory presets save time
• Panels save time
• Smart filters and output to a new layer enable risk free experimentation

Cons

• None noted
  

Host Requirements
Eye Candy 6 is a plug-in and requires one of the following host applications:

• Adobe Photoshop CS3 or later
• Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 or later on Mac OS X
• Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 or later on Windows
• Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2
• Adobe Fireworks CS4

System Requirements: Microsoft Windows users must have at least a Pentium 4 processor or compatible and Windows XP or later. Apple Macintosh users must have a PowerPC G5 or Intel processor and Mac OS X 10.5 or later. A monitor with 1024×768 resolution or greater is required.
Contact: www.alienskin.com
Cost: $249 USD. Owners of any version of Eye Candy may upgrade for $99 USD

Fits in Your Camera Bag
Each of the three short volumes are conveniently sized to fit in individual camera bags, allowing  readers to pull them out for quick review.

Scott does a nice job keeping his photo tips short, concise and with a dash of humor. His books don’t provide boring, dry technical jargon. These volumes can be read cover-to-cover, or use the detailed contents index to easily access specific how-to chapters on fixing specific photo problems.

These three books on digital photography are highly recommended for beginners, intermediates to expert photographers. It’s interesting how one can reread a topic, and a new point will jump out and catch your attention. These books are the kind that will easily be dog-eared, well used, and definitely recommended.

Contact: Peachpit Press
Cost: Each volume is priced at $24.99 US; $29.99 CAN; £13.99 UK

One Stop Shopping

With Spyder 3™ Studio SR, Datacolor® provides a complete color management solution with three powerful color management tools:

• SpyderCube™
• Spyder3Elite™ Colorimeter
• Spyder3Print SR™ Spectrocolorimeter

Three Steps to Perfect Color

Step 1- Camera

Proper color management starts with proper white balance and exposure.  By using the 18% grey portion of one of the SpyderCube faces, a photographer establishes an accurate custom white balance  ensuring an accurate image from the start of each new photo session.  Highlights are checked with the shiny silver ball at the top of the SpyderCube.  Exposure can be selected based on the white and portions.  And the Black Trap for shadow detail control. The white and black reference values, and the Black Trap are also employed check and adjust RAW control settings in post processing.

Step 2- Monitor

When adjusting or color correcting an image on a computer monitor, it is critical that the monitor be calibrated.  Without using a calibrated monitor, the photographer is just guessing when making color and exposure adjustments in post processing.   The Spyder3Elite™ Colorimeter and monitor calibration software is an quick, accurate, and easy-to-use calibration tool.  With just a little effort two monitors were calibrated.  After calibration both monitors matched.

Step 3 – Printer

If you expect the print to look like the image on your screen, both the printer and the monitor must be calibrated.  First, print the printer profiling targets with the software.  Then read the targets into the software with the Spyder3Print SR™ Spectrocolorimeter. Presto,  a custom printer profile specific to printer, ink and paper used is created.  And soft proofing in most image editing applications is available after loading the new printer profile.

Pros:

• Powerful, yet easy to use
• Black Trap for shadow detail control

Cons:

• SpyderCube’s shape was awkward in my camera bag

System Requirements:

• Windows XP 32/64, Vista 32/64, Windows 7
• Mac OS X (10.4 or higher)
• USB Port
• Monitor Resolution 1024×768 or greater
• 16-bit video card (24-bit recommended)
• 128MB or available RAM
• 100MB of available hard disk space

Contact: Datacolor

Cost: $599.00

In the book A World in HDR by Trey Ratcliff, the author takes time to share the experience of creating and capturing each image in high dynamic range (HDR). This book not only provides vivid pictures, but describes the experience and how to create opportunities to capture stunning imagery. This book is a page turner, not only because of the pictures, but the story power behind each image.

Inspirational, But Doesn’t Hold Your Hand
HDR is not just for expert photographers. With each picture, Trey Ratcliff provides the readers ideas to inspire creation. He talks about the philosophy behind each image, but doesn’t go into depth on how he created each photo. He encourages photographers to develop their own ideas to create distinct images. The last few chapters in this book do offer tutorials, but this book inspires and tempts photographers to experiment.

Each picture provides gorgeous, mouth dropping imagery, some so surreal you wonder “How did he get that picture?” Terry does explain his motive and setting, yet mostly he delves into the why and wherefore. It is interesting looking behind the philosophical eyes of the photographer. The reader has a sense of being there, while reading the author’s quirky and humorous perspective.

Beyond Your Comfort Level
Terry prods amateur and experienced photographers to strive beyond their comfort shell. He takes the approach anyone can create HDR images.

Take the opportunity to read this book. It’s an awesome read, has great imagery, lots of interesting stories and provides an enjoyable experience musing over the fantastic scenes.

Contact: www.StuckinCustoms.com
Cost: $29.69 – $44.99
PeachPit Press

Every Photographer’s Compact
Care to dazzle your eyes with a suave green, or cool blue? And no, I’m not talking about eye shadows. Just as most women have some small makeup compact in their purse, or pouch – photographers, you should carry this nifty kit in your camera bag. It’s flat, compact and oh so functional! Quickly and easily, X-Rite’s Color Checker Passport allows beginning to expert photographers the ease of calibrating digital color from capture to edit.

Mind the Reds
How many times have colors in the field seem less vibrant, or washed out on screen? With the ColorChecker Passport, photographers can dial in accurate color on sight, and in their studio. The X-rite Color Checker combines three main features in the Passport:

• Creative Enhancement Target – enhancement patches that help photographers neutralize, check and evaluate details, highlights and shadows, plus check and control color shifting
• Classic Target – industry standard color reference target for creating DNG profiles and evaluating individual colors
• White Balance Target – allows custom in-camera white balance to establish a consistent white point within sets of images taken in the same lighting

In addition, X-rite provides a desktop application, plus an Adobe Lightroom plug-in and a portable protective case (with lanyard). This compact color kit provides self contained targets in a convenient, protective case.

Balancing Whites and Color
As part of the photo shoot using the Color Checker Passport, a photographer takes a picture of the color and the white balance targets under the same lighting conditions as the subject. Prior to shooting, the white balance target can also be used to set a custom white balance in the camera. If a custom white balance was not used in the camera, the white balance target can be applied to set the white balance from the photo shoot. After setting the white balance for the image with the color targets, the color target image is exported to the color checker plug-in (if using the Lightroom export button or menu comand). The color checker software will automatically generate a color profile that can be applied to the rest of the images. Photographers have the choice of uploading these images from the photo shoot into the desktop application, or within Adobe Lightroom 2.

The Color Checker Passport is not limited to photo shoots with fancy models. Capture that precious, spontaneous moment of toddler, teen, or sprinting pet. Then, take photos of the white balance and color targets within the subjects. And voilà, a perfect image is captured preserving this special memory.

Whether shooting RAW, or shooting for Jpeg images, the Color Checker Passport gives photographers the right tools to improve their images, and eliminate errors. It works great, and makes a great stocking stuffer, or surprise gift.

System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.4, ; Windows XP 32 or 64 bit; 512 MB RAM; minimum of 200MB of disk space, G4 Processor or Intel Pentium 4

Compatible Software Supporting DNG Profiles
• Adobe® Lightroom® 2.0 or newer
• Adobe® Camera Raw 4.5 or newer
• Adobe® Photoshop® CS3 or newer
• Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 7 or newer
• Adobe® Bridge CS3 or newer

Contact:www.xrite.com
Cost: $99.00 US