virtualPhotographer

Description:
virtualPhotographer is a Photoshop compatible plug-in that allows you to create a variety of photographic styles with the greatest of ease.

virtualPhotographer features many presets, all of which can be fine tuned to fit your requirements.
Effects such as Film Grain, Soft Focus, B/W, B/W tinting, High Contrast etc. are all just a click away. No more struggling to get to grips with the steep learning curve of your photo editor. Great results are just a mouse click away.

Download the free Photoshop plug-in that's getting rave reviews from digital photographers. virtualPhotographer lets you instantly apply high quality, professional photographic styles to your digital images, with just one click.

virtualPhotographer includes over 50 presets that automatically apply combinations of film grain, color modification, B/W, soft focus, high contrast and many artistic effects to achieve the same professional-looking images that used to take hours of photo editing. Get results in seconds!

Compatible with Photoshop®, Photoshop® Elements, Paint Shop™ Pro®, Photo-Paint and other popular imaging applications.

virtualPhotographer is designed to allow photographers familiar with traditional camera usage and terminology to easily create photographically rich and artistic results from their digital images.

virtualPhotographer is a Photoshop-compatible plugin and as such requires a host image-editing program that supports Photoshop plugs. There are many such programs that we have successfully tested virtualPhotographer with:
- Photoshop from Adobe
- Photoshop Elements from Adobe
- Paint Shop Pro from Jasc
- Photo-Paint from Corel
- Photo-Brush from MediaChance
- Canvas from ACD
- PhotoSuite from MGI
- Image Explorer Pro from CDH Productions

virtualPhotographer requires a photo-editor that supports 24bit RGB images.




Technique

The operating principle of virtualPhotographer is to offer many "one-click" photo-effect options that give, or get close to, a desired result. If needed, simple adjustments can then be made to get exactly the shot being sought.


How virtualPhotographer works

virtualPhotographer is designed to be familiar to traditional photographers. The filter can simulate the film type: "Film" or "Slide", the speed of the film to adjust grain, the emulsion of the film: "Warm", "Cool", "Green", "B/W", colored filters placed in front of the lens, and various darkroom effects and tints that can be applied to the print. Presets allow all of these adjustments to be made with just one-click. Simply select between the various Presets until you find one you like. virtualPhotographer "Presets" are designed to work on many different image types, from landscapes to portraits, so you are likely to find a number of Presets that work well with your image and yield the artistic results you desire.


Using virtualPhotographer

The ideal way to use virtualPhotographer is first apply all of the Presets to your image to see which ones look best. Then, if needed, fine tune the other controls to get the exact results you want. Once you have applied the first Preset you can quickly move through all the other Presets by using the DOWN arrow and UP arrow keys on your keyboard, or the scroll-wheel on your mouse if you have one. This will move to the next Preset and apply it automatically. Make sure the Preset pop-down menu is closed but selected for this to work correctly, otherwise the arrow keys will simple scroll through the pop-down menu list to the next Preset if it is open but will not apply the effect.

To see the original image simple click and hold the left mouse button down on the image in the Preview Window.

You may need to use the Zoom controls to see the details of some effects, film grain for example, the "Fit" zoom control will fit the entire image into the preview window while the "100%" zoom button will show the image full size. The "+" and "-" buttons zoom the image in and out respectively

If the image is zoomed larger than fits in the Preview window you may move the image around to view the area you wish by clicking and holding the left mouse button on the image in the Preview window and dragging it to where needed.


Selections and Layers

virtualPhotographer is fully aware of Selections and Layers in your image editing software. To apply an effect to just a part of your image simply select it before you start virtualPhotographer, you can even feather the selection to ensure gradual and pleasing edges. When you have the desired effect in virtualPhotographer simply click the "Process" button as normal and the effect will only be applied to your selection. Likewise with Layers, virtualPhotographer will work on any layer, or the background. Simple select the layer you wish to use in your image editing software and then start virtualPhotographer. When you apply an effect from virtualPhotographer that you like it will only be applied to the selected layer. You can also combine selections on layers.

Note: virtualPhotographer does not currently preserve the transparency (Alpha-channel) of a layer.


Speed Tips

Viewing the effects of all the Presets is a great way to get to the best options quickly. To do this click on the Preset pop-down menu and select the option you wish to begin at. The pop-down menu will disappear but the effect you choose will be selected, and applied to the Preview window. Now use the DOWN (and UP) arrow keys on your keyboard to quickly move between all of the presets.

Another method to quickly move through Preset options it to use the scroll-wheel on your mouse. Once the Preset pop-down menu is selected as described above simply scroll the mouse wheel with your finger to move between Presets and see their effect.

To quickly access specific Presets you may use the first letter of the name of the Preset from the keyboard. As you keep pressing this key the Preset will jump to the next effect beginning with the letter you are pressing.

You may also use the HOME, END, PAGEUP and PAGEDOWN keys in the selected Preset pop-down menu to jump to the top of the list, the bottom of the list, one page up in the list and one page down in the list respectively.

To move sliders by small amounts first click on the slider to select it and then use the LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys on the keyboard


Requirements:
Microsoft Windows '98, ME. 2000, XP, Vista

More information:
http://www.optikvervelabs.com/

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