We thank the companies that generously donate prizes for our monthly Double Exposure Challenge competitions.


1st Place
EYE CANDY 5
Bundled with the Nature, Texture & Impact plug-in sets is a must-have Photoshop compatible creativity tool. I have used Eye Candy from Alien Skin for many years and I have yet to tire of it. This bundle contains a three-disk set, each of which contains ten (10) special effects, including Rust, Drops, Smoke, Reptile skin, Perspective shadow, Motion trail, and many more. Besides manipulating your regular images, you can use these plug-ins and never have an excuse for not having great backgrounds, textures, or unique text effects again. Plug-ins from Alien Skin never seem to go out of style. You can always find uses for them no matter what you are working on.
     This 3-piece Eye Candy Bundle package retails for $199-U.S. Eye Candy also comes in a “collection” set for even more effects, so check it out at  www.alienskin.com





2nd Place
Painter Essentials 4
This software from Corel is an easy-to-use home art studio in a box. When you have a nice photo of a loved one, but you want to make it even better looking— maybe by turning it into an image that looks more like a painting than it does a photograph—then here is a great little package that will do just that. And without breaking your bank account. You can easily sketch and paint with numerous brushes and pens, and even pick the type of paper on you want to show the final effect. Do you want to create something even more unique? Then try adding one of these paint effects to a portion of your photograph, and leave the rest in its original state.  You can create great images to frame for the family, or just to send them as a postcard to friends. Corel even makes learning how to do all of this kind of work easy with its included tutorial video and guidebook.
     Painter Essentials 4 retails for just $99.99-U.S., so check out their site and you may even find it on sale at  www.corel.com 



3rd Place
CHAMELEON 6.0 
This software from AKVIS is a nice little collage creation tool that will make your work a lot easier. Most collage and montage programs require you to finely select the subject, but with this new program, that job has become a lot easier. In fact, it makes the job more fun to do. There are four modes in Chameleon, including Montage, Chameleon, Blend, and Emersion, and each does the job in its own unique way. For instance, the Chameleon mode places your subject into the image and adjusts its color to match that of the background, just like an animal does it. This a great little Photoshop compatible plug-in that can be used for all sorts of photo projects, and wedding, portrait, and family photographers will especially love it.
     This program retails for $75-U.S. For more information and to order, go to  www.akvis.com  
 


In addition to these prizes, all winners will receive:

BABY FACE Celebrating Your Pregnancy & Baby with Beautiful Photo Crafts
By Barbara Smith
This is a great book to get if you have, or are about to have, a baby or know someone who is.  It is not just a photography book. It's filled with great craft ideas on how to use those baby pictures in new ways that will be treasured for a lifetime.  This book is filled with super presentation ideas and beautiful images to illustrate them. Get it—you won’t be sorry!
 I don’t have any two-legged critters running around, but I am sure going to utilize this book a lot anyway. The great ideas inside can be applied to any photo subject.
     This soft cover book is about 8x10 inches, with 160 pages, retails for U.S. $21.95 – and is published by www.watsonguptill.com        I Rate it:  A+

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PREVIOUS CONTEST PRIZES

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PORTFOLIO  8.5
   After you are done creating all of your great new images, you'll need a good tool to manage them with, and the Extensis Portfolio program has always been one of the best. The newest version, Portfolio 8.5 is packed with features to group, find, track, and show your work, both for your own workflow needs or to present to others.
  
    Here are a few of the things that Portfolio 8.5 will do to make your life a lot easier.
.    Copy and rename the files that you download from your digital camera, or any files on your system.
.    Find digital photos and other image files anywhere on your system by just typing in a word or phrase.
.    Create a slideshow of your best images.
.    Embed and edit metadata and Portfolio keywords into your images for search needs and a record of the image data.
.    Build a web site with a gallery of your best work.
.    Create a collection of your best images and burn them directly to a CD or DVD right from within Portfolio.
.    Resize and batch convert your images to jpg or tiff files.

   For those who do not have the current Photoshop with its Bridge feature, here is the #1 answer to your filing and organizing needs. It will save you more time than you ever thought possible, and worth every penny of its average $199.95-US street price. Available for both Mac and Windows systems.  Check it out at  www.extensis.com


2nd Place
KPT Collection
  
    Kai's Power Tools, better known as KPT, has always been a favorite PhotoShop plug-in of mine ever since their very first version "many" years ago. It was great back then and it is a super-great set of plug-ins now. This collection version holds a selection of the most powerful filters from KPT 5, KPT 6 and KPT 7, into one new set of 24 separate creative filters. Just some of these filters include; Blurrr, Channel Surfing, Equalizer, FiberOptix, Frax4D, FraxPlorer, Gradient Lab, Hyper Tiling, LensFlare, Noize, Projector, Pyramid Paint, RadWarp, Reaction, & Turbulence. To give you an idea of what to expect in this package, the KPT Lightning will add drops of liquid to a surface to create
everything from water spots to smoky swirls.
  
    One of my favorites is the one that allows you to create "Fractals," something that can usually only be done with specialized software, but a feature that KPT has always offered. Fractals are a great way to create special effects that you cannot get any other way, and they are super to use when creating montage type images. The fractal filter is something that you really have to see to believe, and one that you will find taking a whole lot of your creative time.
  
    This program also has a great work window with all of the tool settings, sliders, and preview window, which makes workflow a whole lot easier and faster.

   KPT Collection retails for $99.99-US and you can check it out at www.corel.com



3rd Place
Hoodman HoodLoupe Pro
  
    The ad says that "this is what the Pros use for optimum glare free viewing," and you can take that to the bank! The biggest drawback to shooting digital is in being able to see what you got when (trying) to look at the LCD screen, which is next to impossible to do outdoors, but NOT any longer. A two-second test with my Nikon D-200 made this little tool a PERMENANT part of my camera bag from now on. It fits LCD screen up to 3 inches, so you can use it on just about any camera. Even with the clear plastic protector over the LCD screen I still got a good image to view, but that cover does allow a small bit of glare through the edges, but when it was removed the image is like looking at a small monitor. You can even see into shadow detail in the image, and judging correct exposure
will never be a problem again.
  
    The loupe is made of soft rubber, and has a +3 diopter you can adjust for your sight, and you can also adjust the focus. It comes with a soft neck strap and carrying bag. This must-have accessory retails for US-$69.99 - (and is worth every penny!)
  
    For more details on this product go to   www.hoodmanusa.com/


In addition to these prizes, all winners will receive:
Railroads of Pennsylvania, Your Guide To Pennsylvania's Historic Trains and Railway sites
by Brian Solomon

   Many photographers are also railroad lovers, especially the old steam engine type, which makes for one of the best subjects there is to photograph. It may be that I came from a railroad family and grew up riding the rails, which makes me love to photograph anything railroad, and that makes me always on the lookout for good railroading books that I can find new railroad places to travel to.  Railroads of Pennsylvania is a new book that is one of the best I have found to do just that. It is divided into four areas of the state and is full of images and information about the major train and railroad sites in those areas.
  
    Every illustration is richly captioned with info about that site, and the rest of the book is cover-to-cover history and reference information about each location. This book even has a state map both in the front and back of the book showing where each railroad site is located, and there are also many historical images so you can see what that railroad looked like in the past as compared to what is there today.
  
    You don't have to be from, or live in Pennsylvania, to find a good book on railroading from Voyageur Press. They have a whole group of books on many different railroad lines, locations, and subjects throughout the US. Well over a hundred of them in fact, including books on model railroading. These books are a "Super" good way to find new subjects and locations to photograph!

This hardback book is about 9x12 inches, with 160 pages, retails for US-$34.95 - and is published by Voyageur Press at  www.voyageurpress.com        I Rate it:  A+

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72mm ExpoDisc for Pro Digital White Balance
     Here is one super “must-have” item that every digital photographer should have on hand everywhere they are going to shoot. With the ExpoDisc over your lens it will accurately give your camera the correct reading from all light sources, which gives you an exact custom White Balance (WB) for that lighting, with your camera. You just aim it directly at the light source, (except at the sun), make the custom reading, and from then on all of your images with that lighting will have the needed neutral color required for a perfect white balance. You don’t even have to screw it on and off of the lens, as there are no lens threads, you just hold it over the end of the lens and take the reading. It comes with a neck strap and carrying case and can even be hung from your belt. The disks are priced according to the lens filter size you would want, and are in the $85 to $100-US price range for 62mm to 77mm sizes—a small price to pay for accurate color exposures every time! (A cost that you will more than recover in the time you'll save using this tool.)     Check them out at   www.expodisc.com



Adobe Photoshop Elements 6
     The big question for many people is, “Do I buy the expensive, complete version of Adobe Photoshop, or the Photoshop Elements 6 version, which costs a lot less?”  I would say that all depends on what you intend to do with them in the long run. Photoshop Elements 6 has many of the same tools and features found in the full version of Photoshop, but even though it lacks the power of its big brother, Elements will still allow you to fix most of the main edits that your images require. 
     Probably the main benefit of using Photoshop Elements is that, if you are new to editing digital photos, you can learn the whole process without breaking your budget, and Photoshop Elements even helps you to learn what it can do. Then after you learn the tricks of the Photoshop world, you can graduate onto the full version to find out what real power editing is all about.
     Photoshop Elements 6 has all of the tools to enable you to fix—or just fine-tune—the brightness and contrast of your images, use color curves, improve saturation, sharpen, and even make black & white conversions. If you have any problems, Elements even offers step-by-step editing assistance.
     All of this editing power, and Photoshop training too, for only $89.99-US for the Mac version and $99.99-US for the Windows version, so check it out on their site at http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopelmac/ 
 (This review was done from a Mac version.)



Paint Shop Pro PHOTO X2
     This digital photography tool kit is the ideal choice for any aspiring photographer, making it easy to process, edit, enhance and create professional quality photos. Instantly fix common flaws with just one click. Get creative with artistic effects and filters. Plus, explore a full range of advanced editing tools to get the exact look you want. Once you’ve created the perfect photo, choose from a variety of fun projects to share them with family & friends.
      Features include:
  *Download pictures from your camera automatically
  *Instantly fix common problems such as red eye, color and sharpness
  *Add special effects to photos, text and projects with a few simple clicks
  *Use advanced editing tools to fine-tune images on your own
  *Print, email and share photos online

 The full version retails for only $79.99-US.
 Check it out on the Corel web site at  www.corel.com 
 and you can even try out a demo for free.
(Paint Shop Pro PHOTO X2 comes in a Windows version only)



Adobe Photoshop CS3  -  HOW-TOs 
100 Essential Techniques
 By Chris Orwig

     This is a great compact reference book with tons of information on Adobe Photoshop CS3. The information is easy to read and understand, and even though all of the illustrations are black & white, most are still easy to follow. When the how-tos deal with color, you will have to use a little imagination. All of its information is presented in a brief, to-the-point manner. This is one of those how-to books that you will use a lot and fill up with underlines and notes of your own.

     This soft cover book is about 7x9 inches, with 276 pages, retails for US-$24.99 – and is published by Adobe Press and distributed by Peach Pit Press at  www.peachpit.com    I Rate it:  A+


BLOW-UP
     There are several methods for enlarging image files to make larger than normal prints, but BLOWUP is by far one of the best around.  Many photographers even consider it to be better than Photoshop’s bicubic method, and BLOWUP saves your files in the same format that they started out in, so you do not have to keep buying a third-party program after you have saved a file in “their” custom format, which won’t open in any other program but theirs. BLOWUP only works in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements though, (but who uses anything else anyway.) Here is a program that will allow you to enlarge an image up to 16 times its original size, and still keep all of the crisp lines and smooth colors. You could actually go beyond that with good results depending on the quality of the original image and the output you are using, such as printing on top quality papers.
 Blowup also does all of that with 8-, 16-, and 32-bit images for whatever quality control that you need to maintain in an image, and if you have more than a few image files to enlarge for printing, it is capable of being recorded in a Photoshop Action.
    
    Blowup retails for $199-US and can be checked out at   www.alienskin.com




Hoodman Right Angle Viewer
     I have to say that Hoodman has done it again with one super camera accessory that most photographers should have, whether they realize it or not. Many times I have been forced to give up a shot just because it was nearly impossible to get down low enough to compose and focus through the eye piece, and most right angle adapters cost an arm and a leg, or weren’t very effective to begin with. Here is the answer to all of your low-angle needs, and an end to crawling on your belly to get a shot. This viewer is packed with features. The HoodMan H-RAV viewer has an adjustable eyepiece to fine-tune its focus, and a 1X & 2.5X magnifier, plus it rotates 360 degrees so you can look through it from any position. This viewer will fit all Nikon, Canon, Fuji, Sony/Minolta and Pentax cameras because it comes with five (5) mounting brackets to fit each of these camera brands, so you can use this great viewer even if you change cameras, or want to loan it to a friend with another model. You also get a nice carrying bag to hold it all. Retail priced at $129.99-US.
    
    Check it out at www.hoodmanUSA.com.   When you do, also check out their HoodLoupe—a great tool that every digital camera user should have!!!





M-Rock “Olympic” sling bag
     I have spent a lot of time looking for a good shoulder bag that performed well in the field, but most fell short in more ways than one. They all seemed to be designed for someone else and just made me want to keep looking. The newly designed “Olympic” sling bag from M-Rock is a most welcome product. To me, it accommodates exactly what I want to take along on short photo hikes and allows for easy access. Backpacks are good, but to remove something you need—which seems to happen every few minutes—is a real pain. Even with the smaller ones you must first find a dry place to put down the camera you take out, then take the backpack completely off and find a dry place to set that as well, and then hope you can find what pocket you put the item in. 
     With this new sling bag, all you have to do is swing the bag around under your shoulder to the front and get what you need from up-front packets. And this bag has a lot of those, and some even have more than one way to get inside them. The bag I just tested out easily held two digital Nikon SLRs, with lenses, one extra medium telephoto lens, cleaning paraphanalia, a few filters, and other miscellaneous items.

 The M-Rock Olympic bag retails for $80.00-US, so check it out at www.m-rock.com.





301 Inkjet Tips and Techniques
An Essential Printing resource for Photographers
by Andrew Darlow

     For those who do their own digital printing, this is a must-have new book that will teach you everything that you will need to know to take an image from capture to final master print. All 16 chapters are extremely detailed and richly illustrated with many step-by-step and before and after images for each lesson. Even though this is a professional-level book I found it very easy to understand and follow, so even beginners can use it with a little patience.

     This soft cover book is about 7x9 inches, with 499 pages, retails for US-$49.99 – and is published by Course Technology PTR and can be ordered from:   www.courseptr.com        I Rate it:  A+
     Course Technology PTR books are one of the main reference books used in many college photography and digital classes.



Color Efex Pro 3.0 Select Edition, from nik Software (downloadable version)
    For over a decade there has only been one main (un-named) group of Photoshop plug-in filters that everyone talked about, and just about everyone wanted to use.  Those days are long gone.  Now the big kid on the block is the  “nik Color Efex Pro 3” filters, which come in three separate sets to suit your creative needs and price range. For years I have been hoping for a few effects that previously could only be achieved by attaching filters to your camera lens, but now I can get them with this new nik Color Pro 3 set. The one that every Photoshop user will want to use is the “Polarization” filter to improve those shots that have a weak sky area, and this plug-in does it GREAT!
     Other great filters that will grab your interest include a Graduated ND filter that has 16 shades in four sets of colors, two Infrared filters for both black-and-white and color (and one of these gives you a thermal heat effect), an “old photo” filter that is unlike any I have seen before, and other filters to create both hi-key and low-key images, plus MANY more that you will use often.
     These filters are now even easier to use than they were in my older Pro 2 version, which was pretty darn good, but now the tool window is bigger, with more selection tools and features than before, and there is now also a second small preview window that gives you a split side-by-side shot of the image before and after the effect is applied, which occurs in real-time.  This is by far the largest and best-assembled set of plug-in filters that I have seen to date.
     The Complete Pro 3 edition contains 52 photo filters for $299.95-US, the Select edition has 35 filters for $159.95-US,  and the Standard edition with 15 filters sells for $99.95-US, with both Mac and Windows versions available. This great product is a creation of nik multimedia, Inc. and can be checked out at   www.nikmultimedia.com


Image Doctor 2
     Image+Doctor 2 from Alien Skin is a new Photoshop compatible plug-in that will amaze you every time you use it. You can now retouch and repair your images like never before. Instead of an endless amount of clicks with the retouch tool in Photoshop, with Image Doctor all you have to do is select the bad area and Image Doctor does the rest by sampling the background around your selection and using that to fill in the selection. It does this so well that it won’t matter if you are retouching a small tear in an old photo, or removing an unwanted subject in a new image, such as unwanted tourists in your landscapes.  This new plug-in will save you MANY hours of work, and probably save a lot of your images as well.
     
    Image+Doctor 2 retails for US-$199—check it out at www.alienskin.com




Dfine 2.0
     Dfine 2.0 from Nik Software is a new Photoshop compatible plug-in that will cut your work time and save a lot of your less than perfect images. Dfine reduces that major problem you get from shooting digital images, and that is the noise that comes as a part of all digital camera sensors. It does this by first identifying the kind of noise that each make of digital camera creates in a file, and then it gives you the option to selectively reduce that particular type of noise by moving control points around to different areas in the image and then adjusting for both color noise and/or contrast noise. Dfine also includes a target based noise reduction, PLUS it has an auto profile system that automatically reduces the noise according to the characteristics of your specific camera make.
 
    Dfine 2.0 retails for US-$99.95—check it out at www.niksoftware.com  




AV Bros. Page Curl Pro 2.2
     AV Bros. Page Curl Pro 2.2 is an extremely powerful and high quality Photoshop compatible plug-in, which will definitely boost your creativity. This Photoshop filter lets you not only bend the image, using two types of bending (curling and folding), but also texturize it (using the bump maps), orient it in 3D space (including the perspective distortions) and obtain total control over the process of lighting the image (including the option of dropping inner shadows). The User Interface of the plug-in is extremely convenient and has some unique features that make your work with the Page Curl Pro 2.2 both very efficient and pleasant at the same time.
    
    Page Curl Pro 2.2 retails for US-$49.95—check out this great filter at www.avbros.com



Complete Photoshop CS3 for Digital Photographers
by  Colin Smith & Tim Cooper

     There are many Course Technology PTR books for digital photographers, but this one is strictly devoted to Photoshop work. There are about 11 tutorials, and a CD with all of the files you will need to do each lesson, plus there are 9 video lessons, and a selection of 3rd party Photoshop filters to use. Each step in every lesson is very detailed and completely illustrated, and it is easy to understand. The lessons also cover all of the tools in the new CS3, with techniques on how to use them. Lessons cover the RAW converter, enhancements, color & tone corrections, sharpening and sizing, retouching, and more.
    
    This soft cover book is about 7x9 inches, with 442 pages, retails for US-$44.99 – and is published by Course Technology PTR and can be ordered from:   www.courseptr.com        I Rate it:  A+
      



MountainSmith "Odyssey" Backpack
    MountainSmith's “Odyssey” back pack is probably one of the best camera back packs I have seen anywhere. If this bag won’t carry everything you will need in the field, then you probably need a suitcase. Everywhere you look, there are pockets, and pockets inside pockets, and carrying straps everywhere else. Just inside of the main section alone are nine (9) individual padded compartments, and since each has adjustable dividers that you can space as needed, it can accommodate several cameras with lenses attached, and at least a half-dozen more lenses and flash units. On the back of the bag are two straps for holding a tripod with fast and easy access, and there are many smaller filter and accessory pouches.  The pack has heavily padded shoulder and waist straps to save wear and tear on your back and shoulders, and not just one, but two carrying handles.  This is one bag you have to see to appreciate everything it offers.     The bag retails for around $225.00-US.     

    Check it out at http://www.mountainsmith.com




All reviews © Paul Faust

To view Paul's images, go to 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 Lynne Eodice.