George Schaub

Alien Skin’s Snap Art 3 ($199, or $99 for an upgrade from previous versions) is the latest manifestation of image-altering software that works atop the architecture of Photoshop and Lightroom, that is, a plug-in accessible through the Filters menu in Photoshop and for Lightroom as an external editor.

To launch Snap Art from an image in Lightroom you first select the image (or multiple images for batch processing), and select Photo>Edit In>Snap Art 3. You can also right click on the image and select Edit In>Snap Art 3. When Lightroom asks you how to edit the photo, the company recommends you choose “Edit a Copy with Lightroom Adjustments.” This will tell Lightroom to make a copy of the image for Snap Art. You can also check and uncheck the Stack command, depending on how you want to see the image in the Library—choose Stack and you can easily unstack the image later, or just have it sit side by side in the normal Library (unstacked) view.

A couple of years back, when digital "filters" started appearing, a number of us sat around and joked that there would soon be a Van Gogh or a Monet filter for images, with push-button conversion of any image to look like Starry Night or the lily pond in the Gardens of Giverny. It turns out that some code writer must have been listening; we now have plug-in filters...

You might think that with digital offering a unique ISO setting for every frame, and with the coordination of high ISO and sophisticated noise reduction software, that there would be less and less demand for and use of auxiliary lighting. Yet, use of flash, from built-in to ringlight to large portable battery packs and softbox location gear, has risen, and with it the potential for more finite...