Mike Wong is the VP of Marketing at onOne Software, located in Portland, Oregon.
For those of you moving to Leopard, please note that we are still testing our plug-ins with the final, shipping version of this new OS from Apple. For more information, you can click here to go to the onOne Software Knowledge Base.
We'll let everybody know when updates are available.
Macworld UK has announced its Best of Show awards for London's MacLive Expo 2007.
The Macworld Best Of Show awards are hand-picked by the Macworld editorial team, who spend the day examining every stand for the most interesting, innovative and exciting products premiering at the show.
onOne PhotoTune 2.2: PhotoTune 2.2 is an Adobe Photoshop plug-in that provides professional level colour correction in an easy to use plug-in. It incorporates ColorTune technology (formerly known as 20/20 Color MD) with its patented colour correction process and SkinTune technology, developed after more than two years of in-depth skin color research.
[Read the full story and see the other Best of Show products]
One of the best new features that came out in Adobe Photoshop CS3 was the addition of Smart Filters. The new Smart Filters feature allows you to have an editable filter. You can apply a Smart Filter and then you can go back later and edit the effect as opposed to having the effect be completely destructive on a layer. What's more, you can change the opacity of the filter, the blend mode and you can edit it with a layer mask that is added automatically.
Not all filters can be Smart Filters though. PhotoTune 2.2 for color correction, one of our latest plug-ins for Photoshop, can be used as a Smart Filter though. Here's how.
Step 1: Open your file and if necessary double click on the background layer to convert it to a non-backgroud layer. Next go to the Filter menu and choose Convert for Smart Filters.
Step 2: Launch PhotoTune and make your adjustments using the six step color correction wizard. Click Apply.
I'm only showing the final step of PhotoTune here in this tutorial.
When you apply the filter, you'll go back to Photoshop and you'll see that your layers palette now has two indented items under the primary layer that we started working on.
The Smart Filters layer has a white layer mask so that all of the filter effect is visible. Remember with layer masks that White reveals and Black conceals. You will also see the ColorTune 2 filter under the layer mask. The white layer mask is revealing all of the ColorTune/PhotoTune filter. You could select a brush, set the color to black and paint on the layer mask to hide portions of the PhotoTune effect.
Step 3: Edit Your Smart Filter (Optional)
This step is optional and may not be needed, but let's do it for the sake of the tutorial. Let's say you're not quite happy with some of the fine-tune settings you added after the PhotoTune six-step color correction wizard. You can easily make an adjustment without having to go through the color correction process again. To do this simplly double-click on the ColorTune 2 layer and you'll be sent back into the PhotoTune ColorTune filter. Under the image on the right, click on the word Current and then selection Last Filter.
This will load up the previous settings so it is identical to what you saw before you double-clicked on the ColorTune 2 layer. Now, make any adjustments you want and click Apply.
That's all there is to it. Give it a try and also be sure to try this with any other Smart Filter compatible filter. I think you'll find it's a great new way to work!
