Tagged: plug-in

8 Reasons I LOVE Alien Skin Eye Candy 7

Photoshop
31 Dec, 2012

Alien Skin has been the premiere plug-in maker for Adobe Photoshop for as long as I can remember. All of their software is high-quality, and the support is excellent.

I’m a huge fan of several Alien Skin Photoshop plug-ins, including BlowUp, which I find myself using quite often.

Eye Candy 7, the new version of its graphic design effects plug-in for Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. Eye Candy 7 renders realistic effects that are difficult or impossible to achieve in Photoshop alone, such as Fire, Chrome, Perspective Shadows, and more.

Rather than write a standard review, I decided to make it simple and just show you eight reasons I love the latest version of Eye Candy. (more…)

How to disable Flash in Google Chrome browser for Mac

Internet / Mac & OS X
16 Oct, 2012

If you’re like me and find Flash to be an annoyance with its constant crashing, slowing down your browsing, security risks, and ramping-up of your Mac’s cooling fans when in use, you’ll no doubt want to turn off/remove Flash from your Mac. If you use Firefox or Safari, you simply have to remove the System Preference Pane item by right-clicking the icon and choosing to remove it.

If you’re using Google’s Chrome browser, it’s a bit more difficult. That’s because Google includes Flash as part of the browser itself. Thankfully, they’ve included it as a plug-in which can be turned off.

Disable Flash in Chrome

Type about:plugins in the URL bar and hit Return/Enter. A list of the plug-ins you have installed is displayed. Note that these are plug-ins, not extensions you install from the Chrome Store. Find the Adobe Flash Player plugin in the list and tick the Disable checkbox. After restarting Chrome, Flash will be off.

The downside is that Flash will be re-enabled the next time Google updates Chrome, which is quite often. You can download Flash blocker extensions, but I prefer to completely remove it and save myself the overhead of having yet another extension installed.

Blow Up 3 makes stunning image enlargements effortless

Mac & OS X / Photoshop
8 Nov, 2011

The situation is all-too familiar, and frequent. You’re working on a large poster and your client sends you a 3×5 photo to work with. Using Photoshop’s image sizing tools are of no help, and other 3rd-party options are overly slow and complex. This situation is where Alien Skin Software’s Blow Up 3 shines.

Blow Up 3's simple interface offers a very Mac-like simplicity

Blow Up 3 focuses on simplicity, as evidenced by a quick look at the interface of the Photoshop plug-in. A large preview window, and an input area with just a few controls are all that is necessary to enlarge your images with stunning results (see image later in this article). (more…)

Turn your image into a beautiful work of art with Snap Art

Photoshop
8 Sep, 2011

Alien Skin Software released Snap Art 3 a while back, and I’ve been playing with it for a while now and found it to be yet another excellent Photoshop add-on from my favorite plug-in maker.

Snap Art 3 is definitely made for photographers, but designers can make use of it as well. It’s easy to use, highly flexible, and at $199 it’s affordable for what it does. Not only do the multitude of effects work on photos, but you can apply Snap Art filters to videos imported into Adobe Photoshop Extended as well.

Snap Art turns your images into works of art

I won’t bother to go into all the filters and features, you can check them out on the Snap Art examples page. But know that Snap Art now offers a Detail Mask feature that allows you to adjust the details in specific areas of your images. Very slick! All of Snap Art’s oil paint, watercolor, pencil, charcoal, comic art, and dozens of other filters, offer non-destructive editing. And experimenting is easy with the large preview window.

Snap Art 3 works with Photoshop CS4 or later, Lightroom 2 or later, and Photoshop Elements 8 or later, on a Mac running OS X 10.5 or newer, including in 64-bit mode. A downloadable demo of Snap Art 3 is available.

Alien Skin Exposure 3 ready for 64-bit Photoshop CS5

General
22 Jun, 2010

Alien Skin Software, one of my favorite Photoshop plug-in vendors, has released Exposure 3, the newest version of their photography effects plug-in. With this latest version, Exposure grows beyond just film simulation, and dives into being a creativity tool with the addition of Lo-Fi and vintage effects for your images.

Exposure brings all of the creative tools of film photography to the world of digital, such as discontinued films, dark room tricks, and lo-fi camera quirks. New in version 3 are vintage looks like Technicolor movie film and old Kodachrome that are distressed with dust, scratches, and vignettes to complete the illusion of age. Lo-Fi cameras like Holga and Lomo are simulated with lens blur, warped vignettes, and funky colors from cross processing.

Exposure 3's infrared simulation provides an ethereal glow

The most significant new features in Exposure 3 are:

64-bit support for Photoshop CS5 on both Macintosh and Windows
Tight Lightroom® integration that does not require Photoshop
Aging effects and vintage films such as Technicolor and old Kodachrome
Simulation of Lo-Fi toy camera photography
Hundreds of new settings in all categories, including more films, color toning, and aging
User interface improvements such as a much faster preview and hover help

Exposure 3's Lo-Fi toy camera effects have been greatly expanded

Exposure 3 sells for $249. Owners of any version of Exposure may upgrade for $99. Online or physical delivery is available through the Alien Skin website. Free upgrades will be automatically sent to purchasers of Exposure 2 who purchased in April 2010 or later. Exposure 3 works with Photoshop CS3 or later, Lightroom 2 or later, and Photoshop Elements 7 or later.