Eastman Kodak Company has rolled out a Mac version of the Digital GEM plug-in for automatic noise and grain reduction. Designed for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, the plug-in lets you automatically isolate and manage noise/grain in both highlight and shadow areas without sacrificing image detail.
It can also be used to achieve portrait soft-focus effects, as well as image sharpening. In addition, the Digital GEM plug-in reduces or removes JPEG image artifacts, as well as line screen patterns from flatbed scans. If you don’t want to use the software’ automation features, the plug-in offers three separate sliders that provide manual control over shadow and highlight areas, plus the overall image clarity.
A free demo version of the Digital GEM plug-in is available now for download. It applies a digital watermark to images. Registering the product (which costs US$79.95) disables the watermark.
The Digital GEM plug-in is compatible with Adobe Photoshop 5.0, 5.5, 6.0, or 7.0 and Adobe Photoshop Elements 1.0 or 2.0. It works with Mac OS X and Mac OS 8.6-9.x.