Product Spotlight: Alien Skin Bokeh

What it does: Alien Skin Bokeh controls the quality of the out-of-focus areas of the image, called "Bokeh" in Japanese. This includes emulating shallow depth of field that would require a telephoto lens and/or a wide aperture in the real world.

You can also use this software to create the selective focus effect of tilt-shift lenses and large-format cameras using the radial sweet spot tools; you can also create a toy camera look or change the shape of blurred spectral highlights to create special effects. For example, you can turn those rounded shapes in the blurred background into hearts—a nice post-production touch that wedding photographers may want to offer their customers.

Who it's for: Anyone who wants full defocus control and likes to be creative with backgrounds, foregrounds and selective focus effects. It's especially useful for wedding photographers looking for a creative edge.

What else you need to use it: A Mac running OS X 10.4.II or later, Windows XP or later, Adobe Photoshop CS3 or Elements 4 on Mac and 6 on PC, or later.

Cost: $190

Samples: (Photos courtesy Alien Skin) 

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