Article Summary:

Digital Film Tools offers a variety of downloads and plug-ins that might be useful for underwater photographers. One of their more recent titles is EZ Mask 1.0, an image masking tool capable of extracting almost any object in an image - even the fine details of fish fins, for example.

According to the press release, the extraction process creates what is known as a mask; once a mask is extracted, the foreground object can be seamlessly composed onto a new background in Adobe Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. Users are then able to apply filter and image corrections only within the area defined by the mask. EZ Mask 1.0 is a downloadable application that costs $150.

In light of the recent art vs. reality discussion on Wetpixel, I wonder how popular this application will be for many underwater photographers. Moreover, a similar tool (i.e., the Magic Extractor) was already introduced in Photoshop Elements 4.0, which costs roughly half the price.