I have been using Adobe Photoshop ever since Adobe released version 2.51 on November 1992 and, for the most part, I have kept current. Photoshop is a daunting program with hundreds of commands, some buried so deep you’ll need an archeologist to unearth them.
If you are a professional or fine art photographer, you may need to have all of this power at your disposal; but what if you could find some way to edit your images visually and with few commands?
Over the years many individuals and companies have made a business out of supplying plug-ins to extend Photoshop’s abilities, but most all of them require you to know exactly what you want to do with your image prior to using them.
Athentech’s Perfectly Clear promises automatic photo correction with instant Real Color perfection. Available for Microsoft Windows, Perfectly Clear could not be easier to use. Open the plug-in after loading your image and Perfectly Clear immediately corrects your photo. Athentech says their product will provide one-click adjustments to images that nine out of ten times exceed either the camera’s own rendition or normal manual adjustments.
Figure 1: Perfectly Clear Before and After
The before and after picture above clearly shows what Perfectly Clear did without any manual adjustments. Note specifically the color of the water and the clarity of the subjects.
What about the times Perfectly Clear doesn’t get it just right the first time? Look at the second picture where you can see, on the right side, controls for you to manually adjust the settings for your image. There are but a few and clearly labeled: Exposure, Contrast, Sharpening, Skin Tone as so forth.
Figure 2: Athentech Perfectly Clear Interface
All of them can be enabled or disabled with the check box to the left and you can save your manual adjustments as a "preset." This allows you to re-use your settings at any time by selecting them in the drop-down box at the upper right. As an example, I took many pictures at this beach while on vacation and, instead of moving the controls to duplicate my setting on each image, I saved my settings for the first image and then picked it from the drop-down for each image thereafter.
Many corporations and image laboratories have been using Athentech’s Perfectly Clear technology for some time (in over 55,000 kiosks in 30-plus countries, thousands of mini-labs, countless online solutions, labs, and over 13 million software copies), but now it’s packaged as a Photoshop plug-in for the general public. You can download a 30-day, fully functional trial with zero limitations of Perfectly Clear at Athentech’s web site.
Requirements:
- Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7
- Apple iPhone, Macintosh OS currently in development.
- Windows Version – $199.00
- iPhone Version – $2.99
) that it replaces, the 610 is aimed at micro offices and home offices, and can also fit in the dual role of home and home office MFP. — M. David Stone
Santa Rosa, Calif. – Think Tank Photo announces the release of the Logistics Manager™, its first rolling equipment case for lighting and photographic gear. The rolling case’s endless interior layout options adapt to numerous equipment combinations and help manage all of the logistics of transporting and using a lot of gear while on location.
