Alien Skin Software Releases Exposure 2

Alien Skin Software has released Exposure 2, the latest version of its film-stock simulator and effects package. Exposure 2 lets graphic artists and digital photographers enhance digital photographs by simulating the look of film.

Exposure 2 features more than 200 presets designed to emulate the warmth, softness, and realistic grains of various types of film–including the vivid colors of Fujifilm's Velvia, the natural skin tones of Kodak's Portra, the salt-and-pepper grain of Tri-X, and the ethereal glow of infrared; it can even simulate the retro colors of faded Polaroid.

Specific features include:

* Automatic adjustment of grain size to image size so that grain looks the same on high- and low-resolution photos. A roughness control gives Exposure 2 users subtle control over grain shape.

* For black-and-white conversions, a channel mixer interface provides subtle control over the conversion process.

* A range of darkroom-like effects such as push and cross processing and glamour-portrait softening.

* Batch processing via Photoshop Actions; any Exposure 2 preset can be adjusted to suit a particular subject and this new look can be saved as a setting for future use. All Exposure 2 settings can be deployed nondestructively in a new Photoshop layer named after the setting used.

Exposure 2 is multi-threaded to run faster on multiple processors or multi-core processors; it can easily handle 16-bit images, the company reports, allowing RAW images to be manipulated at their highest quality.

Price: $249 ($149 upgrade from Exposure 1).

ALIEN SKIN SOFTWARE
www.alienskin.com.