In the world of image editing, Adobe Photoshop has become a platform unto itself—it’s certainly much more than a single application. A thriving cottage industry of plug-ins, filters, and actions has emerged around Photoshop’s architecture, and today there are supplemental plug-ins or actions for nearly every need, interest, and user level.

In this review, I look at a variety of Photoshop plug-ins: Akvis’s Enhancer 2.0, which reclaims detail in shadows and highlights; Alien Skin Software’s Eye Candy 5: Nature, a plug-in that lets you add naturalistic special effects to objects; and nik multimedia’s Color Efex Pro 2.0, a set of tools that mimic—and in some cases surpass—traditional photographic lens filters. These products are designed to work within Photoshop, but they also work with a variety of other imaging programs that adhere to Photoshop’s plug-in standard, such as Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 and Macromedia Fireworks MX 2004. Sd gundam g generation seed iso ps2 pal iso download.

Enhancer 2.0 You can’t always be in the perfect position to shoot a photo, and sometimes you also don’t have enough time to choose the proper camera settings for the available light. Too often, the disappointing result is that either the important part of your photo is in a shadow or the whole picture looks hazy. Akvis’s Enhancer 2.0 fixes these problems by revealing detail in both shadow and highlight areas without blowing out highlights or plugging up shadows. Amazingly, it works.

Akvis says that Enhancer intensifies color transitions, thus strengthening the difference between adjacent pixels in color gradations. That means you can dramatically improve most photos, especially those in which strong light falls behind your subject, casting a shadow.

Besides enhancing shadow and highlight detail, Enhancer can also improve details in a photo’s midtone areas, making it an effective tool for sharpening an otherwise well-exposed photo. In my tests, it provided an added punch that was especially beneficial for photos of industrial objects such as buildings, bridges, and vehicles. Because of the algorithms Enhancer uses, it’s also extremely effective at removing the haze that sometimes shows up in a photo (haze is usually the result of nonoptimal camera settings). Steinberg halion 3 torrent.

Enhancer’s preview window provides just three slider bars in an easy-to-use interface; you can quickly improve a photo through simple trial and error. Unfortunately, since you can’t type values directly into the dialog box, and you can’t save settings for future use, you’ll wind up doing extra work if you cancel out of the dialog box or if you want to use the same settings on multiple pictures. While the program’s Before and After buttons are handy for quickly viewing the effect of your changes, the preview window is not resizable, nor can you zoom in.

Sometimes this forces you into a few rounds of applying and reapplying Enhancer’s effects. In my tests, Enhancer seemed to produce shadow and highlight adjustments similar to what an experienced user could achieve with the Shadow/Highlight command in Photoshop CS, CS2, and Elements 3 (see “First Look: Adobe Creative Suite 2,” page 58, for more on Photoshop CS2). Enhancer’s ability to also sharpen midtones is unique, making it useful for sharpening details in well-lit photos. For users of earlier versions of Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Macromedia Fireworks, or any other application that doesn’t have Photoshop CS’s Shadow/Highlight feature, Enhancer is a valuable tool. For Photoshop CS or Elements 3 users, its greatest value is in sharpening midtones. Be sure to check out Enhancer’s manual; it’s helpful for understanding which settings to use for common problems.