Digital Photographer's Software Guide - Bertemes - Net

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Comments
LightMachine works very effectively, although it can be time-consuming to perfect the
masking with its highly precise adjustment parameters. It has a full complement of presets,
with some excellent “pseudo HDR” effects. Most reviewers were agreed that it represented
good value for money at its launch—and it is now substantially cheaper. For
those who want to gain ultimate mastery over shadows, highlights, and colors, this is
definitely a plug-in worth trying.
Version: Windows 1.02, Mac OS X 1.0 (2008)
Plugs into: Photoshop, Elements, Paint Shop Pro, PhotoImpact, Photo-Paint, Fireworks, and
so on
OS: Windows 95, 98, NT, ME, 2000, XP, and Vista; Mac OS X
Supported file formats: 8-bit and 16-bit RGB and grayscaled images
Price level: Approx. $70
Address: Nuremberg, Germany
www.photocorrection.com
Lobster
The Digital Photographer's Software Guide
Vendor: FreeGamma
Purpose: Lets you make changes to a luminosity layer in Photoshop without affecting either hue
or saturation, and vice versa
Description
Lobster is a companion (or “droplet”) application that lets you experiment with Curves
and Levels in almost unlimited ways. To use it, you drag and drop Photoshop files
directly onto the Lobster icon. Lobster creates four new layers from an RGB file: luminosity,
plus a red-green-blue “chromaticity set” (hue and saturation), but at the same
time it lets you continue to work in RGB mode. This means you can make changes to
luminosity without affecting color, an adjustment not normally possible in RGB. The
converse is also true: you can lock luminosity into place and use the chromaticity set to
change either hue or saturation, or both. Other features include new tools such as dodge
and burn and the ability to set the black and white points in Levels and Curves without
changing hue.
Comments
Lobster is fast and efficient and does not take up much room on your computer.
However, a Lobster file is around three times the size of a single-layered version, so you
need plenty of memory to cope with it. It is aimed at experienced Photoshop users rather
than beginners, but has excellent documentation online.