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The Plugin Site Releases LightMachine For Achieving Breathtaking Photo Corrections
(Press Release)
The Plugin Site is proud to announce the release of LightMachine, a plugin for performing all kinds of light adjustments in photos. It combines shadow/highlight, virtual lighting and color-based correction tools for performing sophisticated corrections without the need for time-consuming selections and layer stacks. It lets you selectively correct photos taken under bad light conditions or with inadequate camera settings and achieve results that rival photos taken under the best circumstances. Additionally LightMachine can achieve special effects like glows, sunsets, high key and selective b/w effects, replace one color with another and simulate polarizing filters. LightMachine works in dozens of graphics applications including Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, IrfanView, Photoshop Elements, PhotoImpact, Photo-Paint and Fireworks. LightMachine can be applied to 8bit and 16bit RGB images.
Overview
LightMachine corrects brightness, contrast and saturation in specific image areas independently from each other. It basically consists of four different filters each split up into a simple mode suitable for beginners and a Pro mode with more features for more flexibility. The Brightness/Contrast modes adjust brightness and contrast throughout the image which is nice as a starting point. The Shadows/Highlights modes give you complete control over dark and bright image areas and let you correct them completely independently from each other with the help of sophisticated masking options. The Virtual Studio modes allow you to place an unlimited number of shadow and light spots as if you were placing studio lights in a real photo studio. The intensity, size, ovality, angle, hardness and reflection properties of each spot can be adjusted precisely. Finally, the Colors modes let you selectively correct image objects of a specific color by clicking on them.
Sophisticated Algorithms
LightMachine offers brightness, contrast and saturation correction algorithms that let you bring out more details without making photos look unnatural. LightMachine's flexible shadow/highlight masking options let you quickly and easily adjust specific image areas without affecting other regions. The Virtual Studio algorithms simulate light and shadows so realistically that you will feel as though you are working in a photo studio rather than a two-dimensional photo. LightMachine offers effective methods for dealing with problematic color shifts in lifted shadows and various different saturation algorithms for avoiding color artifacts even at high saturation values.
Plenty of Tools
LightMachine uses a resizable dialog and its controls are logically organized in various tab sheets. Moving the mouse over each control instantly displays a detailed explanation in the Help box, so you don't need to read the manual before using LightMachine. Spilt Views let you display the original image side-by-side with the corrected version and the 17 different histograms can be useful as a guide. Complex corrections are made easy by LightMachine's Auto Mask feature, which lets even beginners quickly create suitable masks. Four different modes for displaying the used mask help even further. Removing color shifts in lifted shadows is a snap with LightMachine's one-click color picker. LightMachine's Logged Settings feature can remember the settings used for any image and automatically loads them whenever they are required again.
Why LightMachine is Different
LightMachine offers plenty of features for improving a much wider range of photos with better results. Other available software often only give acceptable results for the common cases, but can't cope with more difficult ones. These shadow/highlight tools usually produce contrast-burned or over-saturated results which have an unnatural look. Unlike LightMachine, they don't let you adjust shadows and highlights really independently, add artifacts along the shadow/highlight borders or don't brighten shadows or darken highlights enough to make details clearly visible.
Other lighting tools usually produce only artistic effects and are not suitable for correcting photos. They don't give you precise control over the lighting effects and offer no contrast options. They also affect the surrounding areas instead of just focusing on the target area. They do not support a Reflection feature therefore you often can't avoid blown highlights without decreasing the overall effect. LightMachine's Virtual Studio tool avoids these problems, because it was developed for producing realistic light effects for correcting photos.
Other color-based correction tools don't allow to replace the color of a specific image area with any other imaginable color. They are limited to a range of colors depending on the color that needs to be replaced. Most of these tools also don't let you selectively adjust brightness and contrast and have no features for adjusting the border smoothness. LightMachine on the other hand gives you complete control for color-based corrections.
Availability & System Requirements
LightMachine is available for Windows. A Macintosh version is planned. LightMachine sells at $69.95 (Regular License) or $39.95 (Academic/Educational License).
It can be purchased at the Plugin Site.
A demo version can be downloaded at the same URL.
Note to Editors: Review copies are available upon request
Company Info
The Plugin Site is located in Nuremberg, Germany, and develops graphics, video and web software. We also created the Harry's Filters, ColorWasher, FocalBlade, Plugin Galaxy, Plugin Commander, Edge & Frame Galaxy, HyperTyle, HTML Shrinker and Photo Galaxy products. We co-produced Alpha Magic with Hollywood FX and Pinnacle and also co-develop the FilterMeister plugin development environment with AFH Systems.
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Why do you need plugins? Photoshop is an amazing image editing application that has forever changed graphic design and digital photographic editing, but like any tool, if you don't have time to fully learn it, you can't get the most out of it.
Plugins for Photoshop allow you to either do something that you cannot do with the features included in Photoshop or they allow you to do something easier, faster or better than you could do in Photoshop without the plug-in. Whether it is color correction, resizing, masking or creating an effect, you can find a Photoshop plug-in that can help you be more efficient with your time.
Did You Know You Could Create An Entire Website In Photoshop?
SiteGrinder Photoshop Plugin - Create Websites Instantly
There often seems to be a strict division of labor within the world of web design and development. Creative professionals tend to stick to the Photoshop domain, while those well-versed in scripting are left to the task of implementing their work. Indeed, the two realms are quite different from each other, to which any of us even vaguely familiar with either can easily attest.
Essentially, Photoshop is a no-holds-barred design studio, offering the artist a seemingly endless array of creative options. On the other hand, HTML, CSS, Java and the like follow strict rules of engagement, requiring the developer to take any number of esoteric concerns into consideration in order to ensure that designs are properly displayed on the web.
Turn Photoshop Into A Complete Web Design Tool
SiteGrinder seeks to bridge this gap between design and development. Basically, this program turns Photoshop into an easy-to-use and fully functional web design tool. With SiteGrinder, designers will now have the freedom to totally let their creativity loose and then, without skipping a beat, transfer their designs to the web. Bringing esthetic concerns together with more practical considerations, this program is an amazingly powerful tool that would make a fantastic addition to any web designer's bag of tricks.
Generate Your Web Pages Directly From Photoshop
By generating web pages directly from Photoshop, you'll be able to spend much more time on the creative end of the spectrum, since you'll know right off the bat how well particular designs will translate to the web. No more going back to the Photoshop drawing board after getting a phone call from your development team, telling you that what you had envisioned doesn't have a chance of being displayed on the web. You can immediately visually and interactively test your designs, which permits you to then make changes to either esthetics or functions while it's still relatively early on in the design process.
Pricing and Availability
Mac OS X and Windows versions of the SiteGrinder unlockable demo are available now via download. SiteGrinder can be ordered from Media Lab's online store.
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Available At The Adobe Store
Adobe has announced the immediate availability of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 software, the photographer's essential toolbox for managing, adjusting and presenting large volumes of digital photographs. With new enhancements such as dual-monitor support, radical advances in non-destructive localized image correction, and streamlined search capabilities, Photoshop Lightroom 2 is a compelling upgrade that simplifies photography from shoot to finish. Visit the Adobe site to download a free 30 day Photoshop Lightroom trial free download.
As Adobe’s first application to support 64-bit for Mac OS X 10.5 Macintosh computers with Intel processors and Microsoft Windows Vista 64-bit operating systems, Lightroom 2 also provides improved memory performance for dealing with large scale images. Find the latest Lightroom 2 tutorials on our Photoshop Lightroom 2 Tutorials page.
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