Date of publication 05/05/07

STOP PRESS 2008 - Fot2Pix appears to have ceased trading, but hopefully these filters will re-appear with another manufacturer at some stage.

buZZ.Pro 3
Selling currently for around £56 inc VAT

These are a popular set of filters, but like all filter sets there are some filters in the pack that we are not likely to use very often. Probably the most popular ones are the simplifier filters and we use Simplifier One the most. The samples below give an indication of what this filter does. You can see that it takes fine detail and simplifies it to create the effect we see below in our Tiger image. The filters are downloadable from the Fo2Pix web site. Just click the logo to go there.

The Buzz filters work very well on leaves so it is a great filter to have in mind at autumn time

Tips for use

Once you have applied any of the three Simplifier filters go to Unsharp mask and add a healthy amount of sharpness back into the image. In normal circumstances we must never over sharpen an image, but that is when we are retaining the photographic quality. Here we are deliberately reducing the photo quality and in these circumstances a healthy amount of unsharp mask works in our favour.

This filter also works very well with a light texture applied to the image in Photoshop or Elements and if it is then printed onto matt paper the result is often delightful. Of course filters and textures are not seen at their best in a 7*5 web image and the effect has far more charm when viewed at print size.

Sometimes this filter will allow us to work with an image that is a little unsharp. Maybe the image is a little too soft to make a successful photographic quality image, but as long as it is not too far gone, the application of Buzz 3 can often work wonders. Use Simplifier One and then unsharp mask to get you an image from one that may have been discarded.

One of the good things about Buzz 3 is the ability to add one filter effect to another in a stack. This is where we can often find an effect a little different from the norm

Manufacturers Info

buZZ.Pro 3 contains 22 filters, that can be added to, removed from, or moved around in an editable Stack of filters. To help add depth tone contrast and artistic balance, there are now three new filters: Highlights White, Lowlights Black and Highlights Colour.

The 22 filters in buZZ.Pro 3 include: Simplifier One; Simplifier Two; Simplifier Three; Blur; Blur More; Bright/Contrast; Directional Blur; Edges Colour; Edges Mono; Emboss; Gaussian Blur; Highlights White; Lowlights Black; Highlights Colour; Pure Colour; Radial Blur; Radial Screen; Radial Simplifier; Simplifier HSV; Spread Black; Spread White; and Unsharp Mask.

buZZ.Pro 3 also contains 25 pre-set Stacks of filters as follows: Accentuated Fine Black Flecks; Accentuated Fine White Flecks; Black and Grey Squares; Black-Edged Flecks; Bright Colour Wash; Colour Patches; Coloured Edges; Coloured Squares; Colour Patches 2; Fine Scale Highlights; Fine Scale Lowlights; Gloss Layer; Ink; Molten Edges; Neutral Colour Wash; Oil; Palette Knife; Pure Colour Highlights; Pure Colour Wash; Ragged Edges; Sketch 1; Sketch 2; Smooth Light Areas; Soft Colour Wash; Watercolour.