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By Jonathan Barkey and Russell Hart / American Photo
onOne FocalPoint
Plug-ins for Photoshop just keep getting more and more sophisticated. Nik's Viveza gives you a new level of local control, while this impressive Photoshop and Photoshop Elements plug-in from onOne (which also makes the classic Genuine Fractals and PhotoTune, below) brings new ease and precision to the selective addition of blur. Using a "box blur" algorithm said to be optically truer than Photoshop's traditional Gaussian blur, FocalPoint lets you select the exact point in the image where you want the sharpest focus, then pull out a radial "antenna" to control "defocus." Amount and feathering are easily and precisely controlled with pop-up sliders.
The blur mask is automatically created on a separate layer, to which you can click for quick examination of shape and opacity. What's more, any follow-up adjustments and effects -- corner vignetting, for example -- conform to the contours of the blurred area. The software even has a control that simulates the dramatic defocus obtained by tilting or swinging a view camera's standards. Especially clever: Since blur softens or eliminates any "grain" in the image (whether conventional or digital), you can add grain back in -- and it only affects the blurred area, proportionally of course. About $150.
Silkypix Developer Studio 3.0
This powerful RAW converter from Japan gets raves for its superb color reproduction. It has a full-fledged browser, batch editing and tagging, and film simulations for Fuji, Agfa, Kodak, and Polaroid emulsions -- plus quirky presets including "Red Enhancer, "Nostalgic Toy Camera" and more. About $150.
ACDSee Pro 2
This pro-grade, Windows-based image manager swiftly filters, groups, and sorts thousands of photos with ease. It's equally adept at fine-editing RAW files, with adjustments for shadow/highlight, lens distortion, and noise -- plus a selection tool, batch correction and file conversion, and upload to Flickr. About $130.
Vertus Fluid Mask 3
This super-smart masking app offers the fastest way to extract a complex subject (including hair and smoke) from its background, with intelligent edge detection and blending tools delivering seamless results. It's available stand-alone or as a plug-in for Photoshop, Paintshop Pro, and Quark. About $240.
RealViz Stitcher Express 2.5
Potent yet affordable, Stitcher Express can seamlessly merge unlimited separate images into everything from 2D ultrawide panoramas to immersive 360-degree QuickTime VR movies. It includes a 3D interactive workspace, drag-and-drop assembly, defect excision, and automatic light equalization to keep density more consistent across the image. About $80.
onOne PhotoTune 2.2
This intelligent Photoshop plug-in corrects color and tone in an easygoing sequential process: The user simply chooses the preferred variation from six successive image pairs. PhotoTune also includes version snapshots, manual fine-tuning, and a SkinTune module that features five complexion profiles. About $130.
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