DFT Announce Power Stroke 1.0

DFT have announced the release of Power Stroke version 1.0, a stroke based color correction, colorization and special effects plug-in. Designed with the digital photographers, graphic designers and artists in mind, Power Stroke uses a simple, interactive stroke-based interface to quickly and intuitively perform targeted adjustments. Instead of meticulously selecting regions or hand- painting masks, regions of interest are isolated by drawing a few simple brush strokes with adjustments then made only in those areas. Strokes can be assigned multiple corrections and effects such as color correction, recoloring or desaturation, colorization of black and white images, blur, fill light for dimly lit image areas and diffusion/glow.

"Based on the concepts of luminance-weighted chrominance blending and fast intrinsic distance computations, Power Stroke produces high quality results at a fraction of the complexity and computational cost of previous techniques." From what I can see DFT have created yet another easy to use and useful tool for imageers and photographers.

Power Stroke is based on research and technology by Liron Yatziv and Guillermo Sapiro from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Minnesota, and is exclusively licensed by Digital Film Tools. For more information visit Digital Film Tools.

Ballistic Publishing Releases Expose 5

Ballistic Published have release their latest edition of their popular and gorgeous EXPOSÉ books. EXPOSÉ 5 which was judged by an international team of leading artists features 298 examples of the world’s best digital art prepared by 218 artists from 45 countries. EXPOSÉ 5 includes the work of 108 unpublished artists.

All editions of EXPOSÉ 5 are available for immediate shipping.EXPOSÉ 5 is available in three editions: Hard Cover (USD$55); Soft Cover (USD$65); and Limited Edition (USD$145). The Limited Edition release includes an additional 16 pages of artist profiles and eight Limited Edition prints, unavailable with the Hard Cover or Soft Cover editions. Go to the Ballistic website to flick through the entire book at
Ballistic Publishing.

DFT Announce Power Mask 1.0

Power Mask version 1.0, is according to DFT, the first real time, interactive masking tool. As you paint along the edge of the object to be extracted, either the mask or the final composite can be revealed instantly. Powermask simply updates the object to be extracted in real time. Power Mask can extract almost any object in an image -- fine hair detail, smoke, or reflections can be handled with ease. Once a mask is extracted, using Power Mask the foreground object can be seamlessly composed onto a new background in Adobe Photoshop as well as apply filter and image corrections only within the area defined by the mask.

Power Mask is based on unpublished research and technology by Jue Wang from the University of Washington and is exclusively licensed by Digital Film Tools. For more information visit Digital Film Tools

Corel Update Painter X

Corel announced an update to Corel Painter to version 10.1 (X.1). This update includes fixes for several issues and improves the overall stability and performance of Corel Painter X. for more information visit corel.com.

PictoColor Releases iCorrect Editlab Pro 5.5

PictoColor® have released Version 5.5 of their iCorrect® EditLab™ Pro plug-in for photographers. iCorrect Editlab Pro provides a simplified approach to color correction and color editing. Using this solution you can edit and correct digital photos using their simple step by step interface. Visit Pictocolor for more information.

Focus on Filter Forge

Review by Mario Georgiou
Filter Forge - http://www.filterforge.com/
Stand Alone and Photoshop Plug-in
Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows 2000, Windows Vista
Basic $99, Standard $199, Pro $299

I am a big fan of the work being done by third party Photoshop Plug-in creators and have a sizeable collection of plug-ins. When Filter Forge came to my attention a few weeks back, I dropped a line to the creators of this interesting and powerful tool to request a copy for review. What I experienced with this really cool tool brought a smile to my face.

Filter Forge is exactly what it sounds like, a tool for producing and applying filters and procedural textures, and a whole lot more besides. Filter Forge comes in 3 versions, a $99 Basic edition provides unlimited access to the Filter Library but cannot create filters. The $199 Standard edition allows photographers and graphic artists create their own filters, including effects, textures, distortions, patterns, backgrounds, and frames.

The $299 Professional edition was designed with the needs of 3D-content and game creators in mind. Providing support and features useful in architectural visualization, 3D Rendering and Design and includes support for bitmaps as large as 65000x65000 pixels, 16- and 32-bit images, and floating point based file formats such as OpenEXR and PFM.

I was fortunate to be able to review the Pro edition and was extremely impressed by the performance and the range of filters available via the online filter library. Once accessed and downloaded you can transport your filters with relative ease however you do need an Internet connection which will give you access to well over 2000 filters and textures.

The creation of filters is facilitated via a visual node-based editor which is both extremely powerful and quite easy to use once you can get your head around the concept. Filters are created visually by connecting components in a flow diagram to combine effects and functions. Available components include Brightness / Contrast, Channels, Gradients, Noise, Colour Adjustments, Distortions, Patterns, Curves, Curve Operations, Image Processing Controls and much more. For Pro-Level users this is a very powerful and welcome tool.

The editor allows the user to create some very useful tools and effects, and one of the best features of this tool is the ability for users to be able to share their created filters online via the free filter library. The only omission in this powerful is support for user definable formulae - something for the future I guess...

For the Animator, designer and texture creator, the ability to create seamless and resolution independent textures and patterns. Add the capability for creating bump and normal maps and you have a really useful production tool.

The filters are also resolution independent and capable of some many effects that you'll find yourself suffering from option paralysis. There is even a Randomizer which shakes things up a bit by allowing you to generate filters on the fly.

Core features and technology include support for Dual-core CPU's, HDRI Images, 8, 16 and 32 Bit image modes, Floating point file formats and a really useful smart anti aliasing feature which uses antialiasing only where, and when it is needed.

The only drawback for many users will be the cost, but this is somewhat silly when you bear in mind that the Pro filter is aimed at pro level users and that the average imageer doesn't really have a need for the advanced capabilities the editor and pro feature will afford.

Support is excellent with an extensive online help system and very active online user forums. The overall tone on the forums is one of cooperation and reveals a real sense of community, with contributors even offering to share credits with other users...

Cons. Price. Learning curve for the Filter Editor.
Pros - Easy to use. Powerful, Scalable. Excellent Support, Large number of filters.

As a tool Filter Forge really has no equal, it is more than just a single effect tool, it is a library of effects and treatments that work as both a Photoshop Plug-in and also as a stand alone application. I found it both powerful and easy to use. This is one tool any imageer, artist and photographer should have in their toolbox. Highly recommended.

NY Looking At Licensing Public Photography

An article over at the NY times is reporting that the city of New York's, Mayor's Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting is considering a licensing scheme for folks using cameras in their City.
"New rules being considered by the would require any group of two or more people who want to use a camera in a single public location for more than a half hour to get a city permit and insurance. The same requirements would apply to any group of five or more people who plan to use a tripod in a public location for more than 10 minutes, including the time it takes to set up the equipment. Julianne Cho, assistant commissioner of the film office, said the rules were not intended to apply to families on vacation or amateur filmmakers or photographers." Tell that to an over eager jobsworth ... the potential for abuse could be there.