Photo looks discussion thread

[angelize]

Xara products (at least those with Live effects) will now have Magic bullet Photolooks bundled with them. After taking some time to have a good look at photolooks and have a good play I can see it being quite useful. It comes with lots of presets and yes some can look blown out depending on your photo. But here's the good news a preset can be used as a starting point and you can develop your own custom look very easily. So I'm opening this thread for questions, discussion etc about the Photolooks plugin!

[Big Frank]

instagram for pcs

[angelize]

No I see it as being more than that. You need to look past the cutesy names and see the tools for what they can do. For example there is tool named pop that enhances contrast with two controls, one controls how much contrast and the other controls the size of details that will be effected. It's actually a very useful tool.

Think of the presets it comes with as starting points. They also give you a chance to see how some of the tools work together.

I'm not saying photolooks is the best Plugin of this type that they could have bundled but its not that bad either.

[wizard509]

I need to experiment with that. Tried it a little but not enough to know anything.

[Big Frank]

if its the same one ive seen for $199 then its a good bundle
but masks and levels will do what you describe without using a plugin
sorry im just anti plugins in principle
people stop thinking and just press buttons
look what instagram did for picture taking
suddenly everybody thinks theyre an artist
never seen more worthless images clogging up the net
thank god the craze has died down
we dont need plugins
we need teachers

[DawnG]

I hope you don't mind my posting this in this thread, but I can't seem to find the photo looks plugin. I bought the upgrade from 9 to 10 and when I went to register it I kept getting that it wouldn't connect to the internet. So I ended up getting the program unlocked by calling them. Now I'm pretty excited about the photo looks plugin and I can't find it in my program. I've got photo graphic and designer 10. Do you think my troubles are because I couldn't get it registered in the correct way?

[handrawn]

on the photo tool flyout click on 'FX' [or use key shortcut ctrl+f5]

you will need to have the image you want to use selected - then click on the 'new' button above the tool flyouts - if you don't have an image selected this will be greyed out

the plugin should be on the dropdown menu

[DawnG]

This is a screenshot of my effects.

[handrawn]

ok, thanks for the screen shot

well I can't be absolutely certain, because I don't have the program upgrade and I'm basing what I say on what I have been told, but it does not look as if it is there

so it could be it's not registered - that would be a question for xara themselves I think, although another member may have more information

[gwpriester]

You might try Help > Download Content Installer