Digital Photographer's Software Guide - Bertemes - Net

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The Digital Photographer's Software Guide
said of the other plug-ins, especially ShadowFixer, which can illuminate deep shade more
effectively than any adjustment in Photoshop.
Version: (Windows) FixerBundle 1.7, (Mac) FixerBundle 1.3 (as of 2008)
Plugs into: Photoshop and compatible editors, including (Windows version only) Paint Shop
Pro; some host programs “work to some extent,” others do not—see Website for details
OS: Windows 98, ME, 2000, NT, XP, and Vista; Mac OS X
RAM: 256MB
Supported file formats: TIFF and JPEG
Price level: Approx. $150
Address: FixerLabs, Watford, United Kingdom
www.fixerlabs.com
FocalBlade
Vendor: PhotoWiz
Purpose: Sharpening tool with many other effects, including blur and glow
Description
FocalBlade generates sharpening, soft-focus, blur, and glow effects, using automatic,
semiautomatic, and manual tools. Unlike its rivals it does not use unsharp masking, the
main reason for which, says the developer, is to avoid increasing color noise. It is around
half the price of PhotoKit Sharpener, but has many similar features including slider controls
for sharpening, setting radius, softening, fixing shadows, and highlights, plus several
masking options. It lets you work at the sub-pixel level using radius values below
0.1 pixel. One particularly useful feature is its display of several split view modes so that
you can compare original and sharpened versions side-by-side with variations of the current
settings.
Comments
Very well received by the photographic media (typical remarks have called it “a gem”
that “should be in every serious photographer’s tool chest”), it has a reputation for
excellent sharpening without introducing unwanted artifacts such as halo effects.
Version: Windows FocalBlade 1.04, Mac OS X 1.0 (2008)
Plugs into: Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Paint Shop Pro, PhotoImpact, Photo-Paint,
Fireworks, and so on (see vendor’s compatibility list for full details)
OS: Windows 95, 98, NT, ME, 2000, XP, and Vista; Mac OS X
Supported file formats: 8-bit and 16-bit RGB and grayscale images
Price level: Approx. $50
Address: Nuremberg, Germany
www.photocorrection.com