Review: Alien Skin Bokeh

James Fritz

Bokeh also offers vignetting tools to further draw focus to the center of your image. Of course, you can also vignette in Photoshop using the Lens Correction filter, but it’s nice to be able to work with both shallow depth of field and vignette at the same time.
Is Bokeh Right For You?
At $199, Bokeh is not cheap. While the plug-in does what it claims to do, and does it very well, there may often be practical limitations on its usefulness. Perhaps your foreground subject is simply too difficult to mask, or maybe you have a shot that just can’t be masked properly to achieve a realistic depth of field effect. These situations are more common than you might imagine.
Shallow depth of field is a great way to bring more attention to your subject, but for this plug-in to work well, your subject needs to be on a very well-defined plane, separate from your background, and it needs to be a plane that is easily selected.
If you often shoot with a point-and-shoot camera, Bokeh might be more useful than if you shoot with an SRL, because point-and-shoot cameras are limited in how shallow their depth of field can be due to their tiny sensors. However, you’ll still face the same masking challenges.
In the end, you may find it’s easier and more cost-effective to get your shallow depth of field effects the old-fashioned way: shooting with wide apertures and careful camera placement.
Obviously, you might not always be able to achieve such an effect in-camera, or you may not realize you need it until you get home. For these times, Bokeh can be a lifesaver, if the image is one that allows for a good selection. You’ll simply have to decide for yourself if you encounter these situations often enough to justify the $200 price.
 

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