Seybold: New Fixes for Filmless Foibles
While graphic artists crowded cheered the new vector capabilities of Adobe Photoshop 6.0 at Seybold this week, digital photographers found new tools that will make their work easier as well. Add-ons from three companies address important issues photographers must grapple with when processing images from digital cameras.
Through the Lens
Andromeda Software introduced LensDoc, a Photoshop plugin to correct lens distortions that often plague digital photography. Bowing of vertical lines and distracting perspective shifts can result from the lens curvature of many digital cameras. Such warping of digital images is especially prevalent when shooting architectural subjects. A building’s grid of windows or rows of support columns will make even the slightest distortion readily apparent, even to the untrained eye. LensDoc provides a step-by-step guided interface for aligning vertical and horizontal points in an image and then “bends” the photo back into its intended shape. It also offers a tool for leveling the horizon, based on user-defined focal points. The plugin comes with predefined profiles for many digital lenses on the market, as well as tools for calibrating the software to your particular lens, based on multiple samples. LensDoc for Windows is available for $89. A Macintosh version is forthcoming.
Tweak Now, Save Later
Another leading vendor of graphics tools, A Lowly Apprentice Production, updated its ImagePort XTension to QuarkXPress to give greater flexibility to those who work with Photoshop images in page layouts. ImagePort lets you import native Photoshop images directly into XPress documents. Version 1.1 now recognizes Photoshop Adjustment Layers, whereby you can experiment with layers of modifications to an image without permanently altering the original image. The ability to preserve Adjustment Layers in the XPress environment means that you no longer have to finalize your image retouching decisions in Photoshop before placing the image in your page layout. Since Adjustment layers can be selectively turned on and off, as well as reordered, this feature promises to save time and eliminate acres of disk space otherwise necessary to save multiple versions of an image for later experimentation within XPress. If you find that multiple images on a page have dissimilar white balance, for instance, you can synchronize them all from the same XPress page. Available for either Macintosh or Windows, ALAP ImagePort 1.1 lists for $149, with an introductory price of $99. The upgrade is free to currently registered users.
Cut Costly Color Surprises
Of course, all the onscreen adjustments to your digital photos won’t be worth a hill of bytes if your images don’t print as intended. To help alleviate this worry, Studion unveiled Studion ColorBlade, a Photoshop plugin designed to help you predict and control the way your images are rendered across any number of output devices. Earning a Seybold Editors’ Hot Pick award, ColorBlade uses a patented color-matching technology called SAME (Studion Appearance Matching Environment) to achieve a more predictable experience with Photoshop output. With a simple interface it organizes and presents any third-party ICC profile or CMM installed on your system. It puts all the controls you need to preview and adjust the anticipated output for your chosen target device. A demo of the product is included on the Photoshop 6.0 CD and can also be downloaded from www.studion.com. Macintosh users can register at the website to purchase the full version for an undisclosed price Windows users may register to be notified when a Windows version becomes available.
Read more by Marty Beaudet.
This article was last modified on January 3, 2023
This article was first published on September 1, 2000
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