| Segmentis buZZ Professional Review | |
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Dateline: 05/15/01
The Segmentis company name was changed to Fo2Pix after this review was written. As of November 2007, Fo2Pix is out of business and the company assets are in liquidation. Unfortunately, there is no way to purchase buZZ or other Fo2Pix products at this time. [reference]
As mentioned in my overview, buZZ's Simplifier effect is the heart and soul of this plug-in and I know of no other effect quite like it. While most of the images on the previous pages involved using more than just the Simplifier effect, I found that my photos seemed to be significantly improved merely by running it through the Simplifier. All of the distracting details are removed and you can focus on what is important in the scene. For portraits where you want to preserve facial detail in the center of the image, the Radial Simplifier is a pleasant change from the traditional soft focus effect you see so often. Although the combination of buZZ effects, layers, and blending modes is extremely powerful in itself, when you consider combining it with Photoshop's history brush, even more possibilities come to light.
On the negative side, about all I can say is that it does take quite a bit of time to process a Stack after committing to it. I was working with buZZ on a Pentium III 1 GHz with 512 MB RAM in Photoshop 6 and it generally took 10-30 seconds or more to process a Stack on medium resolution files of 5-10 MB. I should mention, however, that I did have other applications open at the time, so not all of my memory was allocated to Photoshop. As with any effect filter, a larger preview window would be desirable. The preview window in the buZZ Stack is only about 200 pixels square.
The buZZ Professional preview and settings panel where the Stack can be previewed and adjusted.
The buZZ Professional Stack panel where effects are added, removed, reordered, and saved.
I can't think of anyone who enjoys graphics software and digital photography who wouldn't be delighted to have this software. Professional photographers and artists can add a whole new facet to their work, digital camera owners and hobbyists will get more enjoyment out of their personal photos, and designers will get much more mileage out of stock photography by transforming it into a new and unique composition.
Choosing between the Professional and Lite version is a tough choice. Personally, I found the Spread Black and Spread White effects in the professional version very useful for expanding the variety of artistic styles I could achieve. In addition, the Simplifier Two effect provides more precise control over how much detail is removed by allowing you to add back small areas of detail and remove larger areas of detail. If I was purchasing this software, I would want the additional effects that are provided in the Professional version; however, if the additional cost puts it out of reach, the Lite version would still be quite flexible.
Buzz Professional and buZZ Lite are available as a trial download, good for 30 uses. They may be purchased directly thorough the Segmentis Web site. Visit http://www.fo2pix.com for current pricing.
The Segmentis company name was changed to Fo2Pix after this review was written. As of November 2007, Fo2Pix is out of business and the company assets are in liquidation. Unfortunately, there is no way to purchase buZZ or other Fo2Pix products at this time. [reference]
~ Sue Chastain
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