Product interfaces have become mostly unified making them easy to work with.
When purchased as a suite, it’s a good value. You’ll have plenty to play with.
Effects and tools are effective and generally simple to use and customize.
Aperture & Lightroom* integration on certain apps
The Not:
No auto update makes in version updates a hassle and easy to overlook.
When purchased separately there’s STD/PRO options adding confusion and making the prices too high (not unlike many plugin companies. These so called Pro versions do not have enough extra features to warrant the cost. The full suite does include the pro versions where applicable however.
The Bottom Line: This is a great collection of plugins. If you want to broaden your editing arsenal in one shot, Plugin Suite 4 is a great place to start. While the whole suite is the best value, all plugins can also be purchased separately.
*One thing to note is that Lightroom integration is little more than export plugins and not self contained integration in LR. This is probably due to limitation with Lightrooms support for plugins, but it’s still a disappointment.
Promo’s and discounts:
OnOne gives PPS some specials as well. Promo code PRPHTSHW is good everyday for 10% off any OnOne product. Also thru Dec 31st, here’s a promo page that will save you $100on the suite. Note that OnOne has no say in this review, and it contains only my honest opinions.
Individual Product Reviews:
Genuine Fractals 6: Review 9/10
Genuine Fractals is a standard among many photographers when it comes up scaling image resolution. I use it whenever I make large prints. It can quickly take those pixels and make a 300DPI file for whatever print size I need. It can even add sharpening in the same pass (though I usually sharpen separately) GF just gives something more than built in Photoshop up-conversion methods and I really like it.
Here’s wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. The blessings of Christ abound around us. I’m thankful for my family, my customers and my colleagues. Here’s a little collage of self portraits we made in the studio yesterday. It would be tough to send cards to everyone since I know so many people.
Since this is the Pro Photo Show edition, I’ll talk shop a little. I did these self portraits with the 5D MKII. I used a white paper backdrop and two Alien Bee’s strobes in the studio. One aimed low and behind us to totally whiten the paper and another in front aimed downwards and bouncing off the floor to fill the front.
The layout was done very simply using InDesign just like I would do a wedding album page, though on an 8×10 layout. That’s all there is too it. Nothing amazing, but I did have fun.
Lastly don’t forget about the PPS Christmas contest. It’s our gift to you, and even if you don’t win one of the big prizes, everyone who enter will receive a free effect goodie pack from PPS and Seim Effects early next year. You can’t lose, so if you haven’t already, go here to enter.
Notable Time Indexes:
29:00 Gadget Guide
44:28 Kevin Swan joins the show. He has some great marketing tips.
1:57:30 After Show (Marketing and wedding talk)
This is no full review on the 5D MK2, but I wanted to post a few quick samples of the final product we can get from this camera. I just received it yesterday but so far I’m really impressed. ISO 25000 is pretty bad, but that’s to be expected.
These are a few quick shots I took of my son Cyrus and Niece Grace. Only natural light was used. I’ve included versions with basic LR processing, as well as finals with more processing, Click each image for details. You can also Download Full Res Versions Here.
I wanted to post this up before it ends on Dec 18th. The folks over at OnOne software are having a Christmas sale on PluginSuite4.
This is the collection that includes six plugins, including the new Genuine Fractals 6, Photo Frame and a bunch more. Go to to this page and on checkout you can use promo code PRPHTS4. This will get you the suite for $399 ($100 off), plus you get a bonus CS4 training video from Kelby Training. Pretty sweet deal… Gav
John Bell, who’s a listener to the show recently sent me a link to a cool video he made. It’s all about the mechanics of dealing with an ariel photo shoot and the things you might encounter. besides all that John’s cool accent is fun to listen too. It’s great that we have PPS listeners all over the world. If it doesn’t load below here’s the direct link.
