Archive for July, 2008

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Nik Software Releases Color Efex Pro 3.0

Thursday, July 17th, 2008

Hot on the heals of Silver Efex Pro, Nik Software has just released an Aperture plugin version of Color Efex Pro 3.0.

Nik Software Color Efex Pro™ 3.0 filters are the leading photographic filters for digital photography. The award-winning Color Efex Pro 3.0 filters are widely used by many of today’s professional photographers around the world to save time and get professional level results. Whether you choose the Complete Edition, Select Edition, or Standard Edition, you’ll get traditional and stylizing filters that offer virtually endless possibilities to enhance and transform images quickly and easily.

Check out all the details in their press release here.


 

 

Writing An Aperture Edit Plugin – Part 1

Wednesday, July 16th, 2008

I have a need to start working on an Aperture Edit plugin for personal reasons. For the next two years I will be working towards an MFA in Photographic and Electronic Media at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore Maryland. During this experience I will be taking lots of pictures, and developing a long term documentary project. However, in addition to my traditional work, I will be adding a component to my exhibition and thesis that has to do with the visualization of my images.

You can read more about this at the website I have set up to document my project at Entropy Art.

Using an Aperture Edit plugin to manage my digital image processing makes perfect sense to me. I can create a suite of routines, have them be customizable in any way I want, and have them directly integrated with Aperture. This will keep my workflow simple and will keep all of my images and thesis work in one place.
(more…)


 

 

Nik Software Announces Silver Efex Pro

Thursday, July 10th, 2008

Nik Software has announced an exciting new plugin for Aperture and Photoshop called Silver Efex Pro. Silver Efex Pro is, according to Nik, “the most advanced, complete, and straightforward black-and-white solution. Suggested retail price for the package is $199. For more information be sure to check out the Nik website at Nik Software or check out their press release by clicking here.


 

 

DataMind Releases Jade Enhancement Plugin

Wednesday, July 9th, 2008

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Italian software developer, DataMind Srl, has released Jade 1.0, a digital image processing plugin, which uses state-of-the-art algorithms to enhance color, contrast and dynamic range in an easy-to-use tool that will automatically improve digital images directly in Aperture.

Beside a “One-Button” automatic image enhancement tool, Jade also provides manual controls to fine-tune intensity values, the contrast of the image and the color correction for unbalanced images.

Jade Plugin 1.0 is offered in both Standard and Pro versions, and are available as a full-featured 30 day demo.

Jade Standard is €19.99, and Jade Plugin Pro is €49.99. A discount is offered to customers who have purchased a Jade 1.x application license.


 

 

Hydra HDR Plugin for Aperture 1.5.3

Wednesday, July 9th, 2008

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When the dynamic range of a scene is beyond the gamut of a single exposure, Hydra can use multiple (different) exposures of the same scene (up to 4) and blend them into one image.

Unlike some HDR (high dynamic range) programs, Hydra does not require the use of a tripod to insure pixel-to-pixel matching of images. Instead, a method of matching key points in the images is utilized. For many example, see the Flickr HDR Pool.

Hydra is available as a demo, and can be purchased for $59.95.


 

 

Tiffen Dfx Digital Filter Suite 1.0

Wednesday, July 9th, 2008



The Tiffen Dfx digital filter suite is the definitive set of digital optical filters. Up to 1000 filters, including simulations of many popular award-winning Tiffen glass filters, specialized lenses, optical lab processes, film grain, exacting color correction plus natural light and photographic effects–are now in a controlled digital environment with either 8 or 16 bits per channel processing.

A 15-day free trial is available via download.

A quick video tour of the product is available here.


 

 

Power Stroke 1.0 from Digital Film Tools

Wednesday, July 9th, 2008



One of three Aperture plugins from Digital Film Tools, Power Stroke introduces a simple, interactive stroke-based interface to quickly and intuitively perform targeted adjustments. Instead of meticulously selecting regions or hand-painting masks, regions of interest are isolated by drawing a few simple brush strokes with adjustments then made only in those areas. Strokes can be assigned multiple adjustments and effects such as color correction, recoloring or desaturation, colorization of black and white images, blur, fill light for dimly lit image areas and Diffusion/Glow.

The $120 program is available as a “demo“.

See also Light 3.5 and Ozone 2.5 from Digital Film Tools.


 

 

Ozone 2.5 from Digital Film Tools

Wednesday, July 9th, 2008



One of three Aperture plugins from Digital Film Tools, Ozone is inspired by Ansel Adams’ Zone System for still photography. Ozone allows you to manipulate the color of an image with incredible flexibility and accuracy using a Digital Zone System. The Digital Zone System takes the spectrum of image values and divides them into 11 discrete zones. The color, brightness, contrast and gamma of each zone can be independently adjusted until you’ve painted a new picture.

The $50 program is available as a “demo“.

See also Light 3.5 and Power Stroke 1.0 from Digital Film Tools.


 

 

Light 3.5 from Digital Film Tools

Wednesday, July 9th, 2008



One of three Aperture plugins from Digital Film Tools, Light 3.5 utilizes a light and texture library that includes windows, doors, leaves and abstract patterns, you can add realistic lighting and shadow to scenes just as if you were adding a light at the time of shooting.

Normally used in front of the lights during photography, these patterns can now be applied digitally to the entire image or insicde a selection. There are 565 patterns to choose from in the included library.

The $50 program is available as a “demo“.

See also Power Stroke 1.0 and Ozone 2.5 from Digital Film Tools.


 

 

Viveza 1.0 from NIK Software

Wednesday, July 9th, 2008

Mastering the art of selectively correcting or enhancing color and light is now possible for every photographer without the need for complicated masks or selections, or expert-level knowledge of Photoshop. Integrating U Point technology, Viveza is the a powerful and precise tool to control color and light in photographic images.

“Color Control Points”, placed directly on colors or objects in an image, reveal easy-to-use controls that photographers can use to quickly adjust brightness, contrast or color in a fraction of the time needed by other tools. A number of lessons are available from the NIK website, detailing various capabilities of the product.

A 15-day free trial is available for download.