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Alien
Skin’s new plug-in pushes the bounds of Blow-up By Bob Singer, MNEC
Once in awhile, when you
think things just can’t get better than they are, they do. Years ago, some
great digital image enlargement programs based on fractal mathematics became
mainstays of professionals and advanced enthusiasts who needed seriously upsized
images. It was hard to conceive that
any software on this earth could ever deliver more. Maybe that’s what makes it
particularly ironic that Blow-Up, this
newest digital image enlargement breakthrough, comes from out-of-this-world
editing program plug-in provider Alien Skin Software. Blow-up ushers in a new generation of enlargement plug-ins not only for its extended ability to produce 1600% enlargements without the visible emergence of any jagged edges or halos (before it, the maximum promoted by another enlargement program had been 1300%), but for its new and significant capabilities as well. In fact, Alien Skin admits that Blow-up can enlarge up to 3600% on some images without producing visible artifacts! Blow Up isn't located with your other plug-ins,
though. You'll find Blow Up under your "File" menu, under
the "Automate" submenu. Blow-up’s
unique features include… ·
support of LAB and duotone files ·
support for 32-bit color depth
(which becomes significant when you use Photoshop’s HDR capability to extend
detail in an image even though your camera doesn’t deliver 32-bit yet) ·
layered images (you know longer
have to flatten a file to enlarge it as you did with other enlargement programs
previously) ·
the ability to nondestructively
resize using a new image copy instead of the original ·
the ability to simulate film grain,
if desired,to mimic film scans ·
raw speed, both literally and
figuratively, with Raw and HDR images ·
the ability to benefit fully from
the multiprocessor and multicore systems that are enmerging now in the Windows
PC and Apple Macintosh competitive arena ·
the ability to be used as a
Photoshop Action, allowing batch processing to upsize a file folder full of
pictures from that last shoot ·
a street price of $199 or $99 for
owners of any other Alien Skin software product, a price that sits very
competitively against older market offerings And therein is our little
professional secret. If software advances like Blow-up are what make possible the giant images that David and I
produce for billboard advertising, think what it can do for your large display
prints! I highly recommend Alienskin Software's Blow Up. Minimum requirements Adobe Photoshop CS or later
or Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 or later (note that Blow-Up is an automation
plug-in that can only be used with these programs) Macintosh with a PowerPC G4
processor and Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later Windows PC with a Pentium 4
processor and Windows 200 or Windows XP or later For more information Check out Alien Skin’s
website at www.alienskin.com |
