Re: Links page for digital tools
Thanks for the recommendations but they aren't much use to me without URLS for the web pages. Lon Williamson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Here's a subjective short list. All are photoshop plugs unless otherwise noted. I've used all of these, and others as well. These are my pick: Color correction: Pictographics EditLab (has memory colors for foliage, skin, sky) Pictographics iCorrect (slightly fewer features than EditLab, and cheaper) Digital LightColor ColorMechanic: change some colors without changing others. iCorrect and ColorMechanic would form a very nice color correction package. EditLab does a few things that iCorrect won't, but those extras, for the most part, can be done with standard Photoshop adjustments. Noise/Grain: Absoft NeatImage (fiddly and slow but good) Visual Infinity GrainSurgery (faster than NeatImage, not as good, but often good enuff) If I had to own only one of these, I'd take Grain Surgery. Reason: Speed and predictability. Sharpening: --- Nik NikSharpener: A no-brainer, reasonably fast, use on a layer and adjust to taste. Photo Wiz FocalBlade: For custom sharpening. Sees occasional use in my hands. Fixer Labs FocusFixer: Slow, but very good at putting a slight edge on. The lastest rage in sharpening seems to be tri-fold: a) slightly sharpen the scan. Focus Fixer can do this very well. b) creative sharpening of selected regions: FocalBlade is well suited. c) final sharpening once size, resolution, and output is known. Nik here. If I had to own only one of these, it would be Nik Sharpener. Reason: Speed and predictability, aimed at final output. Ressing up: --- Extensis SmartScale: Much faster than Genuine Fractals, seemingly as good. Note: Luminous Landscape pans this plug. One of the complaints is that it installs itself as a menu item. There's a reason for that. You can run smartscale with no open image. Photoshop inactivates all items in the filter menu with no opened files. Genuine Fractals: Need to create a custom file first. If I had to own one of these, SmartScale would be the choice. Reason: Speed, no separate file creation, requires less post-rez sharpening than Photoshop Bicubic. Masking (composites, etc) Extensis MaskPro Corel Knockout Human Software Automask I've used these only once. I've built exactly two composite images, both fireworks displays. Can't remember which of these I used at the time. I'm not a composite kind of guy. Fashion and advertising photographers seem to use such extraction masks a lot. Occasionally useful: Applied Science Fiction SHO: shadow control Applied Science Fiction ROC: Restoration of color. Hit or miss, but the hits are nifty. Nik ColorEfex: misc. enhancements aimed at photography. Filter simulations, etc. AutoFx Autoeye: Occasionally does a better job of color correction than other things. Worthless except to the graphics artist: Kai anything, Andromeda anything, AlienSkin anything, Flaming Pear anything. Note that there's some cool stuff from these companies, and I have some of it, but I don't keep such stuff installed. Many people say that you can do almost anything in photoshop. That may be true, but often requires several steps, and therefore an absensce of WYSIWYG. Good plugs are, imho, faster and more intuitive. The only actions I run regularly are those I created for dust and scratch mitigation or for contrast masking. My two cents. Sorry for the late response. I'm way behind in keeping up with the list. -Lon Mark Roberts wrote: [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Does anyone think there'd be use for a page listing some more useful tools for the digital darkroom, perhaps organized by freeware/shareware/buyem and by application type? You know, stand alone apps, PS plug-ins, etc. I've got one up. Not a lot there yet but it's growing: http://www.robertstech.com/pixel/software.htm -- Mark Roberts Photography and writing www.robertstech.com
Re: Links page for digital tools
Here's a subjective short list. All are photoshop plugs unless otherwise noted. I've used all of these, and others as well. These are my pick: Color correction: Pictographics EditLab (has memory colors for foliage, skin, sky) Pictographics iCorrect (slightly fewer features than EditLab, and cheaper) Digital LightColor ColorMechanic: change some colors without changing others. iCorrect and ColorMechanic would form a very nice color correction package. EditLab does a few things that iCorrect won't, but those extras, for the most part, can be done with standard Photoshop adjustments. Noise/Grain: Absoft NeatImage (fiddly and slow but good) Visual Infinity GrainSurgery (faster than NeatImage, not as good, but often good enuff) If I had to own only one of these, I'd take Grain Surgery. Reason: Speed and predictability. Sharpening: --- Nik NikSharpener: A no-brainer, reasonably fast, use on a layer and adjust to taste. Photo Wiz FocalBlade: For custom sharpening. Sees occasional use in my hands. Fixer Labs FocusFixer: Slow, but very good at putting a slight edge on. The lastest rage in sharpening seems to be tri-fold: a) slightly sharpen the scan. Focus Fixer can do this very well. b) creative sharpening of selected regions: FocalBlade is well suited. c) final sharpening once size, resolution, and output is known. Nik here. If I had to own only one of these, it would be Nik Sharpener. Reason: Speed and predictability, aimed at final output. Ressing up: --- Extensis SmartScale: Much faster than Genuine Fractals, seemingly as good. Note: Luminous Landscape pans this plug. One of the complaints is that it installs itself as a menu item. There's a reason for that. You can run smartscale with no open image. Photoshop inactivates all items in the filter menu with no opened files. Genuine Fractals: Need to create a custom file first. If I had to own one of these, SmartScale would be the choice. Reason: Speed, no separate file creation, requires less post-rez sharpening than Photoshop Bicubic. Masking (composites, etc) Extensis MaskPro Corel Knockout Human Software Automask I've used these only once. I've built exactly two composite images, both fireworks displays. Can't remember which of these I used at the time. I'm not a composite kind of guy. Fashion and advertising photographers seem to use such extraction masks a lot. Occasionally useful: Applied Science Fiction SHO: shadow control Applied Science Fiction ROC: Restoration of color. Hit or miss, but the hits are nifty. Nik ColorEfex: misc. enhancements aimed at photography. Filter simulations, etc. AutoFx Autoeye: Occasionally does a better job of color correction than other things. Worthless except to the graphics artist: Kai anything, Andromeda anything, AlienSkin anything, Flaming Pear anything. Note that there's some cool stuff from these companies, and I have some of it, but I don't keep such stuff installed. Many people say that you can do almost anything in photoshop. That may be true, but often requires several steps, and therefore an absensce of WYSIWYG. Good plugs are, imho, faster and more intuitive. The only actions I run regularly are those I created for dust and scratch mitigation or for contrast masking. My two cents. Sorry for the late response. I'm way behind in keeping up with the list. -Lon Mark Roberts wrote: [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Does anyone think there'd be use for a page listing some more useful tools for the digital darkroom, perhaps organized by freeware/shareware/buyem and by application type? You know, stand alone apps, PS plug-ins, etc. I've got one up. Not a lot there yet but it's growing: http://www.robertstech.com/pixel/software.htm
Re: Links page for digital tools
we overlap with more than half the plugins. mostly the color correction and other correction ones. Herb... - Original Message - From: Lon Williamson [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, December 08, 2003 9:26 AM Subject: Re: Links page for digital tools Here's a subjective short list. All are photoshop plugs unless otherwise noted. I've used all of these, and others as well. These are my pick:
Re: Links page for digital tools
Take some time to dig into this site. http://graphicssoft.about.com/ It holds a wealth of links. Best, Jostein - Pictures at: http://oksne.net - - Original Message - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, November 10, 2003 7:59 PM Subject: Links page for digital tools Does anyone think there'd be use for a page listing some more useful tools for the digital darkroom, perhaps organized by freeware/shareware/buyem and by application type? You know, stand alone apps, PS plug-ins, etc. I myself know that many people mention tools they use for fixing focus, sharpening, etc, but I am simply too busy to go back through all the posts to find those references, even though I'd like to have some of these tools to play with. I would be interested in having people's input on this. Mybe I'll slap together a page of links with descriptions if there's enough interest. I will accept submissions of links with short descriptions if anyone is so inclined. Cheers, Mike - This mail sent through IMP: http://horde.org/imp/
