Sponsored by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. Learn More

ScatterLight Lenses

 

We spend hundreds and thousands of dollars to acquire the sharpest lenses possible.

But photographic tradition holds that “romantic” effects are best made with lenses that are less than sharp. Old timer “romantic” soft-focus tricks include nylon stockings stretched across the lens or a crumpled cellophane wiggled under an enlarger during exposure.

Cokin and other manufacturers have sold specialty filters for years: fog, star, haze, etc. Filters to decrease the sharpness of your lens.

Andromeda has introduced a plug-in that will accomplish many of the same effects in Photoshop. Called ScatterLight Lenses™, the plug-in consists of five effects that add a number of soft-focus, haze, diffusion and star effects to images.

Portrait photographers will like the SoftFocus lens which approximates the results from an expensive specialty optic. I ran a medium halo optic on this portrait of a girl and her kitties on a separate layer, then used a soft eraser brush to bring out the detail in her eyes and those of the cats. In the darkroom, this would’ve been done with crumpled cellophane with a hole burned in it.

DreamOptic lenses added a soft glow to this still life of flowers. In a future column, I’ll detail a technique for the same effect using only Photoshop 7 tools.

The StarLight lens works on highlight selections and is ideal for adding the star effects to night photos or special effects, such as the colored stars I’ve added to the bouquet.

One criticism I have of ScatterLight, it is extremely slow to show the effect in the preview window of the dialog box. Each time a setting is altered, the preview starts again from the top and plods its agonizing way to the bottom. Image processing is relatively quick once an effect has been selected.

ScatterLight lenses are available from www.andromeda.com for $98.00.

Spread the word:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Furl
  • NewsVine
  • Pownce
  • Technorati
  • TwitThis
  • BlinkList
  • Design Float
  • Ma.gnolia
  • Mixx
  • Reddit
  • Slashdot
  • SphereIt
  • StumbleUpon

No Comments

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment

Photoshop Tutorials

  • Ice Age Acorn

    Corey has a special extended tutorial on illustrating the Ice Age acorn.

  • Transformers, Part 2

    In part two of this tutorial, Corey finishes the Transformers logo he began last week.

  • Transformers, Part 1

    In this two-part tutorial, Corey begins creating the Transformers logo from this summer’s upcoming blockbuster.

  • Planet Works

    Corey uses the new 3D features in Photoshop CS4 Extended to re-create the DreamWorks animated title.

  • Digital Video Solutions: Troubleshooting
    Some common problems that can occur after upgrading your video-editing application may include a frozen screen, frozen cursor, flickering dialog, completely blank dialog, or a number of error messages.
  • Layers TV: Episode 94
    Corey has a tutorial showing how to wrap a graphic around a 3D object in Adobe Illustrator. RC tries to clear up some of the confusion about using the Pen tool in Illustrator and Photoshop. You can download each episode by subscribing to the podcast on iTunes. var so = new SWFObject('http://media.kelbymediagroup.com/players/player.swf','mpl','500','300','7'); so.addParam('allowfullscreen','true'); // so.addVariable('type','rtmp'); so.addVariable('file','http://media.kelbymediagroup.com/switch/video/layers-tv-episode-94.mp4'); so.addVariable('plugins','hd-1'); so.addVariable('hd.file','http://media.kelbymediagroup.com/switch/video/layers-tv-episode-94-hd.mp4'); so.addVariable('hd.state','false'); so.addVariable('image','http://www.layersmagazine.com/images/layerstv-logo.jpg'); so.addVariable('height','300'); so.addVariable('width','500'); so.addVariable('autostart','false'); so.addVariable("backcolor","0x000000"); so.addVariable("frontcolor","0xF1F1F1"); so.addVariable("lightcolor","0xF88E21"); so.addVariable("quality","100"); so.write('player'); Thank you [...]
  • The Digital Camera: Compact-camera Shooter
    I took most of the photographs in this article with my Canon PowerShot G10 compact camera to see if I could get good shots with a basic camera.
  • Using Adobe Exchange
    Adobe Exchange is a free resource on the Adobe website for adding features to your Adobe applications.
 

Invert to Alpha

When working with vector - created art and the source art is unavailable, modifying the art to create a logo can be a pain, to say the least—particularly when it’s flattened and the background needs to be knocked out.  A careful combination of Invert (Command - I [PC: Ctrl - I]), Color Balance (Command - B [PC: Ctrl - B]), and layer Blending Options (Control-click [PC: Right-click] the layer name) can yield simple background knockouts of one- or two-color logos without making a mess.

Read More Tips

Tip of the Day
 
 
DVD Special
Online Training
Kelby Training