Alien Skin Software’s Blow Up 3 (http://www.alienskin.com/blowup/index.aspx) — the new version of its photo enlargement plug-in for Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, and Photoshop Lightroom — enlarges photos while keeping them clear, even at huge sizes.
Version 3 boast a new user interface and support for Lightroom. The plug-in is easy to use in just about any workflow.
Anyone who has enlarged a photo with traditional software has experienced blurry details and jagged edges. The image sharpness capabilities of Blow Up are impressive. Even huge prints don’t have any too many “computery” artifacts, especially in large prints hung on a wall
Blow Up is now simpler to use in version 3. If you understand Photoshop’s resize command then you already know how to use Blow Up. The Alien Skin software also comes with presets for standard paper sizes.
Blow Up now works in Lightroom, which is where many pro photographers spend their time. Those pros will also enjoy Blow Up’s new faster speed when they are enlarging batches of photos.
Blow Up 3 is available through http://www.alienskin.com for US$199. That’s a price drop of $50 from version 2. Owners of Blow Up 1 or 2 can upgrade for $99. There are example images and short videos that demo Blow Up 3’s capabilities at http://www.alienskin.com/blowup .
Blow Up 3 is a plug-in and requires one of the following host applications: Adobe Photoshop CS4 or later; Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 or later; Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 or later. Mac users need Mac OS X 10.6 or higher. Microsoft Windows users need Windows Vista or later.
