Digital Photographer's Software Guide - Bertemes - Net

15
Special Effects
Whereas most photographic software is designed to make the image more realistic,
special effects software introduces distortions, breaks the image into fragments, overlays
new colors and textures, and generally moves the “viewing intent” away from reality
towards abstraction or fantasy.
It all sounds very promising until you look at one major snag: if you are going to create
abstractions or fantasies, why start with photographic reality? Illustrative tools give
far more control and they allow you to start from scratch, building the image from a
blank page. Yet photography has always served as a shortcut to artistic expression and
not everyone has the skill to create beautiful illustrations. Special effects software allows
you to create visual imagery that is practically impossible to achieve in any other way.
It was certainly never available to film photographers years ago.
This section excludes specialist film simulation software, which has a category all of its
own. Nonetheless, it remains a wide category, containing packages that offer useful facilities
to the pro photographer as well as others that appeal only to hobbyists and scrapbookers.
If you are a wedding photographer looking for new ways to frame and present
your images, there are plenty of options to be found here. Special effects software with
ready-made templates and customizing facilities can save you hours of work.