Two "new" GREAT Photoshop Filter Picks...
2002-09-06 by Editor P.O.V. Image Service
As you know, I'm not a big public booster of software offerings.. However, I've been using two "new" (for me) PhotoShop filters that I feel deserve a recommendation to ANYONE doing any substantial filtering in PhotoShop.. The first is made by ICNet, the same firm who produces another product I use: Plug-in Manager. Plug-in Manager, for those unaware, helps deal with that old problem of too many PShop filters to display.. It allows one to "turn off" certain filters or groups of filters... Well, ICNet's new product, Filters Unlimited goes one further... Many of the filters one now adds to their toolbag can be imported into Filters Unlimited and then can be actually removed from the drive! That means many less filters listed in your graphics application, and the ability to add many more filters for use.. Then you simply choose the Filters Unlimited Filter within PShop, look at a preview, and apply your chosen filters.. Not only that, you can apply MULTIPLE filters in one operation through selecting more than one filter when in Filters Unlimited.. Suddenly, my filters are more organized and easier to use.. I tried the trial version and then bought it.. Nuff said. A trial version is at: http://www.icnet.de/filters_unlimited/ The second product I first heard of, I believe, through Jerry Olson. Right now I am evaluating it prefatory to a full review, but I have to say I AM impressed. It's called Buzz Pro 2.0 and has a series of filters that in some sense simplify raster images, similarly to the way Adobe Streamline would in converting them to vector format. In this case, the images remain raster images though. It achieves some very "painterly" effects and when used on layers and combined with some "brushstrokes or artistic" filters, does particularly amazing things. Again, these filters allow previewing AND allow you to "stack" multiple filters to combine effects interactively in one operation. Even better, one can save these defined stacks and use them to apply the same effects in future.. The only downside to these filters is that the memory algorithm they use IS memory and processing intensive, so you need a good amount of RAM for large images and processing is a bit slower than with other common filters.. However, the effects are worth it and I will likely be buying my own copy.. A trial version is at: http://www.fo2pix.com/ I'll have full reviews soon of both offerings for anyone who is interested.. As a longtime believer in shareware and the "try before you buy" concept, I recommend any serious Photoshop user or user of a graphics application that uses PhotoShop compatible plug-ins at least give these offerings a test drive and evaluate them yourself. Keith [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]