SPLAT! Photoshop filters from Alien Skin www.alienskin.com
An excellent set of filters for those who prepare photographs
reviewed by D’Lynn Waldron, PhD copyright ©02 www.dlynnwaldron.com
Winner of the Golden Crane Award for the Graphic Arts
Since the days of Black Box, Alien Skin has made my favorite filters for Photoshop and compatible programs. Their latest set SPLAT! is of particular use for those who prepare photographic images for printing.
The filter engine contains a wide range of slider controls for the graphic elements and the textures, and you can add your own elements in addition to the scores that are provided. (Review continues with more illustrations below this image.)
FRAME adds realistic frames and mats in many styles around any rectangular image or selection.
There are elaborate antique frames, simple wood frames, and a 35 mm film edge, which I find very useful.
...The best way to use frames is to put a transparent layer over your image and then add the fame to that (you will be able to see the image you are framing through the transparency.) You can alter the thickness of the frame and even the ornate antique frames scale perfectly. Once you have a frame in a Photoshop layer you can easily change the colors if you wish.
...I really enjoyed trying frames on various pictures and was surprised how some frames went so well and some not at all, depending on the picture. I also found the thickness of the frame made a great deal of difference for each picture, and I could this in the preview window.
RESURFACE comes with 100 high resolution grayscale textures (to which you can add your own) which are applied to the picture to make it look as if it were painted on that texture.
...With Canvas and Paper textures you can make photographs look like oil and watercolor paintings, plus there are paint textures.
...Another surface that is very useful in my work of painting portraits in Photoshop is the set of skin textures. I make two layers of the face, apply the skin texture to the top layer (as I would otherwise, or also, use a separate layer for noise to give a natural sparkle to the skin color). Once the texture and/or noise is added to the top layer with a face, I erase away the parts of the layer that should not have these effects, such as the eyes, teeth and lips, then with a skin texture, I erase at about 60% from the top layer the areas where skin texture is smooth, such as the eyelids, then I merge the two layers.
BORDER STAMP provides a wide selection of groups of objects which can be made into frames around any selection shape.
FILL STAMP uses these same groups of objects as an overall pattern within a selection, including a text outline.
EDGES adds edge effects such as torn paper, etc., to any selection including type.
PATCHWORK creates mosaic images of pictures using patterns that include cross-stitch, light pegs and tiles. (I did not find the results fine enough in detail or accurate enough in color to be of use to me.)
Requirements:
Photoshop 5 or later and filter compatibles (see list on Alien Skin site)
300 meg of free hard disk space for full install.
Mac: Power PC, OS 8.6 through OS X
Pentium II, Windows 98/2000/ME/XP
Price $99. Sidegrade from other Alien Skin filter sets $69
www.alienskin.com
Photoshop Plug-ins Contents Photoshop Books AUTHOR
ALL THE IMAGES BELOW WERE DONE IN ADOBE PHOTOSHOP
Splat! Frame and Painterly Texture 2 applied to a photograph of Kenya by D'Lynn Waldron c.1960
