Digital Photographer's Software Guide - Bertemes - Net

Version: Retoucher 2.9, Chameleon 5.0, Stamp 3.0, Enhancer 8.0, Coloriage 5.0, Noise Buster
5.0, Sketch 6.5, Decorator 1.5, LightShop 2.0, ArtSuite 3.0, SmartMask 1.2 (as of 2008)
Plugs into: Adobe Photoshop 5 and up, Photoshop Elements 1 and up, Ulead PhotoImpact 7
and up, Corel Photo-Paint 11 and up, Painter 9+ and up, Paint Shop Pro 6 and up, ACD
FotoCanvas 3, Picture Publisher Pro, and Bodypaint 2 and up
OS: Windows 2000, XP, NT, and Vista; Mac OS X
RAM: 256MB
Supported file formats: Major file formats
Price level: Approx. $320
Address: AKVIS LLC, Malkova str, 20-36, Perm, 614087, Russian Federation
www.akvis.com
BlackMagic
Chapter 20 ■ Photo Restoration 227
Vendor: NeuralTek
Purpose: Colorize black and white, sepia, or infrared photos, or color-correct those with faded
or inappropriate colors
Description
BlackMagic uses state-of-the-art neural net algorithms to bring further automation to
the task of colorizing images. It allows you to select the “type of object” within the image
to be colored, and then the software makes all the calculations to place realistic-looking
color in place of the monochrome image.
Rendering tools included with BlackMagic are Selector, Eraser, Smart Paint-brush,
Selection-paint, and Magic Touch-paint. It is available in three editions: Home,
Business, and Professional. They all have the essential neural net capability, but the
Home Edition supports a maximum processing resolution of one million pixels. The
Business Edition goes to four megapixels and the Pro version supports processing at any
resolution. The more expensive editions also have additional functionality, tools, and
palettes.
Simple to use, BlackMagic is a Windows-only product.
Comments
Adding color to black and white photographs is an art in itself, once undertaken only
by trained colorists who spent all their time tinting pictures with fine brushes and a
steady hand. BlackMagic is genuine “expert software” in being able to make intelligent
guesses about the correct way to colorize water, skies, faces, and so on, and to apply the
color so that it looks reasonably natural. It is particularly good at imparting a “30s
Hollywood” look to black and white portraits with fully saturated colors and lively hues.