This software ROCKS!!!

I introduced you to Lincoln Beach Software some time ago, but, shortly after that article was published Harold Holmes from Lincoln Beach sent me an e-mail about something he calls "Image Elements", a modular software application consisting of mini-applets that do very specialized "effects" on photographic images.

Harold is an excellent computer programmer and very utilitarian. He created what I'd say is the very best web development software I have ever used and I've been using it for years. He creates very nice programs that are light on system resources and sell at very modest prices. So, he tries to keep things pretty simple for the end-user and rather than write software that has a ton of features that most of us will never use, he gives us efficient apps that get the job done.

Image Elements gives you some really cool tools to enhance your photographic images for a very reasonable price ($29.99). For $30 you get an image suite that includes what Harold calls Bright Spot, Feather Art, FrameOut, Kaleidoscope, Photo Montage, and Picture Framer (Separately, they are $9.99 each). This suite of tools is a great bargain and a fantastic addition to your image editing arsenal.

First, let's look at FrameOut... what a cool little applet! Yeah, PhotoShop can do this, but, why pay $600 to get this effect when you can get this and the whole suite for just $30 and have money in the bank? The FrameOut sample on the right was made with the black & white and blur background filters. The original photo is on the left.

Recently, my wife was trying to fade a photo to black on the edges and she needed to use several steps in PhotoShop to accomplish the task. After using a layer and filling it with black "paint" she took the image and "erased" the edges with about ten percent opacity. She fooled around with several attempts before she was really happy with the results. Now, check out the "FeatherArt" tool in Image Elements (below left). This tool makes the job a single-step process. It's a snap.

Above right, you can see a screen capture of the Kaleidoscope tool. While it is hard to see in the thumbnail, there is a little triangle in the picture that captures the area you want to use to create your kaleidoscope image. Check out the close-up. What you are seeing is the wing pattern turned into a kaleidoscopic image. Below is the full-sized resulting pattern.

The Image Elements Suite is a great little set of applications that will make some of your creative tasks easier. You don't have to break the bank, either. The frame tool is much like any other in function and it is part of the whole suite. I didn't have space enough for BrightSpot and Photo Montage, but, they are also great tools and you really should take a look at Lincoln Beach Software's website. The Image Elements site is here... click me.

Check out Lincoln Beach Software on the World-Wide-Web at http://www.lincolnbeach.com and see what else they have to offer.