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Specialized Software

Put these programs to work to make your digital photography more effective and fun

This Article Features Photo Zoom

Portrait Professional Studio 9

Auto FX Dreamsuite

Touching up portraits can be one of the most challenging photo processes. You want to ease blemishes, but retain details. Portrait Professional Studio 9 can be used as a stand-alone application or as a Photoshop plug-in to make sophisticated portrait enhancements—without complicated masking—in a fraction of the time it would take with Photoshop tools. List Price: $149.

Auto FX has a whole range of special-effects plug-ins. The DreamSuite series of software creates very creative looks from putty to liquid metal and more. Mystical Tint Tone and Color 2 includes dozens of filters that you can combine and layer for practically endless creative possibilities—especially useful for portraits. List Price: From $99 (DreamSuite); $249 (Mystical Tint Tone and Color 2).

Create unique edges for your photos that can give a creative and classy look for prints with onOne Software PhotoFrame 4. You get over 1,000 base frames and edges that you can combine, modify and apply to your photos quickly and in real time. List Price: $159 (Standard); $259 (Pro).

Get terrific and creative blur effects around your subject that mimic the look of specialized and expensive lenses with onOne Software FocalPoint. It’s like having a virtual selective-focus lens inside of Photoshop. Focal Point creates the complex masks needed so you don’t have to do the work or mental calculations. List Price: $159.


Another blur-effect software is Alien Skin Bokeh. This allows you to manipulate focus in front of and behind your subject as if you were using a fast lens with a wide maximum aperture. Those lenses are very expensive, so this can be a great alternative. You get a very photo-realistic look to the blurs. List Price: $199.

Alien Skin also has a number of special-effects software plug-ins. Snap Art 2 lets you create painterly effects with your photos with a single click. Eye Candy plug-ins give you all sorts of special effects, from unique textures to natural effects like smoke and fire. Xenofex gives you cloud and lightning effects with a single click. List Price: From $99 (Eye Candy); ($129) Xenofex; Snap Art ($199).

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