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Reviews
| ColorWasher |
ColorWasher 2, a highly effective, well-thought-out Photoshop plugin... The automatic features ... analyze the image and, in one step, impressively remove color casts. ... I found the semi-automatic tools to yield the best results. Verdict: Inexpensive, easy to use, effective Layer Magazine Jan/Feb 2006 | ... there are several plug-ins that can do the heavy lifting for you ... One of the best is The Plugin Site’s ColorWasher 2.0 ... If you take a lot of photos, or have a project that involves correcting faded or color-shifted photos, ColorWasher 2.0 will quickly pay for itself. Its Easy Mode provides instant results for inexperienced users and its Advanced Mode provides plenty of power for professionals. Pros: Easy Mode is straightforward and gives excellent results; Advanced Mode provides a wealth of professional color-correction tools. | If you want to remove color casts, you don't get anywhere with the miserable automation of Photoshop & Co. A real comfort is working with the intelligently conceived ColorWasher ... which can almost be regarded as a independent image processing tool ... makes colors shine without blowing them out ... ColorWasher is a high-quality color and contrast optimizer ... exactly the right combination of intelligent algorithms and user control. Color Cast Correction: Very Good |
Every photographer ... should have this in their collection. It really makes the long tedious job of correcting underexposed or overexposed photos, a lot easier with just a couple clicks of the mouse. ... It used to take me anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour getting a photo just right, now it takes me about 10-20 seconds ... Basically you get an entire darkroom for a very low cost. Very useful and fun. | ColorWasher, like FocalBlade, is in a class of its own. There’s no other tool (that I’ve seen anyway) that combines the depth of functionality and ease of use for such complex and often harrowing tasks as cast removal and exposure correction in one package. ColorWasher is accurate, malleable and infinitely useful, and so affordable I can’t see any reason why a serious photographer or graphic artist would want to be without it. | ... color correcting just became a whole lot easier to do ... was able to obtain great results with it. ... This full featured color correction plug-in is worth every penny. There are other tools that cost much more and many don’t deliver the color improvements ColorWasher does! ... Try this product, it’s a winner! |
We played with many images and found very few that could not be improved by this tool. We consider it easily one of our top 5 PS plug-ins. What can we say: Wash your images! Highly Recommended. | Don't confuse this with cheap imitations. The filter contains revolutionary algorithms and sophisticated methods for achieving the best results from your images | Sometimes images have color casts that need to be corrected. ColorWasher ... allows me to easily adjust the color of images in a fraction of the time it takes using other tools. |
ColorWasher bundles several tools ... It is nice to play with the Auto buttons, which do all the work on their own. The rest of the dialog contains sufficient helpers for color correction, which can be optimally used combined. | Here’s the color correction plug-in that you’ve been waiting for. ... ColorWasher makes all of its color magic happen by ... reconstructing lost colors and details in photos. | Adobe's Photoshop CS is ... a powerful and useful tool but only when used with a few plug-ins, namely Photowiz Colorwasher and Focalblade. These two plug-ins allow me to bring out the true colour of an image and to sharpen it extremely accurately without too much time and effort. The results are excellent. |
Harald Heim of The Plugin Site was not | ColorWasher helps especially with badly underexposed photos ... Computer Arts Projects | ... correct[s] ... in a very convenient and automatic way with manual retouch possibility. ... it is better and faster than any built-in function from any photo editor software. ... Color Washer allows you to enhance your digital photos in seconds instead of minutes. |
A plugin that would automatically recognize all [photographical] mistakes and turn a snapshot into a professional photo would a dream. Who thinks this isn't possible should install ColorWasher ... The results look like they were already perfectly photographed. ... It is easy to use ... the parameters are easily understandable. ... Rating: Very Good. PCgo Grafik & Video 2/2004 | ColorWasher ... lets you easily convert color shots to black and white, on the other hand BW images can also be colored. foto Magazin 3/2005 | ColorWasher is interesting because of the combination of different correction steps in one plugin... the five Auto buttons already lead to helpful comparisons... DOCMA 2/06 |
| Many plug-ins have appeared in recent years ... but not one has ever truly given me the feeling of "this is it". ... This changed when I ran into ColorWasher... This plug-in offers good value for your money and is clearly conceived by a someone who is well aware of a photographer's needs, and knows how to offer a solution to these needs by developing really outstanding software. ... can be used ... without having to take up first a study in complicated software . ... Final verdict: It was a real pleasure to test this plug-in. Seeing as its price is so reasonable, I can only say: Highly Recommended! | The plug-in is cleverly designed, with multi-view strips and mostly slider-based operation. ... ColorWasher comes with histogram feature that must be one of the most powerful I’ve ever come across ... the ColorWasher histogram is even more powerful than Photoshop’s. ... ColorWasher is, in my opinion, especially suitable for removing difficult colour casts. Orange casts are a good example. ColorWasher gives you all the power and capabilities you need to get rid of such colour casts. The plug-in is also great to add colour effects... | ... ColorWasher is worth very cent (an quite inexpensive in comparison). ... you can not process colors, color casts and color moods in images better und faster. ... using it is quite intuitive and the results are convincing. You can not process exposure, light, shadows and brightness better and with more control... |
Simply a great Photoshop plugin for those working with digital photos that require tweaking to bring out their best. The Graphics.com Newsletter |
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| FocalBlade |
Razorblade-sharpen your Photographs with FocalBlade ... it’s way better than everything else I’ve reviewed. In case you’re wondering: it does a lot better than Adobe’s built-in filters do. ... FocalBlade is not just another Unsharp Masking thing. It doesn’t even come close to Photoshop’s Smart Sharpen. In fact, it’s way smarter than that. ... FocalBlade should be in every serious photographer’s tool chest. It allows you to sharpen images much better than any other method or application I’ve tested before. | FocalBlade is the definitive sharpening tool. ... it is brilliant at creating a sharpened effect ... FocalBlade achieves fine results even on images of low quality... The plug-in is flexible and easy to use, delivering top quality results ... The speed at which FocalBlade performs is impressive. The amount of control you have over the sharpening of an image ... is also exceptional... When extreme sharpening occurs, the plug-in doesn’t produce halos, as many other sharpening tools do. Photoshop Creative Magazine Issue 7 | I wish I had tried it earlier! Without a doubt, this is the best sharpening plug-in I’ve tried, and it beats the pants off the many sharpening actions I’ve found on the web. Its user-friendly interface and powerful sharpening algorithms make it a good investment for digital imaging newbies, and a must-have tool for advanced users. |
| Every now and then a tool comes along that completely redefines its category. FocalBlade is just such a tool. ... With FocalBlade you are provided with the most powerful and flexible tool yet produced for image sharpening. Luminious Landscapes | ... what makes the tools in FocalBlade unique is that you can control how you sharpen images without introducing negative side effects (increased noise and halo) ... FocalBlade allows users to sharpen poor-quality images without boosting inherent noise... one of the biggest advantages of FocalBlade is the user interface design... Similar plug-ins ... don't have the well-organized user interface and excellent documentation... it makes the plug-in easier to use. Photoshop User Magazine April/May 2006 | It is not so often I get as impressed by a new program as I did with FocalBlade. ... Its purpose is to give the user a powerful tool to sharpen images and i.e. in Photoshop do it better and with more easiness than with the built in filter "Unsharp Mask". So it does! The best thing, I think, is that it can sharpen the edges separately from the surface. |
FocalBlade is probably the most versatile sharpening program around ... an absolute snip at $49.95. ... makes FocalBlade a gem ... Photographers have had a long time to wait for a sharpening plug-in that has the controls of FocalBlade. I doubt that I will ever want to use USM again. | ... this tool will make your life easier ... There is a workflow for every level of skills. ... the learning curve is fast and easy. ... Need I to say I adopted Focal Blade for my everyday workflow ? It's that easy to use and working so well ... Highly recommended if you're serious about your images. | FocalBlade is very flexible and still not difficult to use. ... There is no doubt that FocalBlade is one of our top sharpening filters (it might end up even in the #1 spot). Very impressive. Digital Outback Photo |
PhotoWiz' Focal Blade is one of my two favorite third-party filters for very powerful special effects sharpening. You can get almost unlimited effects and still remove over-sharpening artifacts. | The very best tool available to help you with the task of sharpening your photographs. | FocalBlade was created to provide you with a whole range of powerful features in one single filter. ... The dialog box is well designed and easy to navigate with everything in it's place. ... A lot of work has gone into producing this product and it's well worth the money. |
It is better than commonly built-in sharpening functions from any photo editor software. ... Focal Blade increases the patterns due to jpeg compression much less than other -built-in- sharpening tools. ... Focal Blade allows you to sharpen your digital photos very conveniently. | FocalBlade ... is a universal image sharpening tool that combines great power and flexibility with ease of use. ... It's no exaggeration to say that FocalBlade has just about every conceivable option you'll need for sharpening any image. Ted's Images | Photoshop comes with a sharpening filter but it is rather limited in capability. The Plugin Site's FocalBlade gives me far better control over how my photos are sharpened for display |
Adobe's Photoshop CS is ... a powerful and useful tool but only when used with a few plug-ins, namely Photowiz Colorwasher and Focalblade. These two plug-ins allow me to bring out the true colour of an image and to sharpen it extremely accurately without too much time and effort. The results are excellent. | FocalBlade is - as part of a collection of Photoshop-compatible plugins - known worldwide for its quality and user-friendliness ... This software was programmed to avoid straining the hardwear, so even computers with little RAM render quite fast when applying the plugin. | FocalBlade lets you sharpen your photos
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FocalBlade (FB) is designed as a single pass sharpening plugin, and seems to me the ultimate of its type. ... FB is generally fast and easy to use. ... It gives the finest possible control over sharpening, and is a far and away the best product of its type so far. About.com Photography | FocalBlade ... is suitable for optimizing individual images with a lot of care - an ideal mixture of control and comfort. ... adds no noise to the result. Sharpening: Good | This is an incredibly powerful tool for sharpening your images, and it produces excellent results. ... One of the more powerful features of FocalBlade is the masking feature ... [it] helps you target the sharpening only to areas that actually need it, which also enables you to apply a bit stronger sharpening than you might otherwise be able to get away with. |
FocalBlade was my first commercial plug-in for sharpening photos. It's still my favorite. ... Support is among the best on the Web. ... FocalBlade is a very flexible tool. ... You'll also find that FocalBlade is reasonably priced. TheLightsRightStudio.com | The non-optimal example image (on the left) shows clearly more details after using FocalBlade (on the right). Being able to influence dark and bright halos seperately helps to achieve good results. DOCMA 2/06 | Arguably the number one sharpening tool |
It gives you more precise control than Photoshop ... FocalBlade’s ease of use, level of control, and zippy performance warrant taking the plug-in for a spin. ... The Mask Display option alone is worth the purchase price. With multiple techniques suitable for almost any image, FocalBlade could quickly become your one-stop answer for image sharpening and blurring. Pros: Multiple sharpening and blurring modes; ability to enhance fine details by entering a radius value of 0.5 pixels or fewer; resizable window; handy X-ray negative edge-mask display; convenient text description of controls; handy Screen and Print buttons; swift; easy to use. | Now there’s a delightfully simple – and powerful – tool that seems to cover all the sharpening ground you’ll ever need ... If you ... need a more effective sharpening tool that the one you have built-in to your graphics software, look no further than FocalBlade. For $49 it’s the best value sharpening plugin available, beating others ... hands down in terms of features for the money. ... I can see it becoming entrenched in my digital kitbag for years to come and I give FocalBlade five out of five GO INSIDE Magazine review lights! | I highly recommend using ... FocalBlade. ...If you want the ultimate control and damn the torpedos, go for FocalBlade ... enough power to keep you experimenting for hours ... clearly labeled and entirely user friendly ... will clean up halos and aliasing, no matter how far you push the sharpening. ...You can get almost unlimited effects and still remove over-sharpening artifacts. |
FocalBlade is a plugin so professional yet simple to use. If seeking an affordable yet powerful Sharpen/Blur effects plugin, Focal Blade will make your work and production more efficient. |
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| LightMachine |
The 70 dollars for LightMachine are a good investment ... LightMachine works with fine adjustable masks that accurately seperate e.g. a dark foreground from the background ... The considerable supply of mask parameters compensates for ugly halos among other things ... Exposure Correction: Very Good | Light Machine is the ultimate Digital Dark Room Tool ... within the plugin you have far more control than the usual photo correction programs... I am amazed at the programmes ability to correct very poor photos, but also apply artistic effects. | The Light Machine is a very handy tool for adjusting a variety of elements, such as brightness, contrast, saturation, colour replacement, and many other required corrections, without consuming too much time. ... it has a very user friendly help feature, in which wherever you run the mouse over, there is a dialogue box which tells you what it is or how it works. Better Photoshop Techniques Issue 6 |
LightMachine is very interesting because of the many options and possibilities... Working with light and tone in this plugin leads to perfect results. You can even achieve good results with photos that initially appear to have no quality at all. | I used various filters from the Plugin Site to process thousands of sports photos last year. Color Washer, Focal Blade, and Light Machine are very thoughtful designs (speaking as a software engineer), and a good value. ...are actually small applications, with good functionality and many useful features. | In conclusion, there are some interesting tools here, and they promise great things to anyone with great patience. ... A powerful and flexible plug-in ... Digital Photo Effects 24, April 2005 |
Lightmachine can help pull detail out of shadow and tone down highlights, which it does fairly well. ... It's fairly simple to use, even for beginners... An Auto Mask feature takes out the guesswork even more. ... It ... delivers on its promises. Photoshop User Magazine March 2006 | More than just a few readers often want us to recommend software or plug-ins. For all those wishing to automate image adjustments, try LightMachine. This Photoshop plugin performs all kinds of light adjustments in photos... Creative Latitude |
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| B/W Styler |
I can recommend this Black and White conversion plug-in, not only for its controls, numerous tools and ease of use but most of all for its tremendous value for money. Royal Photographic Society - Spring 2007, No 34 | Create a classic look and feel in your photos using the B/W Styler for Windows. This Photoshop plug-in does more than just convert images to black-and-white. ... the tool uses the whole contrast range of color photos to achieve dramatic black-and-white images. | ... it does a splendid job. ... This is a filter that gives you the ultimate control over a monochrome conversion from a digital photograph. ... for all your conversion to monochrome needs, I don’t think you can do better than with B & W Styler. It’s simply so powerful there’s no competition. |
Graphic designers ... would find many of the effects a great timesaver. Photographers may particularly welcome the ability to give digital images a 'film' look, which may also make them more effective. ... I found it very fastand convenient when I needed to produce a couple of 'black and whites' for a client in a hurry .... BW Styler is moderately priced compared with many Photoshop plugins ... and worth buying ... I have certainly come to appreciate the flexibility of using B/W Styler ... | One excellent option for performing these conversions is B/W Styler from PhotoWiz. Far from being a simple conversion utility, B/W Styler handles not only the emulationof traditional film, but goes on to simulate lens filters, film developing lab effects and different types of photo papers! ... | Finally, a true innovation ... offers new possibilities for digital photo tuning! ... B/W Styler makes it possible ... to unify digital techniques with the chemical dark room in a unique manner. ... a powerful tool for converting digital color images, which is intuitively usable from the beginning. ... it goes far beyond what was available for demanding B&W conversions up to now. Highly recommended! |
This Photoshop Plugin... makes many editing steps with native Photoshop tools superfluous. ... everything is included in a very good and affordable filter. ... In my opinoin a must-have for all Photoshop users. | ... plugins that are worth their money. If you want to occupy yourself with the topic of black and white photos, then this plugins should be part of your toolbox. You can quickly achieve professional and top class black & white photos with it. | I like the many tools it offers ... the conversion process really sparks your creativity. |
| ContrastMaster |
It is an extremely powerful, full featured software plugin ... I have used ... [contrast] filters since 2005 ... but Contrast Master is like those on steroids. Albert J Valentino, Nikonians.org | ... a solution that offers unlimited possibility of contrast editing ... simple and intuitive sliders let you immediately achieve usable results ... the technical quality of the contrast adjustment is exceptional .... A comparable tool ... is not available on the market. |
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