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

Bokeh creates an intentional and visually distinctive out-of-focus area within a photograph. The eye is naturally attracted to the focus subject. A photographer creates out of focus areas through lens, aperture (f-stop) and distance from the subject. Sometimes, the photographer doesn’t have this control, which is where Bokeh can be applied.

Highlights of Bokeh:

Clean & Easy Interface
Bokeh opens in an intuitive, clean, easy-to-use interface that provides factory and user defaults, and the power of custom adjustments. This interface, by selecting “Settings” tab, provides a large selection of factory preset settings. Custom settings can be saved and reused enhancing efficiency. The default and custom settings can be adjusted with sliders after selecting one of the two adjustment tabs: Bokeh and Vignette on the user interface.

The focus region selection enables control over the how the filter is applied on the image. Typically, a radial focus region is placed over the subject, or portion of the subject to preserve important detail. In contrast, the planar focus region provides a gradient and direction for the out-of-focus effect.

Images
To illustrate Bokeh’s effects, an image was selected from photos taken with a Nikon D200 (10 MP sensor), and processed in Photoshop CS4 . The original and processed images are presented below.

Original Photo

Bokeh with radial focus region

Original photo

Bokeh with one planar focus region

Bokeh with two planar focus regions

The above images are just the tip of the iceberg. Select one of the presets to create an out-of-focus effect. Then employ the controls in the adjustment tabs to fine tune the image with the full creative power of Bokeh.

Pros: Easy to use interface, Powerful out of focus controls

Cons: None noted

System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.4 with PowerPC or Intel processor (Adobe Photoshop CS2 9.0.2; Photoshop Elements 4.0.1; Fireworks CS3); Windows XP with Pentium 4 processor (Adobe Photoshop CS2; Photoshop Elements 4.0; Fireworks CS3; Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo XI)
Contact: www.alienskin.com
Cost: $199 US Full Version

Snap Art 2.0 offers ten different filters for creating the perfect hand drawn artwork from a photo. Snap Art filters include: Color Pencil, Comics, Impresto, Oil Pant, Pastel, Pen and Ink, Pencil Sketch, Pointillism, Stylize, and Watercolor.

New in Snap Art 2.0:
• Higher levels of photo-realism
• Control over the level of photo-realism with a slider
• Adjustable focus regions control where detail is preserved
• Improved presets
• Photoshop CS4 panel

Clean & Easy Interface
Each Snap Art filter opens in a clean, easy-to-use interface that provides intuitive defaults and the power of custom adjustments. By selecting “Settings” tab, this interface provides a selection of more than 700 factory preset settings. Custom settings can be saved and reused enhancing efficiency. The default and custom settings can be adjusted with sliders after selecting one of the four adjustment tabs: Basic, Color, Canvas or Lighting on the user interface.

The addition of focus regions enables control over how the filter is applied to the image. Typically, the focus region is placed over the subject, or a specific portion to preserve important detail.

Example Images
To illustrate the film effects provided by Snap Art 2.0, an image was selected from photos taken with a Nikon D200 (10 MP sensor), and processed in Photoshop CS4 using Snap Art factory presets. Crops of the original and processed images are presented below.

Original Photo

Art’s Color Pencil filter using Abstract (large pencil preset)

Color Comics – large feature size, vignette preset

Snap Art’s Watercolor filter using Landscape (moderate realism)

Snap Art’s Watercolor filter using Landscape – Large Brush, abstract colors preset

The above images are just a taste of the over 700 presets available in Snap Art 2.0. Use one of the presets to obtain the desired natural art look, then employ the controls in the four adjustment tabs to fine tune the image with the full creative power of Snap Art 2.0. Alien Skin offers a free 21-day download to experience Snap Art 2.0.

System Requirements:

This product requires one of the following host applications:

• Adobe Photoshop CS3 or later
• Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0.1 or later on Mac
• Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 or later on Windows
• Adobe Fireworks CS4
• Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2

Windows:

• Intel Pentium 4 processor (or compatible)
• Windows XP or later

Macintosh:

• PowerPC G5 processor or Intel processor
• Mac OS X 10.4.11 or later

Contact: www.alienskin.com
Cost: $199 full version

And in today’s media classes, students may not realize the difference in quality from film to digital quality images. Using Exposure v2.0 will broaden their experience by contrasting different image quality, and improve their photo skills.

Exposure v.1.0 included presets for popular slide and print films from Kodak and Fuji, including Kodachrome and Fuji’s Provia. Exposure v2.0 adds presets for available films, such as Kodak Porta 160NC and VC; Kodak Ultra Color 100; Fuji Pro; Fuji Reala; and Polaroid. Alien Skin also obtained a few rolls of discontinued films to create presets for Agfa Scala, Fuji Velvia 50, and Polaroid Polapan. Exposure v2.0 incorporates a new grain generator with more grain controls, special effects presets, and an improved user interface.

Clean & Easy Interface
With Exposure v2.0, both the color film and black&white film exposure filters open into a clean, easy-to-use interface that provides intuitive defaults, and the power of custom adjustments. By selecting the “Settings” tab, this interface provides a selection of more than 200 factory preset settings. Custom settings can be saved and reused enhancing efficiency. Default and custom settings can be adjusted with sliders after selecting one of the four adjustment tabs: color, tone, focus or grain on the color film user interface. The black and white film user interface adds an infrared (IR) adjustment tab.

Images
To illustrate the film effects provided by Exposure, an image was selected from photos taken with a Nikon D200 (10 MP sensor). The selected image was processed in Photoshop CS4 using Exposure factory presets. Presented below are 100% crops of the original and processed images.

100% crop of the original photo

100% crop of original phot with Exposure Kodachrome 25

100% crop of the photo after processing with Exposure’s Fuji Reala preset.

100% crop of photo after processing with Exposure's Fuji Velvia 50

100% crop of photo after processing with Exposure’s Fuji Velvia 50 preset with the push processing slider set to +1.

The above examples are just a small sample of over 200 presets available to create the right image mood, or tone. If you have a quality digital image, but the image is well… too digital for your story or portfolio, consider applying Alien Skin’s Exposure v2.0 plug-in to regain that film quality look. Exposure v2.0 can be applied to Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 and Photoshop CS4, but is not available for Lightroom 2 or Aperture. Exposure 2.0 may also be a plug-in for Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo XI.

Alien Skin offers a free download at Product Downloads , and video tutorials can be viewed at Alien Skin Tutorials.

PROS: Great job simulating different types of film quality.

CONS: Not available for Lightroom 2, or Aperture.

System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.4 with PowerPC or Intel processor (Adobe Photoshop CS2 9.0.2; Photoshop Elements 4.0.1; Fireworks CS3); Windows XP with Pentium 4 processor (Adobe Photoshop CS2; Photoshop Elements 4.0; Fireworks CS3; Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo XI)
Contact: www.alienskin.com
Cost: $249; $149 for upgrades

Alien Skin provides a Photo Bundle offering a range of plug-ins:

• Blow Up
• Bokeh
• Exposure
• Image Doctor
• Snap Art

Blow Up 2.0.3
Alien Skin recently released Blow Up 2.0.3. Blow Up is a one stop, Photoshop output plug-in. As expected from the name, Blow Up enlarges images. Blow Up also crops, shrinks, removes compression artifacts, and sharpens for output. This plug-in prepares an image for output on a monitor or as a print. Why use Blow Up? Blow Up provides a sharper enlargement than Photoshop CS4 when using the Image Size tool (Image -> Image Size).

New features for 2.0.3 include

• Running Blow Up from the Filter Menu
• Blow Up 2 Startup Panel for Photoshop CS4
• Gallery Wrap Panel for Photoshop CS4
• ISO paper sizes in the Settings Tab
• Performance slider.

Efficient Workflow
Providing quick and efficient access, Blow Up 2.0.3 can be opened from the Filter drop down menu, the Blow Up 2 Startup Panel, or the File -> Automate menu. Including Blow Up in the Filter drop down menu improves efficiency as all the photo workflow plug-ins are now in the same drop down menu. Blow Up can still be found in the File -> Automate menu, as found in previous Blow Up versions. The Automate menu also provides access to the Blow Up 2 Batch (new in version 2.0), which processes an entire folder of images.

Quick Draw – One Click Access
From the Photoshop desktop, the Blow Up panel provides one click access to Blow Up and a selection of pre-set size and media selections (screen choice, plus three paper selections for printing). Using the pre-sets saves time, since the image is processed without opening the user interface. However, if custom adjustments or cropping is desired, open Blow Up.

Clean, Easy Interface
Blow Up opens in an intuitive, clean, easy-to-use interface that provides intuitive defaults and the power of custom adjustments. This interface, by selecting “Settings”, provides a selection of factory default output settings based on output media and size. Custom settings can be saved and reused to enhance efficiency. After selecting “Controls” on the user interface, the default and custom settings can be adjusted with sliders.

Image Test
To test Blow Up’s image quality, two images were enlarged for this review. These two images were photos taken with a Nikon D200 (10 MP sensor). The selected images were cropped (reduces processing time on a Mac Pro G5) and then enlarged by 400 % (four times), using both Photoshop CS4 and Blow Up. In the Photoshop Image-> Image Size dialog, Resample Image was set to “Bicubic Smoother (best for enlargement)”. After enlargement, the images were cropped to 300 X 300 pixels. Two sets of images are presented below.

First Image Set

Photoshop image

Blow Up image

In this first set of images, Blow Up provides a crisper enlargement that preserves the well defined edges and metal luster. Note on the right side of the image, this improvement is particularly noticeable in the stainless steel rod (part of the standing ringing for a sailboat).

Second Image Set

Photoshop image

Blow Up image

In the second set of images (crocus with water drops), Blow Up’s improvement over Photoshop is visible, but not as obvious as in the first image set (sailboat rigging). From using Blow Up, the image improvement is easiest to see where the crocus petals overlap near the center of the image.

Additional comparison images may be found on the Alien Skin website at Alien Skin Examples, or on the Macworld Alien Skin Blow Up review: Alien Skin Blow Up 2.0.

Conclusion
Pros:

1. Blow Up is a great enlargement tool that uses a vector based enlargement algorithm that out performs Photoshop’s bicubic enlargement algorithm.
2. Blow Up does an excellent job of preserving well-defined edges during enlargement resulting in an obvious improvement over Photoshop. For softer edges, the improvement is subtle, but visible if you look for it.
3. Blow Up enhances workflow efficiency by combining output sharpening with enlargement.

Cons:

1. Only available as a Photoshop plug-in. For those that use Lightroom or Aperture, a plug-in compatible with these applications would save having to open or edit the image in Photoshop.

Examples and video demos are available at Alien Skin Tutorials. Download demo versions at Alien Skin Demos.

System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.4.11, Windows XP
Contact: www.AlienSkin.com
Cost: $249; Free upgrade if you own Blow Up 2.0; $99.00 if upgrading from Blow Up 1.0

• Blow Up
• Bokeh
• Exposure
• Image Doctor
• Snap Art

The bundle sells for $595 – a $500 savings.

Check out the Photo Bundle details at  Pricing, and Policies for pricing if you already own one of these plug-ins.