|
 |
Summertime Product Buyer's Guide
By Paul W. Faust | Products |
Jun 15, 2009
|
|
It's always good to know what's new out there for photographers and digital image makers, and I have found a few items that should be of great interest to many. I know that I will get a lot of use from these products.
Intuos4 Professional Pen Tablet
I would have to say that Wacom has done it again with their new Intuos4 Art Pen Tablet. The whole tablet has been redesigned with more than just a few new additional features, and Wacom offers it in four model sizes. Wacom tablets have come a long way since I first used one years ago. Not only because there are more features, but also because the tools are easier to use, and it does a lot more with features that you wouldn’t have once thought possible. I don’t think an early user of these tablets would have dreamed that they would someday have an airbrush pen to use with their tablets, but today that is one of the many tools available.
Another much improved feature is the Wacom Tip Sensor that allows you to control every feel that you would have with an artists paint brush, including levels of pressure sensitivity to adjust exposure, brush size, line weight, and opacity. The new illuminated display shows you exactly what your functions are set at, so no more guessing about what is now a problem of the past.
The Intuos4 comes in four sizes that will handle any workflow need, and this review is based on the Medium size model that has a 5.5x8.8 inch work area = 48.5 sq. in. and retail prized at $350-US. The Large model has an 8x12.8 in. area = 102.5 sq. in. and retails for $469-US. The X-Large model has a 12x18.2 in. area = 218.4 sq. in. and retails for $789-US. All three of these models have the illuminated display. The Small model has an 3.9x6.2 in work area, but does not have the illuminated display feature, and it retails for $229-US.
I thought that the last Wacom tablet I reviewed some years ago had great improvements, but they don’t even come close to this new Intuos4 model. I found my medium-size tablet to be very easy to use, and the controls are in just the right places. This whole system seems to have been very well thought out, down to the weighted pen holder, which also has a storage compartment for all of the extra tips that come with the pen. The pen holder even comes with indentations on the top so that you can lay the pen down across the holder instead of just having a hole to put it in like before. As I said, “A Very well thought-out system,” with more great features than I could cover here.
If all that weren’t enough, buyers in north America also get a great bonus software that lets them download additional brush tools and plug-ins. Other regions may have their own special offers, which you can find at the Wacom web site: www.wacom,com
HoodEye
Hoodman has created another great photo accessory, and it is possibly their best yet—for me at least. The HoodEye is a viewfinder eyepiece that snaps right onto your camera and totally eliminates all glare that can affect how you see the subject. It is very comfortable to use, will twist around to any angle you need to use it at, and has a locking mount that allows you to kept it right on your camera even when in a bag. HoodEye comes in four models to fit all Nikon and Canon cameras. I have not taken a single shot without it on my camera ever since I received it to review a couple of months ago. (I wish I had requested two of them so I’d have one for my infrared camera body as well)
The HoodEye retails for just $29.99-US and is available at www.hoodmanusa.com or call 1-800/818-3946. You will be glad you did!
SNAP ART
I bet that this great new Snap Art Photoshop plug-in from Alien Skin will become many people’s favorite new tool to add special effects to their images. With this software you can create beautiful natural looking artwork, and great graphic effects in a single step. It simulates brush strokes and canvas textures that look handmade, as well as creating many art effects such as “Oil Paint, Sketch, Watercolor, Pencil Sketch, Pastel”, and five others. If you’d like your image to look like a Van Gogh you can use the “Impasto” filter that simulates layers of thick paint. (My favorite.)
Snap Art eliminates hours of hand editing, and no need for repeating brush stroke after brush stroke to get what you want. You can even do it with one click of one of Snap Arts hundreds of factory presets, and then use the advanced controls to fine-tune the effects, if and when you need it. You can even customize the effects, such as paint thickness, to crate your own personal style.
Wedding and portrait photographers will love this plug-in because you can use the programs “Oval” mask to protect selected areas of importance, such as the face, while Snap Art adds its effects to all the rest of the image. That will be one impressive selling point for those photographers.
To get a much better idea of what this great new plug-in has to offer, check out the Snap Art web page at http://www.alienskin.com/snapart/ and be sure to click on the tutorial videos links. They are a great source of training for after you get this plug-in. Snap Art 2 retails for $199-US and registered users can upgrade for $99-US. It is both Macintosh & Windows compatible. If you want to get started fast, order it as a download from www.alienskin.com or call 1-888/921-7546 and talk to a real “Live” person.
OnOne Plug-In Suite 4
The box cover says that this new Photoshop plug-in is “Making digital photography easier, faster, better,” and they sure have that right. Suite 4 is a collection of OnOnes’ major image editing software, including Genuine Fractals, Mask Pro, PhotoFrame, PhotoTune, FocalPoint, and PhotoTools. Of course each of these can be purchased seperatly, but you get one heck of a value if you buy the whole collection as it comes in Suite 4. Most of these plug-ins are well known to pro photographers, and for good reason, they work better than any other similar plug-ins on the market.
The two best-known programs of the group are Genuine Fractals, and Mask Pro. Genuine Fractals is the industry leader in taking small digital image files and turning them into files capable of making large prints from. They do this by re-sampling the image over and over again, adding the needed pixels, adjusting color and contrast, until the image file is to its selected size. Other sizing softwares do it about the same way, but not nearly as good. Genuine Fractals can increase an image size well over 1,000% without the loss of sharpness and detail. Of course that also depends on what size and quality the original image was in the first place. If you put garbage in, you get garbage out. No software can change that fact. But if you want to make the best quality large prints, this is the only way to go. The results speak for themselves.
Mask Pro is another member of the Suite 4 set, and I quote: “Mask Pro is the Photoshop plug-in that allows you to cut out a subject from the background by assigning keep and drop colors and simply painting away the background. Mask Pro 4 makes it easy to create masks, selections and clipping paths on difficult subjects like hair, glass and fog all in real-time,” and yes, it is just that simple. For added help the program has a built-in tutorial that shows you how to mask even the hardest subject, and I don’t think you’ll ever find a harder subject to mask around than fog.
PhotoFrame makes it easy to add realistic film and darkroom effects to your image edges, including effects like torn paper, brush strokes, and textures. The program also includes a library of professionally created edge effects that you can pick and choose from. Use a little of theirs and a few of yours, and create an endless number of effects to make your images stand out from all the rest.
PhotoTune is a program that corrects any and all image color problems with its patented color correction process and SkinTune technology. In effect, PhotoTune will eliminate all the time consuming work of color correcting, and makes the job easy and fast.
FocalPoint is a plug-in that allows you to create a realistic depth-of-field effect to an image. It also gives you controls to adjust plane of focus, and selective focus in your images. When you don’t have the needed lens or filter along in the field, FocalPoint allows you to fix any such problems later on, and it will save you a lot of wasted exposures as well.
The last of the Suite 4 plug-ins is the PhotoTools program, which, and I quote again; “PhotoTools reproduces camera filters like neutral density, color correction and polarization as well as film and darkroom techniques, such as paper toners and alternative processes. You can even simulate the look of different films with a wide range of grain and contrast effects.” You get hundreds of quality photo effects designed by the pros at OnOne Software with fast and very easy to use tools that show you the results in a full-screen preview window before you apply them. If that weren’t enough, you can even stack the effects just like you can stack camera filters, and control the order in which they are used and the way they blend together. WOW!
Check out the Onone Plug-in Suite 4 at http://www.ononesoftware.com/detail.php?prodLine_id=8
It retails for $499.95-US and the upgrade is $199.95-US—and is both Mac and Windows compatible.
LowePro Toploader Camera Bag
LowePro has a new camera bag series called the Toploader Pro AW. This bag was designed for fast and easy access to an extra camera and lens, as for a backup camera body, or a second camera that you might want to carry along for such uses as a dedicated Infrared unit, which is what I was looking for when I requested one to check out. I only wanted a bag that would carry nothing more than one camera body with lens, and a bag that I didn’t have to wrestle with to get that camera out of it. I received the Toploader Pro AW 65, which is the smallest of the three bags in this series.
What I received was a nice little bag just perfect to carry the one camera I wanted it for. My Nikon D-200 fits in it perfectly, with a bit of space left over. It is well padded, and is a nice trim size, but I did find that it has a few design problems as far as my needs go.
The #1 problem I found with this bag is that it is promoted as being able to be used as a holster bag, but the only loop that could be used for that is attached in the wrong direction and would make the bag lay on its side, and no longer top loading. The way Lowepro shows it to be used as a holster is by hanging the bag over your shoulder with the shoulder strap, and then attaching a second strap that goes around your waste to hold it at your side.
One other problem I had with the bag is that the zipper that opens the top cover. At one point it is right behind one of the shoulder strap D-rings, which makes it hard to unzip it at that point. This does not make for fast and easy access to a camera. I need to add that the zipper cover can be left unzipped and the cover held in place with the buckle clip that also secures the cover, and then it is easy to access your camera.
This bag is 6.7W x 6.7D x 7.5H inches inside, and retails for $69.99-US.
View Paul W. Faust's work at www.impressions-of-light.com
and at http://impressions_of_light.photoworkshop.com
Let us know if you found this article useful, and tell us what kinds of articles you'd like to see in upcoming issues. Send your comments and ideas to the editor.
© Copyright 2010 by PHOTOWORKSHOP.COM
Top of Page
Last Updated: Mar 20th, 2010 - 13:51:17
|
|
|
|
|
Products: Additional Articles
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
