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

Delivery of content is key across multiple platforms and new delivery systems (netbooks, smartbooks, tablets and slates, smart phones), not to mention a wide variety of browsers. Adobe has delivered a wickedly smart program for photo and video production, web design, and illustration. Some key features are:

• Design – No code building required. CS5 allows designers to provide and design their products across multiple devices. New functions, like Fine Edge, allows fine tuning grabbing and moving subjects, in addition to the “smart” insert of backdrop. Flash Catalyst allows designers to insert illustrations and design without writing code.
• Video Editing – Mercury Playback Engine provides 64 bit, native rendering (share, render, move files faster, cleaner). Rotoscoping is painless, really, with the Rotobrush. Incorporate the script, specific lines or scenes descriptions as metadata using Adobe Story. Naturalistic painting tools allow touchup right on the image.
• Web Premium – Flash Catalyst allows design movement created in Illustrator and InDesign without writing code. Change flat illustration into 3D images. Display live view of web pages while clicking on Dreamweaver code to see direct results side-by-side. Open the Browser lab to display images in multiple browsers, compare side-by-side, or overlap as an onion skin.
• Photoshop – MiniBridge allows to merge photos in HDR, and with 64 bit system, photographer can choose which exposure for content. Quality increased with improved Sharpen Images, Noise Reduction, maintain saturation and contrast. Content Aware Fill is a cool function to extract a subject image, and intelligently fill in behind it. New Natural Media Bristle Tips and Puppet Work allows t make natural patterns and distortions.
• Flash 10.1 – Allows wider access to multiple desktop platforms and devices, improves navigation on lsates and tablets.

This list is a very short, taste of what Adobe CS5 offers. Adobe Creative Suite 5 products are scheduled to ship within 30 days, with availability through Adobe Authorized Resellers, the Adobe Store and Adobe Direct Sales. Estimated street price for the suites is expected to be $2599 US for Master Collection CS5, $1899 US for CS5 Design Premium, $1799 US for CS5 Web Premium, $1699 US for CS5 Production Premium and $1299 US for CS5 Design Standard. Upgrade pricing and volume licensing are available. Adobe CS5 products integrate with Adobe CS Live Services, which are complimentary for a limited time.

System Requirements: Click on Adobe Creative Suite 5 for details.

Contact: Adobe.com

Josh obviously knows how to use the different NIK software tools. However, his writing felt rushed and the screen shots were difficult to read. In some of the screen shots that allegedly demonstrate differences between images, these differences were difficult to detect.

With numerous typographical and grammatical errors, I was only able to read half the book. Painful. NIK Software deserves a better guide.

Josh needs to take his good ideas, and rewrite this book to craft a compelling guide on NIK Software.

Contact: wiley.com

Price: $39.99 US / $43.99 CAN

Get Organized
The first two chapters focus on Organization of pictures, importing meta data and working with RAW, or JPEG files. Don’t skip these chapters, as they provide insight how to file, upload and organize your pictures. Just like painting, a bit of prep work saves you a whole lot of time and effort.

Most chapters are written with 4 to 5 step tips, and numerous pictures to show the before, changes and after effects. After the first two chapters, the authors expect readers to jump around learning different techniques, and improving their images.

In Chapter 5, common mistakes photographers make and how to fix them are outlined, and visually displayed. It is so much easier to look at a picture, see how it’s corrected, then have to read a long paragraph.

Concentrates on Main Photography Points
Various chapters focus on fixing color, shadow, touching up faces, layout, fit to print, plus black and white conversion. In addition, the authors note limitations of various techniques and tools, letting you know what photographers can and can’t accomplish. And both authors draw in their readers with their quirky sense of humor.

If you feel Photoshop CS4 is a bit challenging, consider Photoshop Elements 8. It’s not Photoshop CS4’s little brother anymore, but has it’s own unique features. The authors provide interesting workarounds, quick tips and ingenious ways to replicate Photoshop CS4 features.

Contact:www.newriders.com
Cost: $49.99 US; $59.99 CAN; £29.99 UK

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

The image color is great, but if an image fails to convey the mood or emotion, the story behind the image falls flat. One of the filters in Color EfexPro 3.0 may be just the tool for adding just the right effect to enhance the image’s story power.

Nik Software’s U Point® control points in Color Efex Pro provide the tools of a color darkroom without messy chemicals, red lights, or working by brail.

New for Color Efex Pro 3.0:

• User Interface
• U Point – powered control points
• Selective tool interaction
• New filters: Bleach Bypass, Cross Balance, Film Effects, Film Grain, Glamour Glow, Low Key, High Key, Polaroid Transfer; and Tonal Contrast

User Interface

Color Efex Pro opens in an interface that is similar to the rest of the Nik Software plug ins.  Preview and Loupe views are available to review the effect on the image. A tabbed list of the 52 effects (filters) can be displayed on the left side of the preview window.  The tabs allow quick access to effects groups typically applied to an image or effect category e.g.  Favorites, All, or four user selected categories.  The user can select four tabs from Artistic, Landscape, Nature, Portrait, Stylizing, Traditional, or Wedding.

On the right side of the preview window are the following:

• Sliders for controlling specific aspects of the selected effect;
• shadow and highlight sliders; and
• a control point section that provides for managing control points includding adding  control point buttons

Color Efex Workflow

Open an image in Photshop and select Nik Software and then Color Efex Pro from the Filters menu.  Alternatively, access Color Efex Pro in Aperture (Images -> Edit With -> Color Efex Pro) or Lightroom (Photo -> Edit In -> Color Efex Pro).

After the user interface is open apply one of the effects on the left that is closest to the desired look.  Then fine-tune the image with the effect controls and control points on the right.

Images

To illustrate the abilities of Color Efex Pro, an two images was selected from photos taken with a Nikon D200 (10 MP sensor).  The images were processed in Photoshop CS4 using Color Efex Pro.  The original and processed images are presented below.

Original

Glamour Glow

As seen in the above images, the Glamour Glow effect provides a nice warming effect to the skin tone.

Original

Bleach Bypass

In the above image, the “Bleach Bypass” filter was selected to enhance the image. The image was also cropped.

The above images illustrate two of the new filters in Color Efex Pro 3.0.  These two examples, however, barely scratch the surface of Color Efex Pro’s powerful yet easy-to-control color effect tools.

Pros

Powerful color effects

Excellent video training

Cons

None noted

Training

• Training videos
• Webinar schedule
• Archived webinars

System Requirements:
Windows:

• 32-bit version of Windows XP with Service Pack 3 and Windows Vista
  (64-bit operating systems with 32-bit host application)
• Pentium III 1GHz or better
• 1 GB RAM
• Adobe® Photoshop® 7 through CS4, Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 through 7.0; other Adobe Photoshop plug-in compatible application**
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom® 2.3 or later

Macintosh:

• Mac OS 10.4 and later
• G4, G5, Intel® Core™ Solo, Intel Core Duo, Intel Core 2 Duo, Intel Xeon®
• 1 GB RAM
• Adobe® Photoshop® CS2 through CS4, Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 and 6.0; other Adobe Photoshop plug-ins compatible applications**
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.3 or later
• Apple® Aperture™ 2.1 or later

** Nik Software product filters are developed to integrate seamlessly into many popular image editing applications that support the Adobe plug-in architecture and there are numerous software applications that accept Adobe plug-in compatible filters. Please consult your image editing application’s documentation for compatibility and installation instructions for 3rd-party plug-ins.

Contact: Nik Software

Cost: MSRP Standard Edition $99.95 (15 filters); Select Edition $159.95 (35 filters); and Complete Edition (52 filters).

Mike Wooldridge has authored over 20 books in this series, and is a web developer. If you’re beginning to learn photo editing, I recommend this book.  It’s visually addicting, and makes Photoshop Elements 8 easy to learn. This book was written for beginners who are just starting to explore photo editing, to intermediates who want to improve their skills. In the first three chapters, the author doesn’t assume what his reader should know, but helps define some basic photo editing concepts, and computer mouse terms. Vibrant introductory photos and images, large font, eye-catching chapter headings and simple, short paragraphs liven up a somewhat dry subject. Colorful markers and arrows direct the reader to different tools and tool panels, plus how to apply these tools in different techniques.

Visually Enticing: Each chapter offers numerous clear, directive pictures to observe individual tool settings, buttons, where they are located, how accessed, and applied. What’s obvious to some is not obvious to others. This book facilitates, and encourages readers to test their skills, and explore. It’s one of the more , visually enticing how-to media books I’ve reviewed. The layout is engaging, allows reader to see how changes occur, and clearly points out what to do next. Don’t be afraid to tackle Photoshop Elements 8 with this book by your computer. Adobe offers a 30-day trial period. Grab the book, download the application and give it a whirl! Let me know what you think of the book.

System Requirements: Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 is available for Windows and Mac OSX. Link to www.adobe.com for further information.

Contact: www.wiley.com/go/visual

Cost: $29.99 US; $35.99 Canadian; £21.99 UK

Nik Software’s U Point® control points in Silver Efex Pro provide the tools of a black and white darkroom without messy chemicals, red lights, or working by brail.

User Interface
Silver Efex Pro opens in a clean, professional interface.  Preview and Loupe views are available to review the effect on the image.  When displayed, the style browser provides thumbnail views of 29 preset styles and any user created styles.  The extensive image enhancement tools are on the left of the preview image.  These tools include:

• Brightness, contrast and structure (amount of detail) sliders;
• Add a control point button;
• Shadow and highlight sliders;
• A control point section that provides for managing control points;
• A color filter section that provides 6 preset color filters and a details subsection that enables fine tuning the filter’s hue (color) and strength;
• A film types section that provides a pull-down menu with 18 simulated films and subsections that include tools for adjusting grain, color sensitivity, and the tone curve;  and
• A stylizing section providing subsections with tools for adjusting toning (simulate traditional darkroom toners or create a custom toner); vignettes; and burning edges.

Silver Efex Workflow
Open an image in Photoshop, select Nik Software and then Silver Efex Pro from the Filters menu.  Alternatively, access Silver Efex Pro in Aperture (Images -> Edit With -> Silver Efex Pro) or Lightroom (Photo -> Edit In -> Silver Efex Pro).

After the user interface is open, apply one of the styles from the style browser that is closest to the desired look.  Next, fine-tune the image with the enhancement tools.  While the enhancement tools can be used in any order, for best results, Nik recommends starting with brightness, contrast and structure.  Add one or more control points.  Continue working down through the section menus and tools – color filters, film types, and stylizing.

Images
To illustrate the black and white control abilities of Silver Efex Pro, an image was selected from photos taken with a Nikon D200 (10 MP sensor).  The selected image was processed in Photoshop CS4 using Silver Efex Pro.  The original and processed images are presented below.

Original photo

Silver Efex Pro

In the above images, the blue sky was de-emphasized by placing a control point in the sky and reducing the brightness.  And blue filter was added from the color filter section.  The image was then burned along both sides and the top.

Second Example

Original photo

Silver Efex Pro

In the second set of images, the “Wet Rocks” style was selected from the style browser.  The image was further adjusted by using a control point to reduce the sky’s brightness.

The above images barely scratch the surface of Silver Efex Pro’s powerful yet easy-to-control black and white tools.

Pros: Powerful black & white control; Excellent video training

Cons: None noted

Training

• Training videos
• Webinar schedule
• Archived webinars

System Requirements:
Windows:

• 32-bit version of Windows XP with Service Pack 3 and Windows Vista
  (64-bit operating systems with 32-bit host application)
• Pentium III 1GHz or better
• 1 GB RAM
• Adobe® Photoshop® 7 through CS4, Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 through 7.0; other Adobe Photoshop plug-in compatible application**
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom® 2.3 or later

Macintosh:

• Mac OS 10.4 and later
• G4, G5, Intel® Core™ Solo, Intel Core Duo, Intel Core 2 Duo, Intel Xeon®
• 1 GB RAM
• Adobe® Photoshop® CS2 through CS4, Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 and 6.0; other Adobe Photoshop plug-ins compatible applications**
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.3 or later
• Apple® Aperture™ 2.1 or later

** Nik Software product filters are developed to integrate seamlessly into many popular image editing applications that support the Adobe plug-in architecture and there are numerous software applications that accept Adobe plug-in compatible filters. Please consult your image editing application’s documentation for compatibility and installation instructions for 3rd-party plug-ins.

Contact: Nik Software
Cost: MSRP $199.95

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

Color control is vital to making a subject pop.  Nik Software provides a powerful color control solution with Viveza.  Nik Software’s U Point® color control points provide Viveza with exceptional color control precision.

Color Control Workflow
Open an image in Photshop, select Nik Software and then Viveza from the Filters menu.  Alternatively, access Viveza in Aperture (Images -> Edit With -> Viveza) or Lightroom (Photo -> Edit In -> Viveza).  Viveza opens in its own user interface that includes preview, loupe, and filter control areas.

Simply select “Add a Control Point” from the filter control area.  And then select the area of the photo to adjust.  Adjust the sliders on the control point to achieve the desired effect.

Images
To illustrate the color control abilities of Viveza, an image was selected from photos taken with a Nikon D200 (10 MP sensor).  The selected image was processed in Photoshop CS4 using Viveza.  The original and processed images are presented below.

Original Photo

Viveza with 4 Control Points

The above image illustrates the powerful, yet easy-to-direct color control capabilities of Viveza.  To draw the eye to the flower, the first control point was placed on the crocus flower and adjusted to add brightness, contrast, and saturation.  To improve the contrast between the flower and the green leaves, the second control point was placed on the green tulip leaves to reduce the brightness, contrast and saturation.  To de-emphasize and darken the background, particularly the red tones, two control #price points were added.  The third control point is above and to the right of the flower.  The fourth control point is slightly below and to the right of the flower.  Both the third and forth control points reduced the brightness, contrast, saturation and red tones.

These simple to implement color adjustments, made a tremendous improvement to the image.  Now the crocus really pops.

Nik Software has announced that Viveza 2.0 will be available in December 2009 for MSRP $199.95.  This is a free upgrade if you purchased Viveza 1.0 after September 22, 2009.  Thus, if you buy Viveza 1.0 now and get the free upgrade, you will save $50 over the MSRP of Viveza 2.0.

Pros

• A joy to use – great tool
• Powerful color control
• Excellent video training

Cons

• None noted

Training

• Training videos
• Webinar schedule
• Archived webinars

System Requirements:
Windows

• 32-bit version of Windows XP with Service Pack 3 and Windows Vista
  (64-bit operating systems with 32-bit host application)
• Pentium III 1GHz or better
• 1 GB RAM
• Adobe® Photoshop® 7 through CS4, Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 through 7.0; other Adobe Photoshop plug-in compatible application**
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom® 2.3 or later

Macintosh

• Mac OS 10.4 and later
• G4, G5, Intel® Core™ Solo, Intel Core Duo, Intel Core 2 Duo, Intel Xeon®
• 1 GB RAM
• Adobe® Photoshop® CS2 through CS4, Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 and 6.0; other Adobe Photoshop plug-ins compatible applications**
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.3 or later
• Apple® Aperture™ 2.1 or later

** Nik Software product filters are developed to integrate seamlessly into many popular image editing applications that support the Adobe plug-in architecture and there are numerous software applications that accept Adobe plug-in compatible filters. Please consult your image editing application’s documentation for compatibility and installation instructions for 3rd-party plug-ins.

Cost: MSRP $149.95
B&H Photo Video

Contact: Nik Software