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Archive 2014 · Perfectly Clear plug in by Athentech Imaging?
  
 
billsnature
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Perfectly Clear plug in by Athentech Imaging?


Has anyone tried the "Perfectly Clear" plug in for Photoshop and if so is it worth it?

I already have the NIK plug ins and I wasn't sure how this product compared to "Tonal Contrast" in the NIK plug ins as the effects look kind of similar.

The plug in was mentioned in last months Outdoor Photographer magazine and I was curious about it. Their website is athentech.com and before you ask or accuse..No I don't work for them or get any benefit from having posted their site.

Thanks in advance for any insights you can share

Bill
May 30, 2014 at 07:15 PM
mshi
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Perfectly Clear plug in by Athentech Imaging?


looks like you can achieve what it can do in two seconds in Photoshop. why bother?


Edited on Jun 02, 2014 at 12:09 PM · View previous versions
May 31, 2014 at 12:23 AM
howardm4
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Perfectly Clear plug in by Athentech Imaging?


certainly doesn't look like a $249 plug-in. I personally like NIK tonal contrast or something called ALCE contrast enhancer.
May 31, 2014 at 07:35 AM
OntheRez
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Perfectly Clear plug in by Athentech Imaging?


mshi,

Forgive an eternally struggling Ps user, but what exact did you do in Ps? I see that you duped layers and then applied a 78% screen. How did this "brighten" the left half of the second photo - and why 2x? It's a nice bit of work, but I'm not quite understanding the why/how of the operation. If you wouldn't mind expanding on what you did, I'd really appreciate. And yah, I agree. I have several NIK tools that are excellent, but I'm not seeing this one as overly useful.

Robert

Actually your Ps version looks better than the NIK one at least in web based JPEGs.
May 31, 2014 at 10:51 AM
James_N
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Perfectly Clear plug in by Athentech Imaging?


I own the Perfectly Clear plug-ins for both Photoshop and Lightroom; I use them primarily to to do "quick and dirty" batch editing of proofs to send to clients. In that regard it has much more functionality than the Tonal Contrast filter in Nik Color Efex; its auto-corrections are better than those done by other plug-ins and faster than applying curves, levels, shapening, etc. It claims to do many things like Red Eye correction but I prefer to do most of my localized retouching by hand.

The plug-in is relatively expensive for what it does but only you can decide if its worth it to you. They offer free trial so I'd suggest that you download and evaluate whether its something you'd want long-term.

As an experiment I opened a random raw file of a landscape shot in Adobe Camera Raw, accepted the default conversion settings, then opened it in Photoshop and ran both Tonal Contrast and Pefectly Clear. Here are the results using the default settings for both plug-ins; of course they both can be tweaked to give a result in line with your vision for the image.

Adobe Camera Raw conversion with default settings:

http://i.imgur.com/16Tg0oQ.jpg


Perfectly Clear with default settings:

http://i.imgur.com/IKVnYvB.jpg


Nik Color Efex Tonal Range at default settings:

http://i.imgur.com/i0SYRuR.jpg
May 31, 2014 at 12:04 PM
mshi
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Perfectly Clear plug in by Athentech Imaging?


OntheRez wrote:
mshi,

Forgive an eternally struggling Ps user, but what exact did you do in Ps? I see that you duped layers and then applied a 78% screen. How did this "brighten" the left half of the second photo - and why 2x? It's a nice bit of work, but I'm not quite understanding the why/how of the operation. If you wouldn't mind expanding on what you did, I'd really appreciate. And yah, I agree. I have several NIK tools that are excellent, but I'm not seeing this one as overly useful.

Robert

Actually your Ps version looks better than the NIK one at...Show more →

The entire thing was based on pixel Math contained in blend mode. Just duplicated background and set it to screen blend mode and if it's still not bright enough duplicate it again using the blend mode until you can what you are after. Play with opacity. You can add inverted and blurred RGB mask to allow brightness only applied in dark areas.


May 31, 2014 at 12:54 PM
gdanmitchell
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Perfectly Clear plug in by Athentech Imaging?


I think that quite a few (though probably not all) plugins basically do what a person who has learned the underlying application can already do pretty quickly using the applications native features.

I'm sure that there must be some plugins that really do provide unique and valuable functionality, but folks could save a lot of money overall if they learned the apps a bit better and then were more strategic about where to allocate funds to add-ons that they really need and that really do unique things.

Take care,

Dan
May 31, 2014 at 01:16 PM
Rajan Parrikar
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Perfectly Clear plug in by Athentech Imaging?


gdanmitchell wrote:
I think that quite a few (though probably not all) plugins basically do what a person who has learned the underlying application can already do pretty quickly using the applications native features.

I'm sure that there must be some plugins that really do provide unique and valuable functionality, but folks could save a lot of money overall if they learned the apps a bit better and then were more strategic about where to allocate funds to add-ons that they really need and that really do unique things.

Take care,

Dan

There is no virtue in abstaining from plugins. I agree that knowledge of what goes inside the 'black box' can be very useful (especially in engineering design where software packages - the equivalent of plugins - are used all the time) but restricting the discussion to photo processing, what I would recommend is learning to use plugins judiciously, not as magical end solutions. Take the instance of Silver Efex Pro, a fantastic plugin from Nik. While one can do a b&w conversion from first principles, so to speak, the creative avenues opened up by Silver Efex Pro are surprisingly rich. The many presets have often set me off in directions I would never have imagined have had I simply stuck with the traditional route in Photoshop. To get the most out of plugins such as Nik or Topaz (two houses I highly recommend), the presets should be seen as a starting point.
May 31, 2014 at 01:44 PM
mshi
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Perfectly Clear plug in by Athentech Imaging?


Plugins or no plugins? It's a matter of personal choice. In general, you can produce more creative images without them.


May 31, 2014 at 02:39 PM
OntheRez
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Perfectly Clear plug in by Athentech Imaging?


gdanmitchell wrote:
I think that quite a few (though probably not all) plugins basically do what a person who has learned the underlying application can already do pretty quickly using the applications native features.

I'm sure that there must be some plugins that really do provide unique and valuable functionality, but folks could save a lot of money overall if they learned the apps a bit better and then were more strategic about where to allocate funds to add-ons that they really need and that really do unique things.

Take care,

Dan

I can't argue with the essential validity of your statement - though I'd suggest it is a rather "purist" approach to PP. I use plugins for basically three reasons: 1) In PJ work with always short deadlines, I can accomplish the necessary work far faster in Aperture or Lr making use of a nice set of plugins. I'm sure most (All? don't know), can be done natively in Ps, but the program takes longer to prep, load, work, export than it's worth when the output is low-rez JPEGs on their server or printed with cheap ink on cheaper paper. 2) For whatever reason, the Ps learning curve continues to be straight up for me even though I've got 10 years in it. I've mastered some truly complex programs in the past, SAS, BMDP, SPSS, etc., but Ps throws me in part I think because I can't draw a straight line with a ruler and just don't visualize images well without a lot of experimentation. It's frustrating to me because I can completely visualize the structure of say a small house and build without plans though I always create some. Ps with the whole mask/layer, make sure you're in the right layer/window/screen, hold your tongue right continues to challenge. 3) There is a point where I want a result without a lot of heavy lifting. I've tried a variety of them and NIK is about all I use though I do like Topaz' DeNoise better than anything I'm able to do in Ps.

I'd really love to become a Photoshop god, but she just doesn't seem to be shinning on me. Any suggestions of appropriate sacrifices greatly appreciated.

Robert
May 31, 2014 at 04:19 PM
OntheRez
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Perfectly Clear plug in by Athentech Imaging?


mshi wrote:
The entire thing was based on pixel Math contained in blend mode. Just duplicated background and set it to screen blend mode and if it's still not bright enough duplicate it again using the blend mode until you can what you are after. Play with opacity. You can add inverted and blurred RGB mask to allow brightness only applied in dark areas.

Thanks, I get the picture. I'll start playing with the idea.

Robert
May 31, 2014 at 04:23 PM
billsnature
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Perfectly Clear plug in by Athentech Imaging?


Hi James,

Thank you for taking the time to run and post sample pictures. Out of curiosity... From you memory of the scene and your taste in that style landscape, which do you prefer?

Nice image BTW!

Thanks
Bill
Jun 03, 2014 at 03:43 PM
James_N
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Perfectly Clear plug in by Athentech Imaging?


Its actually not my image. At full resolution I prefer the Nik Color Efex Tonal Range version of the sky but the beach is overdone for my taste. I'd probably use a mask to reduce much of the effect on the sand.

But remember that either of these filters can be adjusted to personal taste; the versions I posted used the default settings.




billsnature wrote:
Hi James,

Thank you for taking the time to run and post sample pictures. Out of curiosity... From you memory of the scene and your taste in that style landscape, which do you prefer?

Nice image BTW!

Thanks
Bill
Jun 03, 2014 at 05:26 PM
Game Changer
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Perfectly Clear plug in by Athentech Imaging?


James_N wrote:
I own the Perfectly Clear plug-ins for both Photoshop and Lightroom; I use them primarily to to do "quick and dirty" batch editing of proofs to send to clients.

Can you elaborate on the batch feature? How many, file type/size, etc.

Thanks
Jun 11, 2014 at 06:04 PM





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