People sometimes ask for a faster, easier-to-control version of Photoshop’s venerable Lens Blur filter. Alien Skin’s just-released Bokeh 2.0 is a great answer, providing fast on-image control, compatibility with both Photoshop and Lightroom, and interesting creative effects like spiral blurs. I’ve just taken it for a spin and am impressed.
Bokeh costs $199. See their press release for more details.
I must admit until now I’ve resisted any form of faux lens blur filters, but am very tempted to give this a closer look.
Thanks for the ‘heads up’ John,
Cheers,
Glyn
I just upgraded yesterday. It’s way faster than Lens Blur and it works with Smart Objects. PS Lens Blur does not. Also they have great support. I had an activation issue and they responded and fixed it almost immediately.
The downside to the filter is that it does not use a PS vignetted or soft mask properly. It threshold’s the soft mask creating a hard line at about 50%. So for creating a true progressive depth of field effect by filtering through a mask – Photoshop Lens Blur wins hands down. I still can’t wait ’till Adobe multithread’s Lens Blur! Hint hint.
For a clearer explanation of the above see this post:
http://forum.alienskin.com/bokeh-depth-maps-and-competing-products_topic1380.html
It’s just good to know before you buy. : )
Thanks for the link, Craig. I agree that the filter is too expensive and I think depth map capability is a no-brainer must-have for a focus effects plugin.
I’m all for plugins and other third party tools for Adobe apps, but I’ve been put off by high prices and very slow updates/upgrades to keep pace with the latest CS versions. It seems that the ecosystem for plugins is losing species and habitat. Perhaps it’s the 18-month or less Adobe release cycle. Perhaps it’s not profitable enough to develop and support good filters at a reasonable price. And it’s a dicey business proposition to sell something like HDR or stitching that eventually gets done well enough in the basic app.
Actually I think that the filter is well worth the price. PS Lens Blur is so slow on large files it’s almost unusable. So if you’re just going for a cool effect buy Bokeh. If you need the depth mask then use Lens Blur and plan on processing the file while you’re at lunch!
Also, I tested Bokeh against other filters and it was the only one that had the image quality of PS Lens Blur. Of course that was a couple of years ago and things move quickly.
This looks fantastic. I do miss the ability to use feathered masks but there’s other solutions for that.
Wish PS’s bult in Lens Blur worked more like this.
Craig, the best filter to add depth of field is this:
http://www.frischluft.com/lenscare/index.php
it’s more realistic than the Adobe one and works in CS5 on a Mac.
Andi – Doesn’t look like it work in PS on a mac. Too bad.