Review: AKVIS Retoucher Plug-in
Fix your small photos easily within Photoshop and PS Elements. (July 31st, 2009)
The Good
- Fixes difficult problems in small photos.
The Bad
- Crashes when used with large photos and files. For scratches and small damage, Photoshop built-in healing brush works just as well. Uses large amount of CPU process time when processing.
Adobe Photoshop CS4 is a very powerful photo and graphics editor but its updated changes make the learning curve rather long. After months of testing, I've only mastered a few of the myriad of features. That said, anytime I can find software that automates the editing process I'm happy to test them out. Most of these utilities come as plug-ins that install easily into Photoshop.
The Problem and Task
I’ve scanned a lot of very old slides and photos; many of them in poor condition with stains, dirt, scratches, and tears. I've used various liquids and cloths to clean the slides prior to scanning, but in most cases, even that is of little help.
One Solution
When I heard about the photo retouching plug-in AKVIS Retoucher 3.5, I was excited to finally find a tool that might help reduce the time it takes me to edit the scratches, dirt, and tears out of my scanned slides in Photoshop. AKVIS markets Retoucher to users who need to restore and fix damaged photos, to remove scratches, stains, wires, and even restore missing edges and photo parts.AKVIS Retoucher
Admittedly, the programming behind AKVIS Retoucher must be extensive. To fix your photos you select the problem area and open the filter, which compares surrounding pixels and replaces the offending marks with the corrected color and fixes. My high hopes were misplaced. I really wanted to love this plug-in, but was met with disappointing results in a variety of ways.How Retoucher Works
To use Retoucher most easily, you open a damaged file in Photoshop CS3 or CS4. If you own Photoshop CS2, AKVIS offers a legacy version of the software, included in the price.The easiest Photoshop solution is to switch to Quick Mask mode and highlight the areas that need to be fixed. Using one of Photoshop’s editing tools, such as a brush, or a selection tool, you select the problem areas, which show up in red by default.
After you’ve selected the problems, you switch back to the normal mode and Invert the selection from the Select menu.
Next, you select the AKVIS plug-in from the Filters menu and the Retoucher window opens with your selected areas highlighted in red. You can move your picture around to see the needed areas, zoom in or out, or change the parameters of the changes to be made.
The green arrow starts the change process and replaces your selection with the fixed pixels.
Once the change is completed you click the green checkmark to view the changes in Photoshop and save the file or not. As you can see in the fixed image below, the eye requires more editing.
