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Workflow Technique #004"Pixelgenius PhotoKit"
Beta Preview by
Uwe Steinmueller
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This toolkit is long time in the making by a group of Photoshop masterminds like: Bruce Fraser, Jeff Schewe, Andrew Rodney, Martin Evening and more. We were using a late beta version of the PhotoKit so there might be some changes last minute. The Idea Give the users a set of Effects that give solutions in Photoshop and only use as much as possible photographic terms. Also the other idea is to have an effect toolkit which means: mix and match! The Problem Developing sophisticated actions costs a lot of time and needs even more experience. But once the actions are on the market it is very easy just copy them. The Solution PhotoKit provides the actions (it can do even much more than just plain actions) as a Photoshop automation plug-in and this needs to be licensed (about $49.95 for the full set). At a first glance using the plug-in looks more clumsy than using actions. But as these tools can be used inside actions you can easily build action wrappers. The Principle If you run a PhotoKit effect it always will result in a new layer on top of your current layers.
This has two advantages: 1. You can stack PhotoKit effects 2. You can change the opacity of the new layer and that way reduce the effect |
PhotoKit comes with 8 sets of effects (for both Mac and PC)
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| B&W effects (2 sets) |
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| B&W effects come in two flavors: "Color to B&W" and "B&W toning" |
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| We like these effects a lot. |
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| Burn & Dodge effects (2 sets) |
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| We did not use these effects yet. |
| Image Enhancement effects (1 set) |
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| We did not test the sharpening effects in detail yet. But the experience of Bruce Fraser (best articles on sharpening) speaks for them. Also you can use a stronger effect and reduce the effect by selecting a lower opacity. |
| Color Balance effects (1 set) |
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| Again you can use the Effects and use a stronger setting and later reduce the opacity. Very useful set. |
| Photo Effects Set (1 set) |
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| Also a very nice set of effects. Our favorites are Grain and Soft Edge Vignette |
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| Tone Correction Effects |
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| This is a must have effect set. The "Boost Contrast" effects work very subtle and effective. Also the Dodge shadows is good to have. Remember you can add more than one of the effects to your photo. |
| Conclusion |
The PhotoKit is very useful and the price is fair. It will be part of our general workflow. Good work!
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