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Easy to use plug-in for Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements helps photographers selectively blur and/or vignette areas of an image

Press Release: Portland, OR – onOne Software, Inc., announced that its new software plug-in for Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements – FocalPoint 1.0 – is now available for immediate download. onOne Software’s FocalPoint is a selective focus and vignetting plug-in designed to help photographers easily blur and/or vignette areas of an image.

Popular among professional wedding, portrait and commercial photographers, the soft defocused look typically produced in camera by using special selective focus or tilt-shift lenses, filters or vignetting hoods can now be created quickly within Photoshop using onOne Software’s new FocalPoint. This new plug-in provides both professional and advanced amateur photographers with additional creative options when editing their images in Photoshop.

“The new onOne Software FocalPoint plug-in, which is now available for download, gives photographers total control over how they apply creative focusing effects to their image after the image has been shot,” said Craig Keudell, president of onOne Software. “It’s just like having a lens inside of Photoshop. Users set the location of their ‘sweet spot’ of focus directly on their image and then control the amount, kind of blur used and even lighten or darken the edges quickly and easily.”

FocalPoint provides photographers with a way to create realistic depth of field control, plane of focus control and selective focus to any image after it is photographed allowing for more control and precision. The plug-in’s unique FocusBug control has a tangible, hardware feel much like adjusting a lens. This special on-screen control makes it fast for a photographer to choose the “sweet spot” of focus either in a round aperture shape or a planar aperture shape and then control how much and what kind of blur they would like to add. Blur choices include a standard defocused look as well as a blur that simulates motion. This has a huge benefit over hardware tools like auxiliary lenses and filters because it allows the photographer to control the focus and blur after the image is taken, giving them more control and requiring fewer shots in camera.

FocalPoint uses the same FocusBug controls to allow the photographer to simultaneously selectively blur as well as lighten or darken the areas outside of the “sweet spot” of focus. FocalPoint can also be used just for vignetting without blurring the image at all. In addition, the FocusBug allows users to tilt the chosen “sweet spot” aperture in 3D, simulating the tilt effect of a view camera or tilt-shift lens. This allows users to increase or decrease the amount of feathering or blur across a plane.

And once a photographer has created an effect they like, they can save it as a preset so they can easily recall it. FocalPoint remembers all of the settings applied including the relative size and position of the FocusBug so users can apply it to similar images without having to make any additional adjustments. By using Photoshop actions to access a FocalPoint preset photographers can even batch process an entire folder of images.

FocalPoint is designed for use with Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements and supports Adobe Photoshop CS2 and CS3 and Elements versions 4.0.1, 5, 6 and higher. It is compatible with Microsoft Windows XP and Vista and Mac OS X 10.4.10 and 10.5 and higher. onOne Software’s FocalPoint plug-in is available now for $159.95 from onOne Software authorized distributors and resellers, or direct from onOne Software at www.onOnesoftware.com.

About onOne Software
onOne Software develops time-saving software solutions for professional and advanced amateur photographers in the digital photography and graphic design industries. onOne Software solutions have been created to help photographers spend more of their time behind the camera taking pictures instead of the computer workstation. Such solutions include a wide range of easy-to-use plug-in enhancements for Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and QuarkXPress®.

Founded in 2005, onOne Software is a privately held company located in Portland, Oregon. For additional information, visit www.onOnesoftware.com or call 1-888-968-1468.

Original post by PSN Editorial Staff

Liquid Resize is a “content aware” image resizing application for Mac OS X and Windows. Liquid Resize is now available for download as a Product Preview from onOne Software.

Liquid Resize will allow you to resize an image without traditional geometric limitations while minimizing any distortion that would typically result from changing the original aspect ratio of an image.

Mac OS X
Liquid Resize is a self-contained, stand-alone application bundle. To install it follow these directions.

1. Download the Liquid_Resize.dmg file from the onOne website.
2. It will automatically mount to the desktop when the download is complete.
3. Drag the Liquid Resize application to your Applications folder.

Windows
The Windows version of Liquid Resize uses an installer that will place the application and support files in the proper locations. You must have administrator rights to install Liquid Resize. To install follow these directions.

1. Download the Liquid_Resize.zip file from the onOne Website.
2. Decompress the .zip file
3. In the Liquid Resize folder that is decompressed, double-click on setup.exe
4. Follow the onscreen instructions.

More to Come
Please note, Liquid Resize is still early in development and this is only a Product Preview. It is not the final, shipping version and as such is not complete. There are several known issues so please be sure to read the Read Me file included with this preview release as well as the onOne Software Forums where you can get updated information.

Among the things planned to add include a much faster implementation of the algorithm and a new user interface that matches the other onOne plug-ins for Photoshop like Genuine Fractals, FocalPoint and PhotoTools.

Availability and Pricing
This free product preview of Liquid Resize for both Windows and Mac OS X users is available now as a stand-alone application from the onOne Software Web site. A robust, full-featured Photoshop plug-in version of Liquid Resize is expected to be available in the middle of 2008. Pricing has not yet been announced for the final version of Liquid Resize that will be released later this year.

OnOne Software Web Site
Liquid Resize Preview page

Original post by PSN Editorial Staff

Press Release: Nik Software, Inc. announces Viveza, the latest addition to its line of award-winning photographic plug-ins for Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. Nik Software’s Viveza is a powerful and intuitive software tool designed to enable photographers of all skill levels to precisely select and control the light and color in photographic images while working within Photoshop.

By incorporating Nik Software’s revolutionary U Point technology (http://www.upoint.com), Viveza provides easy-to-use methods for correcting and enhancing images without the need to create complicated selections or layer masks or have expert-level knowledge of Adobe Photoshop. U Point is the core technology that powers Viveza and brings Photoshop users unprecedented efficiency and control for editing digital images. To make adjustments to an image, users simply place U Point powered Color Control Points directly on colors or objects in an image (such as sky, skin, grass, etc.) then adjust easy-to-use sliders for brightness, contrast, color and more. Viveza automatically selects objects and creates masks based on where the user places a Color Control Point. By working directly on the image, powerful selective enhancements can be accomplished in a fraction of the time needed by using other methods.

“When attempting to selectively edit images, photographers typically face the challenge of isolating the color or object they want to enhance and then need to ensure the selective enhancements look natural,” said Michael J. Slater, president and CEO of Nik Software. “At the heart of Viveza is our U Point technology, which uniquely addresses these challenges and provides Photoshop users with a full range of capabilities for selectively controlling color and light,” Slater concluded.

With Nik Software’s Viveza plug-in, photographers are able to do more to improve the overall quality of their images and address image editing tasks that are too complex or simply not possible with other tools. For more information about Viveza, including an introductory video, please visit http://www.niksoftware.com/viveza.

Key Features
Color Control Points – U Point technology incorporated into Viveza brings a new level of precision and efficiency to photographic image editing. Users easily control an image’s color, light and tonality with Color Control Points. Simple-to-use sliders let users quickly adjust brightness, contrast, saturation, red, green, blue, hue, and warmth, providing ultimate mastery over digital images. Enhancements are automatically and naturally blended throughout the image for spectacular results.

Smart Filter Support – Viveza is compatible with Adobe Photoshop’s Smart Filter feature which permits users to fine-tune enhancements after they’ve been applied, without adding additional layers.

Powerful Selective Tool – Viveza’s Selective Tool allows users to brush any light and color changes into their image using Photoshop’s brush tools. Layers and masks are created automatically, enabling users to quickly and easily apply any filter selectively.

For added control and fine detail adjustments, Viveza also supports pressure-sensitive features optimized for Wacom® Pen Tablets.

Pricing and Availability
Nik Software’s Viveza™ will be available directly from Nik Software (http://www.niksoftware.com) and specialty camera retailers in North America in the first quarter of 2008. A complete list of resellers may be found at http://www.niksoftware.com/resellers. The suggested retail price of Viveza is $249.95. Viveza installs as a Photoshop or Photoshop Elements plug-in and will be available for Windows and Macintosh operating systems, including Vista and Leopard.

About Nik Software
Nik Software, Inc. is a privately held company that develops software solutions for the growing digital imaging and photography markets. Established in 1995, Nik Software has become the recognized leader in digital photographic filter development and produces award-winning technology and software products for digital photography and imaging professionals including U Point® technology, Dfine®, Viveza™, Color Efex Pro™, and Nik Sharpener Pro™ software.

Original post by PSN Editorial Staff

Press Release: New version of AKVIS SmartMask is available for Macintosh and Windows! The SmartMask plug-in is an efficient masking tool that saves you time on complex selections and is fun to use.

Macintosh-version is Universal Binary. It works with both Intel and Power PC mac-computers.

There were found and fixed some minor bugs in Windows version. Windows-users are recommended to download and install the new version. Those who tried the previous version of the software during a trial period, now have an opportunity to test the software again during 10 days (starting from the first use).

Also in this version we have added a new interface language - German.

Download fully functional trial versions for Windows and Macintosh and try the plug-in 10 days for free!

We are glad to announce the release of a new program - AKVIS SmartMask plug-in. AKVIS SmartMask makes even a difficult selection as easy as pie. Now, you can spend less of your time on the selection of objects and more of it on creativity.

For the moment, the software is available only for Windows. The Macintosh version is coming soon!

Test the software for 10 days free of charge.

Attention! Those our registered users who have bought at least one AKVIS plug-in get a 20% discount on AKVIS SmartMask. The customers who have purchased all AKVIS plug-ins get a 50% discount on the new program! Please write to us to get the discount. The offer is valid till March 31, 2008.

Note, that the Alchemy bundle has become yet more payable. Now it costs $325 and includes all 11 AKVIS plug-ins (a saving of $513 against buying each plug-in separately).

http://akvis.com/

Original post by PSN Editorial Staff

Latest YouSendIt plug-in makes large file delivery quick and convenient for Photoshop users

Press Release: YouSendIt, Inc., the trusted global leader in digital content delivery, today announced that it has expanded its service offerings by releasing an Adobe Photoshop plug-in for the Apple® Mac platform. The new plug-in allows Mac users to quickly and seamlessly send multiple Photoshop files in any format, securely, and without compressing.

The free YouSendIt Photoshop plug-in, available for Photoshop CS3 for Mac, makes it easy to send large or important files directly from within the Photoshop workflow. The plug-in utilizes Express, the YouSendIt desktop application, and will share the same features of Express including resumable upload. Users can use the YouSendIt plug-in for Photoshop and eliminate the frustrations associated with FTP transfers, burning a CD to mail via overnight courier or e-mail bounce-backs resulting from attachments larger than recipient networks allow. Additionally, files delivered through the Photoshop plug-in can be easily exported to different file formats.

“Sending large graphic files is a critical and essential workflow component for creative professionals,” said YouSendIt founder, Ranjith Kumaran. “The YouSendIt plug-in makes it easy for Mac Photoshop users to quickly send large files from within this preferred design application without having to leave their creative environment.”

As a response to the global adoption of Photoshop and other key graphic application platforms, YouSendIt continues to develop solutions that enable graphic professionals to increase their productivity and simplify their workflow.The free Photoshop plug-in, which can be conveniently downloaded directly from the YouSendIt Web site, is one of several solutions recently developed to expedite the sending, receiving and tracking of large files. Other Mac offerings include YouSendIt Express and a YouSendIt plug-in for Apple’s® professional photography software, Aperture™. YouSendIt Express with resumable upload supports the newest OS X version and allows users to send multiple files directly from their desktop. The YouSendIt Apple® Aperture™ plug-in allows photographers to send their photos to their clients, partners and service bureaus directly from within the application.

About YouSendIt
YouSendIt is the number one digital delivery company serving business and individuals on the Web today. More than five million people trust YouSendIt to instantly and securely send, receive and track their valuable business and personal digital content – everything from time-critical documents to important videos, graphics, photos and music. YouSendIt’s technology platform provides developers and partners the resources for integrating YouSendIt services into the applications people use for creating or communicating. Integrating YouSendIt makes reliable, private, express delivery of digital content a routine part of people’s daily life. When it absolutely has to be there now, just YouSendIt. Visit http://www.yousendit.com.

Original post by PSN Editorial Staff

onOne Software adds ground-breaking image resizing and retargeting technology to its product offerings

Press Release: onOne Software, Inc., announces today the technology acquisition of Liquid Resize which introduces a ground-breaking new way to resize images using a technique known as “seam carving” to reduce the distortion that typically occurs when manipulating the aspect ratio of an image.

“We’re excited to have acquired this incredible new and unique image resizing technology to add to our award-winning line of Photoshop® plug-ins,” said Craig Keudell, president of onOne Software.” This new technology that allows users to maintain the original aspect ratio of a digital image will provide photographers and graphic designers alike unprecedented control when they resize or adjust the composition of their images.”

About Liquid Resize
Liquid Resize, a “content aware” image resizing application, was originally developed by the Vienna, Austria based husband-wife team of Ramin Sabet and Irmgard Sabet-Wasinger and is based on the work of Shai Avidan and Ariel Shamir that made its first appearance in a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qadw0BRKeMk) released at Siggraph 2007.

Liquid Resize will allow users to resize an image without the traditional geometric limitations while minimizing any distortion that would typically result from changing the original aspect ratio of an image.

Availability and Pricing
A free public beta of Liquid Resize for both Windows and Mac OS X users will be available in late January 2008 as a stand-alone application from the onOne Software Web site. A Photoshop plug-in version of Liquid Resize is expected to be available in the middle of 2008. Pricing has not yet been announced for the final version of Liquid Resize that will be released later in 2008.

About onOne Software
onOne Software develops time-saving software solutions for professional and advanced amateur photographers. onOne Software solutions have been created to help photographers spend more time behind the camera taking pictures instead of the computer workstation. Such solutions include a wide range of easy-to-use plug-ins for Adobe® Photoshop®, Photoshop Elements and Photoshop Lightroom.

onOne Software delivers the highest quality software products to users by working with a broad range of industry experts and continue to develop in-house technologies for the photographic industry on both Macintosh and Windows operating systems. Founded in 2005, onOne Software is a privately held company located in Portland, Oregon. For additional information, visit www.ononesoftware.com or call 1-888-968-1468.

Original post by PSN Editorial Staff

onOne Software Announces Compatibility with Mac OS X Leopard Operating System
Current users of onOne Software products can automatically update to latest versions

Press Release: Portland, OR - December 18, 2007 – onOne Software, Inc., provider of world-class software solutions for professional photographers and graphic designers, announces today that all of the latest versions of onOne Software’s products are compatible with Apple’s recently launched Leopard operating system.

“We are pleased to be able to provide these updates to our users for Mac OS X Leopard so quickly,” said Craig Keudell, president of onOne Software. “We appreciate the loyal support of our customers within the Mac community and we’re delighted that they will be able to benefit from the creative features of our imaging software products on the new Mac OS X Leopard operating system.”

The following onOne Software products are now compatible with Apple’s latest version – Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard: Genuine Fractals 5.0.4, Mask Pro 4.1.2, PhotoFrame 3.1.1, PhotoFrame Professional Edition 3.1.2, PhotoTune 2.2, Intellihance Pro 4.2.1, Essentials for Photoshop® Elements 2.0, PhotoTools 1.0, PhotoTools Professional Edition 1.0, Plug-In Suite 3, PhotoFrame Frame Collections, PhotoPresets for Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom®, and PhotoPresets for Adobe Camera Raw.

New users of the above mentioned onOne Software products will automatically receive the latest Mac versions of these products which will operate with Leopard.

Existing users of onOne Software’s Plug-In Suite 3, Genuine Fractals 5, Mask Pro 4, Intellihance Pro 4, PhotoFrame 3 and Essentials 2 for Photoshop Elements can use their auto-update feature in each plug-in to receive the latest updates or they can visit the onOne website (www.ononesoftware.com) to download the latest Mac OS X Leopard compatible installers. Existing users of the Plug-In Suite 3, Genuine Fractals, Mask Pro, Intellihance Pro, PhotoFrame and Essentials for Photoshop Elements will need the following version numbers to ensure Leopard compatibility: Genuine Fractals 5.0.4, Mask Pro 4.1.2, Intellihance Pro 4.2.1, Plug-In Suite 3.1 (now includes PhotoFrame 3.1.2 and PhotoTune 2.2), Essentials for Photoshop Elements 2.0.

About the Products

• Genuine Fractals 5 can resize images over 1,000% with no loss of detail or sharpness.
• Mask Pro 4.1 easily creates high-quality masks and selections from tough subjects like hair and glass.
• PhotoFrame 3 and PhotoFrame 3 Professional Edition create stunning border and edge effects right out of the darkroom. PhotoFrame 3 Professional Edition builds on PhotoFrame by including additional frame choices, created by professional photographers Dave Cross, Jack Davis, Jim DiVitale, Helene Glassman, Kevin Kubota, Rick Sammon and Vincent Versace.
• Intellihance Pro 4 makes optimizing your images a snap by combining eight image adjustments in one place.
• Essentials 2 for Photoshop Elements software suite includes technology from onOne Software’s newly acquired PhotoTune color correction software, and onOne Software’s Mask Pro, PhotoFrame, and Genuine Fractals software products fine-tuned specifically for Adobe Photoshop Elements.
• PhotoTools 1 and PhotoTools 1 Professional Edition utilize the power of Photoshop Actions to provide a wide range of imaging tools including effects, corrections and production automation in a full-featured interface.
• Plug-in Suite 3 combines full versions of four essential software tools – Genuine Fractals 5, PhotoFrame 3.1, Mask Pro 4.1 and Intellihance Pro 4.2 – as well as the new PhotoTune 2.2 as a bonus.
• PhotoTune 2 incorporates the onOne Software’s newly acquired color-correction plug-ins – 20/20 Color MD™ 2.0 and SkinTune™ 2.0.
• PhotoPresets for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom features over 80 presets designed by Photoshop Hall-of-Famer Jack Davis.
• PhotoPresets for Adobe Camera RAW features over 100 presets for designed by Photoshop Hall-of-Famer Jack Davis.

Original post by PSN Editorial Staff

Press Release: 2007-12-10–XChange International, the source for extended technology worldwide, are pleased to announce the release of PhotoSpray 1.8. PhotoSpray is an Adobe® Photoshop® or Adobe Elements® plug-in that offers the ability to spray pictures on top of any RGB photos or layers. This method of painting lets users brush sets of images on top of any photo.

Brushes can be adjusted through a variety of parameters, ideal for photo-realistic painting. PhotoSpray ships with Sprayettes Volume I, a collection of more than 50 realistic-sprays including plants, flowers, leaves, trees, bushes, rocks, clouds, geometrical objects, balls, etc. Additional sprays may be added with Volumes 2 through 4, each volume a collection of 100 new sprays.

Users can save massive amounts of time in 3D texture rendering by simply spraying on trees, bushes, flowers, rocks and more with PhotoSpray. Flora can be applied in Photoshop quickly without raising the file size. Version 1.8 key features include:

- Blow natural images with a brush
- Unlimited undos
- Directional/Random/Orbital
- Create unique textures
- Save/recall settings
- High quality ‘Natural’ sprays
- Independent X&Y Spray adjustments
- Easily create new sprays
- Easily convert Nozzles to Sprays
- Sprays come as Nozzles too

System Requirements:
Compatible with Photoshop 7/CS/CS2/CS3, Elements 2/3/4/5/6, Corel PhotoPaint, PaintShop
Mac OS X Universal or Windows XP/Vista

PhotoSpray 1.8 works natively on Mac Intel with Mac OS X Tiger or Leopard.
PhotoSpray is available now through XChange International. To order, or for more information, users can visit www.xchangeuk.com, or call on +44(0)20 7490 4455 during UK business hours. Email address is info@xchangeuk.com.

XChange are a leading supplier of desktop graphic and publishing applications, QuarkXTension® technology; Adobe InDesign®, Acrobat® and Photoshop® Plug-ins® and other design and publishing utilities. XChange offer extended technology products from across the world specific to the graphic design, print and publishing industries and make them available to an extensive user base via their printed catalogue or online at their web site. The company are headquartered in Central London and also offer specialist training on many of the solutions they sell.

Original post by PSN Editorial Staff

Bill Crow, the Microsoft Program Manager for HD Photo (originaly code maned Photon) says on his blog, that the final versions of the plug-in for Adobe Photoshop CS2 and CS3 are available for download. The download is free.
The plug-ins are available for both Windows as well as Macintosh. For the Windows, XP SP2 or Vista is supported. For Mac, both 10.4 (Tiger) and 10.5 (Leopard) are supported. The plug-in development was done by Microsoft in conjunction with Pegasus Imaging Systems.
HD Photo, which uses an expanded color space named scRGB has the capability to encode high-dynamic range (HDR) images in a wider color gamut color space.

Original post by PSN Editorial Staff

Alien Skin has released a variety of updates that provide improved compatibility with Max OS 10.5.x (Leopard) and certain Alien Skin plug-ins.

The Mac Updaters are available at Alien Skin Support.

Original post by PSN Editorial Staff