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Andromeda Software
Andromeda
Software. This old company has an impressive catalog : RedEyePro,
Scatter Lens, Etchtone,
Perspective, LensDoc,
Series 1,
Series 2 (Three-D),
Three-D Luxe,
Series 3, Andromeda
Series 4 Techtures, Shadow,
Velociraptor,
Varifocus,
Measurement Filter,
and Cutline.
To purchase Andromeda Software products: www.andromeda.com
SPECIAL:
Andromeda Software and Twisting Pixels have teamed up to give you the ulitmate bundle for photographers looking to stylize their photos. With Andromeda’s Cutline and Etchtone Filters as well as Twisting Pixel’s Pen & Paper plug-in, you can give any of your photos the stylized touch that you have been looking for.
They are offering you this exclusive bundle at 35% off the individual product price, so at $199, take advantage while you can.
For more info, click here!
RedEyePro
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 Because
of Andromeda’s new RedEyePro filter, you will
never throw away a photo again because of the
nasty red-eye curse! The long awaited filter
from
Andromeda has finally been released, and
just in time to correct all those horrible flash
Christmas pictures you took of your relatives!
The Red-eye
is caused by light reflected off the subject’s
retina when a flash picture is taken in low light.
While some cameras offer red-eye reduction as
a feature, it can only reduce the problem, not
eliminate it. The before-and-after clown
shot
(See example)
shows a correction done with two clicks in
“Novice” mode, one in each eye, and a hit of the
OK button. In other words, nothing else
was required to get the amazing results you see
here. The “Expert” mode adds additional
versatility with the selective “Unapply” and “Unpaint”
brush tools.
The filter does
more than just remove the red, which we can honestly
all do with our lasso and image-adjust-color&hue
menus in Photoshop. But the filter preserves
glints and reflective details while keeping the
remaining iris color and texture. It will
also do non-circular red-eye and animal eyes,
for you Zoo photographers. Works on both
RBG and CYMK images. Seriously, this filter
is so easy to use it’s almost embarrassing.
Just don’t tell your clients you own it and let
them think it took an hour to correct!
The program is
compatible with Photoshop 6 & 7 and Windows XP,
Mac OS X native and 9.X. Note: Adobe has
included a redeye correction tool in the
Photoshop CS2 version.
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ScatterLens
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At
first I thought this little program was doing nothing
for the picture I was trying to enhance. I
was expecting extreme stars and textures, fireworks
and explosions. It wasn't until I happened
to glance at the original picture of my subject
that I realized.... Scatterlens had managed to make
a very weak photo look like a glowing, professional
portrait.
After
tweaking and playing with all the different filters,
with both people and with landscapes, I found
the results subtle and delicate. The controls
work on a slide bar, and when you place the pointer
over the slider, a box at the bottom will display
text that explains its purpose. One set of sliders
is for BLUR, while the other sets the GLOW.
There are two modes, novice and expert.
In the novice mode, the blur sliders are only
two, while in the expert mode you get three.
On the glow controls there is only one slider
in the novice setting, while the expert offers
three.
The
skin on this plug in is so simple you have to
believe it was on purpose. It could use
some more pleasing menus and graphics on the application
itself, and color wouldn't be amiss. Even
with the most serious, hard working plugins there
is usually some cosmetics that make you think
the darn thing works better than it really does.
And with some of them, who cares how they work,
they look so great!
I played with the novice controls and then graduated
to the expert and was more pleased with the results.
It is possible to get some 'starrier' stars, but
the results appear to be too fuzzy. I preferred
the subtle results that can be had from simple,
delicate tweaking. Now I can't wait until
someone gives me a family photo and asks me to
clean it up. Scatterlens could perhaps use
some more extremes filters, but certainly it's
on the right track.
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Andromeda
states that this plug-in is “unique in that
it uses a camera paradigm to introduce depth
or perspective.” Here’s the straight story.
It pretty much does what Photoshop does
in its edit-transform-rotate. The
difference, however, is that it quickly
gives you a set of choices on angles and
even lets you preview six image angles at
a time. It will also allow you to save presets
and allow you to get perspective either
in a percentage of degree, or just freeform.
The program
will save you a lot of time and effort if
you have numerous special angle effects
you need to do over several photos, making
it possible to keep the effect exact over
each image. The zoom and set angles,
such as top and floor, are interesting and
surprising.
The plug-in
was easy to understand, and pretty quick
to catch on to. There are three deceptive
buttons at the bottom of the screen that
confused me at first. I’m trained
to look to the top for exits and returns,
and these didn’t even look like buttons.
A fun little filter that will have some
useful applications, quick to use and easy
to understand.
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 For
those of you who own cameras with a
sophisticated lens, LensDoc might be
the fix you’ve been waiting for.
It corrects barreling, which occurs
with wide-angle shots such as with a
zoom lens, and pin-cushioning that can
occur with specialty lenses. It’s easy
to make corrections in the novice mode,
and nice to have the different detailed
options that come in the expert mode.
By placing the three
correction dots along a line that
should be straight and telling the
program to ‘correct’ it, the filter
forces the line straight and makes
corrections through the rest of the
photo to make it believable.
You can also use this feature to get
rid of the ‘bugeye’ effect that wide-angle
can sometimes have on humans, or other
still life photos.
With
the program are some cool special
effects that allow you to ‘create’
the same barrel or pin-cushioning
effect in an existing photo (actually
even pick the effect certain brand
camera lens would make). In
fact, you know those annoying ads
that shows a business man with a gas
problem, his stomach bulging out and
then back? Well, here’s the
program that will let you create the
effect in a photo. There are
also some “funhouse” effects, and
a fun ripple that makes the photo
look like a reflection in water that
is rippling from the center out.
Quit nice.
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A
simple little plug in that brings a powerful effect
to your photos. It’s been very hard finding
filters that give a nice texture to images that
are believable, and Etchtone is one of them.
The
interface is clear and simple, making the effects
just seconds away. What really gives this
filter dimension is when you start combining it
with other effects already available in Photoshop,
like colorizing an image, or de-saturating it
and then laying the Etchtone effect over it. The
finest combination is to completely de-saturate
the image, darken it some and then have some fun
with the different adjustments in Etchtone.
You
begin with the Etch Control, which only gave me
Steel Etch to choose from, but you can control
the lines per inch, giving the image either a
pointillism effect (an artists style with pen
and ink), or long strokes and all the variations
inbetween. If you retain the color in the image,
you can then blend the etching texture with the
original image, bringing in the local color and
creating an interesting look that is not unlike
old fashion photos with hand done etching.
My
favorite effect is under Image Controls.
You can add posterizing and different effects
such as glassy and backlight. The effects
really blew me away with its unique beauty.
It's a nice little filter that any creative, artistic
designer will love. For all you other more
"in the box" guys, you could use this
to help you explore new horizons.
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Andromeda
Series 1
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This plugin is in fact a mix between
the above Series
2 and
Techtures,
allowing the user both to map an image or part of it
unto a 3D volume, and to "sculpt" this volume, adding
various possibilities of textures to it.
It is at the same time an excellent idea (you can create
wonderful effects with this), and a bizarre plugin in
that the modern, elegant but somewhat confuse Techtures
interface alternates with the aging and also confuse
Series 2 interface. In the end, this plugin opens an
incredible number of creative possibilities, but requires
a lot of training.
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Andromeda Series 3 : Screens
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Another impressive plugin from Andromeda, it still
has that outdated interface, this impressive number of controls
and parameters, but enables you to take any grayscale image and
instantly convert it into line art, mezzotinted, hand-drawn, you
name it...
It is quite the same as 3D in that it takes some playing around
before getting the hang of it, but these efforts are well worth
the pain, the results are truly superb.
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Probably the ultimate for shadow effects of all
sorts, with an extremely nice-looking interface (but not as messy
as some find the KPT), Shadow enables you to create absolutely
all possible shadows, with real-time preview, coloring of the shadow,
natural placing (you do not try to get the good shadow effect, you
just place the objects and light where they are and you let the
plugin calculate what is the good shadow). I must admit I have been
extremely impressed... I have ONE regret : the demo is apply-disabled
! :-)
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This specialty plugin is a must-have if you are
into motion trails and effects of that kind, with enough settings
to get the exact effects you are after ; you can adjust the width
and length of trails, the form, the number of copies of the original
object you make...
You will have to make sure you use it on an inverted selection
for a good effect ; also take care of little problems that may arise
when using with Photoshop 5.
Finally, my only regret is that this plugin does not have such
a nice interface as Shadow or Techtures.
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This
one is a filter designed to combine different presets of textures,
making it the ideal way of quickly getting the exact effect you
are looking for. The effects are really impressive, the best
part being the way textures are classified and displayed.