Alpha on Amazon

Subscribe to Cameracraft

Cameracraft is one of the highest quality photo enthusiast magazines you'll find - worldwide. Our Photoclubalpha subscription deal is £20 less (UK) than the full annual cost for six editions. You can cancel at any time on Paypal or by contacting us.

Postal Region

PDF hi-res download version

Payment Options

Photoclubalpha Forum

Join our free Forum for a wealth of info, great company and some fantastic photo sharing threads! Registration on the Forum is separate from Registration on the website, but you are allowed to register using the same name and password.
  • Digital non-SLR • Brain dead camera feature design (Canon, Panasonic, Olympus, etc.) April 19, 2024
    I own Canon, Panasonic, and Olympus cameras and they all have the same brain dead, annoying behavior in one respect. I bet you have noticed this too and you just shake your head in wonder that these camera companies all have the same ridiculous design feature. I am hoping there is some camera company that […]
    bakubo
  • Alpha E-Mount system • Re: Sony HEIF: Why no Adobe RGB? March 24, 2024
    I don't own high-end screens. My two Samsung 24" screens don't show any difference between JPG and Heif files.Statistics: Posted by Fotogeorge — Sun Mar 24, 2024 7:14 pm
    Fotogeorge
  • Alpha E-Mount system • Re: Sony HEIF: Why no Adobe RGB? March 23, 2024
    I have been finding several things about the A6700 that not a single written or video review bothered to mention. No surprise. Every time I buy a camera it is the same. I have searched and still not found an answer to my question so today I asked ChatGPT. It gave this answer which is […]
    bakubo
  • Alpha E-Mount system • Re: Sony HEIF: Why no Adobe RGB? March 20, 2024
    I'm here. Check it every day. Most of my older photo software doesn't use Heif. My iPad uses Heif so I changed it to Jpg. All my older photo software products don't recognize Heif files. Canon originally used Heif files. I'll stick with Jpeg. I have a A6500. The A6500 doesn't work with Nissin MF18 […]
    Fotogeorge
  • Alpha E-Mount system • Sony HEIF: Why no Adobe RGB? March 19, 2024
    Is anyone still on this forum?Last month I bought a Sony A6700. I still have mostly m4/3 gear and still mostly prefer it, but I was sort of bored and felt like trying something else.Anyway, I have been playing around with HEIF photos. Sony, Canon, Nikon, Fuji, Panasonic, etc. these days produce 3 types of […]
    bakubo

Past Article Calendar

June 2009
M T W T F S S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930  

Free PhotoTools software for Photoclubalpha readers

OnOne Software has made available an entire free download including Lite versions of 14 of their PhotoTools plug-ins for Photoshop. All you have to do to obtain the download is visit their website using the link below and provide a valid email address for verification. We have tested the entire OnOne software range – including the full PhotoTools 2 package – with excellent performance on CS4/MacOSX 10.5+.

The Lite version of PhotoTools 2 Standard Edition is available for immediate download from the onOne Software website. PhotoTools 2 Standard Edition is a flexible yet powerful plug-in for Adobe Photoshop CS2, CS3 and CS4 that uses Photoshop Actions to provide a range of imaging tools including effects, corrections and production automation in a full-featured interface.

Based on the same feature set as PhotoTools 2 Standard Edition, PhotoTools 2 Lite includes 14 of the most popular effects found in both PhotoTools 2 Standard Edition and PhotoTools 2 Professional Edition.  The 14 effects available in PhotoTools 2 Lite range from reproducing classic photographic effects like Bleach Bypass and Cross Process, to reproducing film stock such as Kodachrome and Fuji Velvia, to modern effects including automatic skin smoothing. You requires CS2, CS3 or CS4 and the download will not install with Elements.

The Skin Smoothing plug-in is worth the money for the full package alone so it’s very good value free 🙂

Here is a shot by Shirley Kilpatrick (Alpha 200, 18-250mm Tamron lens) taken at the Fogueres de San Joan in Alicante last year. This is a festival well worth visiting – really the best week’s holiday we have had in many years, we missed a flight to Brittany and had to book a quick replacement within 8 hours, and ended up staying in the heart of Alicante during the midsummer festival week. Non-stop, night and day, fireworks, parades, music, dance, street shows, fairs, performers, fast food, slow food – the lot. Get yourself to Alicante June 20-28th and you will have no shortage of superb photo opportunities.

This shows Photo Tools 2 professional edition with effects such as the Luminizer A4 action which creates glowing colours on portraits (this one action is why the Photo Tools 2 package can sell for as much as many editing programs). As you will see, the GUI which PT2 uses to take over Photoshop is beautifully designed with mini preview images included (not your own pix, the one in the bottom right corner is part of the program as a preview). You can stack effects, remove them from the stack, control many of them by parameter or strength, and apply your presets to many images.

You can see two full size before and after images from this simple exercise in skin-tone enhancement:

//www.pbase.com/davidkilpatrick/image/113229503

//www.pbase.com/davidkilpatrick/image/113229535

These photographs are by Shirley Kilpatrick, retouching by David Kilpatrick, although they are hosted in the Alpha 200 images gallery of David Kilpatrick’s pBase.

You can read David’s review of OnOne Photo Tools 2 which appeared in the British Journal of Photography:

//www.bjp-online.com/public/showPage.html?page=853335

Availability and Pricing

PhotoTools 2 Lite is offered at no cost and is only available as an electronic download direct from onOne Software.  To receive the product, please visit www.ononesoftware.com/pt2lite and request a free download with a valid email address.

For users who wish to access the full database of effects that come with the Standard or Professional Editions of PhotoTools 2, they will need to purchase a copy of the Standard or Professional Edition. PhotoTools 2 Professional edition is available for £199.00 and the Standard edition is available for £129.00. You can purchase these direct from onOne Software at www.ononesoftware.com, or from UK distributor Colour Confidence at www.colourconfidence.co.uk or by calling 0800 735845.


Comments are closed.