There's more...

[compilerbitch]

I put up an alpha test version of my Photoshop CS2 plugin that does the for-real Synthetic HDR transform. For anyone interested, it's here:

http://findatlantis.com/wiki/index.php/Synthetic_HDR

It's free as in free beer, but not entirely as in free speech thanks to nasty Adobe and their Photoshop SDK licence terms. Oh well, maybe one day.

I'm really pleased with the results, actually -- go to the web site to have a look, because I'm limited to 500 pixels width here and you need to see them with a bit more resolution really. It seems to turn digital noise into something that looks like film grain from a very slow film. It looks a lot nicer to my eye anyway.

As ever, comments welcome. This has been a lot of fun, actually -- it's the first bit of recreational programming that I think I've done in years. I should do more of it. Which I will, probably along the lines of more plugins. My Vague Plan for world plugin domination is as follows:

1. 'Subsonic', a plugin for mapping from a 16 bit image back to 8 bits with error spreadingFloyd-Steinberg dithering for printing or web purposes. The name comes from the intention, which is to eliminate Mach banding. (Sorry about the bad joke)

2. A Better Light-specific dust filter that identifies and corrects the classic Better Light-style dust streaks automatically.

3. An off-axis realignment tool that corrects images that have been affected by slight camera movement at right-angles to the direction of travel of the sensor.

4. An 'streak killer' that can fix problems with imperfect dark capture or slightly flickering/unstable light sources.

5. Possibly more than one plugin that can process photographs and turn them into plausible botanical illustrations, semi-automatically.

Plugs 2, 3 and 4 are specific to processing photos made with scan backs, but the others are general purpose.

*goes to watch TV*

Comments

[midendian.livejournal.com]

Windows only, hmph.

[compilerbitch.livejournal.com]

I know, sorry. It's nothing personal, honestly, it's just down to what equipment I actually have. Hopefully someone will volunteer to port it to the Mac at some point, or I'll succumb and buy one myself eventually.

[fluffyrichard.livejournal.com]

Though Adobe make it impossible for you to release the source, is there any subset of the source that you could release? I don't know how tightly the Adobe stuff ties in with your code, but it sounds like a particularly evil licence from Adobe.

I'd be interested in making a GIMP plugin which did this stuff, because Louise could probably use it for some of her photography.

[compilerbitch.livejournal.com]

Yes, sure, I don't see why I can't pull out the core algorithm. It would be hard for Adobe to get terribly proprietorial about arrays of unsigned shorts. :-)

Give me a week or so to tweak it as-is first because there are a few corners that need knocking off, but yes, a Gimp port would be fantastic. :-)

[compilerbitch.livejournal.com]

(to tweak Synthetic HDR a bit more, that is, it'll take me a while to get the others done!)

[countess-sophia.livejournal.com]

That looks a fun plug-in, I shall download it and give it go. Thanks for making it available.

A botanical illustration plug-in for Photoshop is high on my wishlist too, but what I really want is one that does old master style oil paintings. Don't suppose that you know of one?

Soph x

[compilerbitch.livejournal.com]

The only thing I can think of in that direction is a bit of (fairly non-serious) software called Artrage. I'm not sure it's up to doing anything at print resolution, however.

The botanical illustration plugin most likely won't be entirely automatic -- you'll have to do a bit of the work yourself to prepare and composite the image, but that's mostly because I'm trying to go for something that really does generate the kinds of scientific images that botanists actually use. I'm still planning that one, it'll be a little while yet. :-)