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DECEMBER 04, 2003 Digital Film Tools 55MM 3.0
The remaining filters in the collection fall into the image correction and miscellaneous category. There are several in this area worth discussing. The first and probably most major is Skin Smoother. This filter allows you to go into an image and smooth out a range of that image based on your input.  [an error occurred while processing this directive]Essentially it works by creating a luminance matte (mask), which you define in the Matte controls, and then blurs out that portion of the image, leaving unselected areas alone and providing crisp edges, which you can also adjust for blur, brightness and opacity. (Below you see the matte defined to create the "after" image in the example above.) There are good image manipulation filters in this collection as well. The Color Correct filter provides master controls or adjusting hue, saturation, brightness, gamma, contrast, red, green, blue and flash amount and flash color, along with additional controls for shadows, highlights and midtones. There are also several gradation and tint filters, allowing you to apply gradients (including dual gradients) to the image and map them to the image using HLS, HSV or Replace tinting modes. Others include:
 So, as you can see, there's quite a bit of variety in these filters. I can't do justice to them all. But, then again, you can download the demo and documentation and play with these filters yourself. Disappointments Given the price of this filter collection, I have very few disappointments. After all, Ozone and Light! together run $100, which means you're paying just $50 extra for 34 additional filters, all of which are useful in one way or another. As I mentioned before, many of these cross over, so I wouldn't mind seeing some consolidation. I'd also like to be able to jump from one filter in the collection to the next without having to close one window and move on to another. And I'd like an undo feature added. There is a Reset button with each filter, as you've seen in the screen shots above, but it would still be nice to be able to back up a few steps without starting completely over. And, finally, I think this software should ship with some presets for specific effects. It does include more than 100 shapes and textures for use with the filters, but settings for the filters, with descriptive names, would also be useful. The bottom line Again, these are somewhat minor disappointments. The software works well. It's easy to understand. And it's quick. 55MM 3.0 is an enormous filter collection, one that includes everything from simple image correction tools to complex effects filters. You don't see too many of these gigantic filter collections for Photoshop anymore, and you certainly don't see them anymore at such a reasonable price ($145 for the full version, $45 for the upgrade). The tools are effective and easy to use, packed with a wealth of useful filters and wrapped in an interface that allows you to get the job done quickly and precisely. Yes, some of the filters seem to overlap one another in terms of the final effect, but even discounting overlap, there's still a lot to explore and get out of this suite. I give 55MM 3.0 a Strong Buy recommendation. At least download the demo to discover this software for yourself. 55mm 3.0 is available now for Mac OS 9, Mac OS X and Windows systems for $145 for the Photoshop version and $295 for versions that support Adobe After Effects (and compatible hosts), Avid systems and Apple Final Cut Pro. (The Photoshop version was reviewed here.) Upgrades run $45 to $95. For more information, visit http://www.digitalfilmtools.com. Contact the author: Dave Nagel is the producer of Creative Mac and Digital Media Designer; host of several World Wide User Groups, including Synthetik Studio Artist, Adobe Photoshop, Apple DVD Studio Pro, Mac OS, Adobe InDesign, Adobe LiveMotion, Creative Mac and Digital Media Designer; and executive producer of the Digital Media Net family of publications. You can reach him at dnagel@digitalmedianet.com. Prev 1 2 3 4 Related sites: • Creative Mac • Digital Media Designer • Digital Producer • The WWUG Related forums: [an error occurred while processing this directive] 
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