I’ve been a huge fan of Alien Skin’s software for years now so I’m sure it’s no surprise that I’m excited by their recent update to an already killer plugin. Exposure 4 keeps the functional structure in tact and further enhances its skill set to fine tune it into a plugin that will help any photographer, or digital artist further realize their final vision.
Read on for my experience through this exciting new release…
Anyone familiar with my blog knows I’m a fan of artistic, digital image file manipulation. Be that through actions, plugins or standalone software, I like to use my pictures in a variety of different ways. One thing I’ve always wanted to be better at, but was never able to hone my skill, is painting. So, into my life fell digital photography, but there was that tactile, artistic void left behind. I have tried Corel’s Painter, which is an amazing program, but one that requires just short of a masters degree to fully understand, and is in my opinion much better utilized by those who are already decent actual painters. Well, I’ve always wanted to be able to finely tune, and offer digital painting as a conversion for a digital picture file both personally and professionally, and until I tried my hand at Alien Skin’s Snap Art 3, I had resigned myself to putting it on the bucket list. A plugin for either Photoshop or Lightroom, the seamless and intuitive interface can help you produce digital paintings and drawings with a variety of media in a matter of seconds. Read on for initial feelings and examples…
(*while this is the older promotion, Alien Skin is currently offering a 30-40% off sale on all their software through April 17th, 2012 SEE HERE!)
I’m not the type to promote every discount or product out there (just the ones that I like), but having been fortunate enough to review a couple of the Alien Skin software products recently, I will say that A) they are a cool company with great folks representing them and B) they make a killer product. That and I wanted to pass this along just in case anyone out there reading is interested. I make no money from this and I’m honestly just passing this along because I like the folks involved with, and products offered from Alien Skin.
That’s all really. If you’ve been interested in any of the Alien Skin software and haven’t pulled the trigger, they’re offering 30% off (and free updates/not upgrades mind you) until Tuesday March 15th. If you’re interested in what I’ve had to say about them, you can read my personal experiences via the links below:
I’ve not played around with the others yet, but I’m sure that any Alien Skin product would be worth while as long as it’s particular skill set appealed to you. I would very strongly suggest at least trying out the free trials of both Exposure and Bokeh if you’ve not already to see if the discount rate is enough to push you.
You can download the trials or purchase any of the Alien Skin software directly from their website here: Alienskin.com
Have a great weekend!
Tyson
Bokeh (/bō’kɛ/): In photographic terms, has grown to mean the subjective quality of the out of focus areas in a photograph, and how a particular lens renders out of focus points of light (adopted from the Japanese term boke 暈け, meaning fuzzy, disoriented, et al). Pronounced BO (as the bo in bone) and KE (as the ke in ken) if we are taking it directly from the Japanese word, while the “h” was added to help non Japanese speaking photographers pronounce this adopted term (see the wikipedia article for the history on the term and idea in photographic application). While the definition, pronunciation and it’s subjective nuances are often debated as to it’s application in the photographic realm, it hasn’t stopped Alien Skin from creating a plugin that beautifully applies an out of focus blur to selected areas of an otherwise focused image. With their second release, Bokeh 2 has added new bells and whistles as well as a more refined control of both radial and planar regions within an image and it’s area of focus. Read on for examples and why I think this is a wonderful deal of a plugin.
Alien Skin's Exposure 3 makes your digital files instantly feel film like. - ©tyson robichaud photography 2010
I have been curious about the Alien Skin Exposure software plugin for Photoshop for a long time. With the third iteration, Exposure3 has taken their film simulation software even further. Read on for examples and reviews…
*Authors note: Link to Alien Skin’s Newsletter showing this article here!
To those who’ve come from the newsletter, welcome!!!
(March 2012) Now that Exposure 4 has been released, you can read my updated review HERE!
Tyson Robichaud Photo-blography 
