IMAGE CREATION, MANIPULATION & EDUCATION

plugs-n-pixels

Kubota Action DashboardonOne PhotoFrame 4

Genetica 3 & Vue 7Alien Skin Bokeh

and more!

THE LATEST PRODUCTS FROM OUR FAVORITE DEVELOPERS

Topaz Labs Adjust, Vivacity & Simplify

Cool ActionsHot Plug-ins

Pages 3-5: Topaz Labs Adjust, Vivacity & SimpifyPage 6: Mr. Retro Permanent PressPages 7-8: onOne PhotoFrame 4Pages 9-10: Auto FX Photo/Graphic Edges 7Page 11: Alien Skin BokehPage 12: PhotoWiz ContrastMasterPage 13: Kubota Actions DASHBOARDPages 14-15: Spiral Graphics GeneticaPage 16: Filter ForgePages 17-18: e-on Vue Infinite 7Page 19: Featured ArtistsPage 20: Closing Artwork

ttaabbllee ooff ccoonntteennttss

plugs-n-pixels

ISSUE #13Layout created in ACD Canvas X

Final PDF by Acrobat 9 ProText and images by Mike Bedford

(except as noted)

WEBSITE: www.plugsandpixels.comEMAIL: mike@plugsandpixels.com

In this tight, competitive market,

differentiate your work with these

Hot Plug-ins & Cool Actions

Cover created with Topaz Labs Adjust and Vivacity and onOne PhotoFrame.

Contents page background created with Topaz Labs Simplify and onOne PhotoFrame.

topaz adjust, vivacity & simplifyUsers worldwide have been discovering these inexpensive but very hot plug-ins

Original

Perhaps the hottest plug-in atthe moment is Adjust fromTopaz Labs. Adjust createseffects reminiscent of muchmore expensive plug-ins but ata fraction of the cost.Adjust offers the user several

totally different presets, theresults of which can becompletely altered usingcustomizable settings under theExposure, Details, Color andNoise tabs.

Next is Topaz Labs Vivacity, whichperforms multiple corrective tasks such asnoise removal, image enlargement, JPEGartifact repair and sharpening.

But perhaps the most exciting thing aboutVivacity is the results you get when you pushthe Cleaning and Sharpening tools to theextreme!The examples shown here demonstrate the

unique artistic effects that occur whenCleaning and/or Sharpening is overdone. Forinstance, experiment with increasing thevalue of each of the setting options underthe Main and Advanced tabs.

I especially like the way this effect lookswhen used on foliage. Another a trick tokeep in mind is to first run Adjust to “pop”your image, followed by Vivacity (as shownin the Los Angeles scenic below).As if these weren’t enough creative options

to keep you busy for awhile, Topaz Labs hasrevived the discontinued buZZ simplificationeffect with its new Simplify plug-in.

Original

Original

Vignette added in

ACD Canvas X

AT RIGHT is an example ofusing both Topaz Adjust andVivacity to really “pop” aslightly soft image. First, Adjustwas used to increase contrastand details, then Vivacity’sSharpen option was used at amoderately extreme setting toboth sharpen details and addartistic qualities.BELOW: Topaz Lab’s newest

product, Simplify, was recentlyreleased. It creates gorgeousdetail reduction effects.

Original

Adjust+Vivacity

Photographed at thestreet fair booth ofwww.wildwings.org

www.plugsandpixels.com/adjust.html

www.plugsandpixels.com/vivacity.html

www.plugsandpixels.com/simplify.html

Turn Photoshop into a printing press – a sloppy,misaligned, vintage offset press at that – using Mr. Retro’sPermanent Press plug-in.

Mr. Retro is also known for its line of Machine Wash plug-inswhich add serious grunge to images. Likewise, withPermanent Press, contemporary designers can turn back theclock and put the soul back into printed pieces (which haveturned sterile with advances in printing technologies).

Permanent Press breathes old life into your new images!

•Pallette & CMYK Ink Color Modes

•Ink viscosity & texture effects

•Plate offset, rotation, and trapping effects

•Halftone scale & dot shape effects

•Press edge & pressure effects

www.plugsandpixels.com/permanentpress.html

Part of the onOne Plug-In Suite

Image effect:

Topaz Labs Simplify

www.plugsandpixels.com/photoframe.html

onOne PhotoFrame 4, availableindividually or as part of the onOnePlug-in Suite 4, is a serious retoolingof the previous versions ofPhotoFrame.

Attention has been given toeverything from the overall look andfeel, selection of frames and presets(only the best and most usefuldesigns are included) to a light-tableinspired Library for viewing, selectingand applying the frames.

You can now resize and repositionthe image layer as desired, enablingyou to perfectly arrange all of theelements of your composition.

The new Batch Processing optioncan apply your choice of frames to anentire folder, outputting the resultsfor both print and web, completewith watermark.

To ensure complete flexibility andallow for further editing afterward,there are four options for applyingyour frame choice to the originalimage: Apply to New Layer, ApplyEach Frame to New Layer, Apply toCurrent Layer and Apply as LayerMask.

As with the other offerings fromonOne, your creativity is immediatelyboosted right out of the box, unlikeother plug-ins where you must workhard at tweaking settings beforegetting good results.

PhotoFrame 4 is compatible withthe latest Adobe and Apple imagingapplications.

Optimized Content • Improved Presets • Resizable Image Layer

New Rulers and Guides • Improved Color Picker • New Batch Processing

Improved Random Frames •New Output Options •Updated Look & Feel

Searchable HTML Help• New Video Tutorials •Lightroom & Aperture Integration

New Platinum Edition 7.0

32 new effects:Darkroom Edges • Grunge Edges

Painted Edges • Montage Edges

Geometric Edges • Digital Edges

Abstract Edges • Vignette Edges

Edge Brush • Burned Edges

Photo Border • Photo Tabs

Acid Etching • Ambient Brush

Distort Edges • Putty Edges

Smudged Edges • Film Frames

Grunge Frames • Natural Media

Storyboards • Thin Borders

Artistic Frames • Classic Frames

Dual Frames • Quad Frames

Scrapbook Fun • Traditional Frames

Watercolor Frames • Adornments

Transfer • Overlays

www.plugsandpixels.com/

pge.html

Choose from one of the manypresets, then edit the frame,frame position, backgroundimage and other settings tosuit. Layer several effects asdesired for endless creativeoptions.

Auto FX is one of the oldest names in the plug-in business,and with Photo/Graphic Edges 7, they have provided a major updateto their original product, first released in 1994.

Photo/Graphic Edges 7, Platinum Edition includes 32 edge, borderand frame effects along with an updated interface, rendering engine,content management and previewing system.

Experimenting with these resolution-independent designs is easy.You can combine different effects together using Effect Layers.Dynamic Transformation Rendering maintains effect quality even aftermanipulation.

Can’t afford anew Canon EF

85mm f/1.2L II?With Bokeh, youdon’t need one!

With Alien Skin’s Bokeh plug-in, you are notlimited to conventional blurring effects, becauseunlike glass lenses, Bokeh allows you to chooseexactly where the effect begins and ends, at whatangle as well as how much is applied.

In my example of the garden statue, the originalimage suffered from a busy background which Icouldn’t control with the camera I was using. Butafter applying Bokeh twice, I both eliminated thebackground and added dramatic tilt/shift effectsreminiscent of large-format photography.

Original

www.plugsandpixels.com/bokeh.html

Apply customaperture shapes such

as hearts, stars anddoughnuts to

highlights

The popularity of the HDR look hasinspired a number of tools with which to createit. PhotoWiz’ ContrastMaster is one such plug-in,offering dramatic contrast enhancement,photorealistic painting and HDR-like effects. It isused for both low-contrast image repair and thecreative enhancement of properly exposedimages.

Using three local and four global contrastadjustment methods, ContrastMaster gives theuser a wide range of control over the results.The local adjustments (used separately ortogether) improve contrast without blowing outhighlights. The four global methods (S/H-Contrast, Stretch, Equalize and Polarize) workon the tonal range of the image and help toimprove the result even further.

While this sounds somewhat advanced,ContrastMaster offers six modes from the simpleNovice mode to the sophisticated Expert Mode,as well as quick presets from a pulldown menufor immediate results. Once you are morefamiliar with the power behind the settings, youcan fine-tune and massage image contrast inways other software simply can’t.

www.plugsandpixels.com/contrastmaster.html

Create both color andgrayscale effects withContrastMaster

Original

The action sets from Kubota Image Tools have been very popular with working professionals in the weddingand portrait industries. They offer a wide variety of image enhancement and creative effects such as film stockemulation, glamour glows, darkroom edges, color alteration, traditional keylines and much more.

Kubota has made it very easy to quickly search for any action by genre and apply them to your images viaversion 2 of their brilliant DASHBOARD. Their goal is to make you “intelligently lazy.” In other words,immediately productive!

www.plugsandpixels.com/kubotaactions.html

Are you an illustrator or 3D artist in need of textures for your projects? Genetica 3 is the answer. Usinga node-based method of texture construction, Genetica enables artists to build up and customize the elementsthat go into building a complex texture, then render and export the results at any resolution.

You can begin the process by using one of the over 1000 animation or static presets (arranged in categoriessuch as Atmosphere, Cloth & Upholstery, Embellishment, Fiber, Liquid, Metal, Paper, Space, Stone, Technologyand many more). The screenshot below shows examples from the Crystal, Rough collection (Fire Opal selected).

www.plugsandpixels.com/genetica.html

The screenshot at right shows a preset textureafter it has been rendered to the defaultspecifications. After rendering, you export yourtexture for external use for 2D or 3D work.

Below is the Genetica Nodes area, where youcan explore and fully edit the separateelements that comprise each texture. Select anode and adjust its parameters as desired bytweaking the settings or dragging in additionalpreset textures. If you’re adventurous you canroll the dice and see what random chance doesfor your texture or any part thereof.

Save any results you like as presets to beaccessed via the Library and applied to newwork.

The screenshot at leftshows another example ofthe level of customizationof textures possible withGenetica, in this casemodifying color attributesin the Substance Lab.

Genetica also providesHDRI environment editing(including 32-but output),professional drawing tools,hair and fiber labs, a batchprocessor, etc. The Studioversion supports animatedtextures and effects, withpresets.

One application. Over five thousand effects!

www.plugsandpixels.com/

filterforge.html

Origin

al

While Filter Forge is perfectly capable of generating seamlessprocedural textures on its own, I prefer to use it as a monsterimage effects application for my own images. It’s like having anendless supply of plug-ins, each with radically different results!

Drawing from the several thousand user-created presets availablefor download, I took this simple photo of a cat and applied theeffects as seen at top and at right. As you can see, Filter Forgeshould be near the top of your post-processing toolset. Nothingelse comes close.

With its node-based system of filterediting, FIlter Forge enables you toedit every aspect of the existingpresets or to create your own.

With the new Vue 7Infinite from e-onsoftware, you canengage your artisticimagination by creatinglifelike scenes thatillustrate what yourmind’s eye envisions.

The alien craft has laiddown a chemtrail grid in

preparation for theirexploration of planet Earth.

Their glaring spotlight searchesfor objects of interest in the

seaside landing zone...

Natural environments,

exactly as you want them.

e-on software’s Vue 7 Infinite is oneof the top choices for rendering andanimating near-photorealistic artificialenvironments, right at your desk.

Depending on your needs, you can createfantasy terrains (as I have done here), orimport 16-bit height field data DEM files,to replicate an actual location foreducational or scientific purposes.

Vue comes complete with its own plantcollection (over 160), with more availablevia the Cornucopia store. Each plant is fullycustomizable. Vue’s EcoSystem technologyis designed for populating scenes withmultiple instances of foliage, rocks, etc.

Once your scene and its objects are inplace, you can freely edit the lighting andatmospheric conditions to create anymood you wish. Presets are available toget you started, if necessary.

When it comes time to render your scene,you can introduce realistic camera and lensaberrations such as human-like movements(for animations) and optical distortions.

www.plugsandpixels.com/vue.html

featu

red

artists

Topaz Labs Adjust has been a hottopic on various photo forums, withmembers discovering the inexpensivesoftware and sharing the results withothers.

Here are some examples from thisissue’s Featured Artists, Robert Photo(Northern VA, top) and AlexFeldstein (below), both members ofthe Nikon Cafe forum.

www.nikon.cafe.com

Backgro

und

:o

nO

ne

Pho

toFra

me

The Nikon Cafe forumcontains discussionsabout most every aspectof photography, includinggeneral camera gear, printers,color management, retouchingsoftware, lenses and business(ie, making money).

There are also challengesand contests, as well asgalleries for every type ofphotography.

Drop by and become partof the discussion.

http://robertphoto.wordpress.com

http://alexf.smugmug.com

Created with: Topaz Labs Adjust andVivacity; onOne PhotoFrame

CLOSING ARTWORKPhoto and artwork by:

Mike Bedford