onOne Software, Inc, a leading developer of innovative, time-saving solutions for professional and advanced amateur photographers, today introduced the Perfect Layers Public Preview. Perfect Layers gives photographers the ability to easily create and work with layered files in their workflow application of choice. Perfect Layers supports the creation of layered files that can be opened and edited by Photoshop software and can be used directly from within Photoshop Lightroom software, Adobe Bridge and, with the shipping version, Apple Aperture.

“The impact Perfect Layers is going to have on photographers using Lightroom makes it a game changer!” said Scott Kelby, editor-in-chief of Photoshop User magazine. “This is the must-have plug-in for Lightroom.”

“Through our partnership with the National Association of Photoshop Professionals and from invaluable insight gained from Scott Kelby, we’re excited to get the Perfect Layers Public Preview into the hands of digital photographers everywhere,” said Craig Keudell, president of onOne Software. “We hear from photographers every day, that more and more of their image enhancement is taking place in applications like Photoshop Lightroom and they tell us they need additional tools to let them do even more like easily create composite images, retouch portraits and get creative with blending modes. Perfect Layers will enable photographers to do all of these things. That’s why we’re happy to make this Perfect Layers Public Preview available to the photographic community now so they can start using it to enhance their images.”

Top features in Perfect Layers

• Add layered file functionality to Lightroom — The ability to have multiple layers in a single file is a great benefit and provides unlimited creative options when enhancing an image. With the Perfect Layers Public Preview, from directly within Lightroom, photographers can create or open layered files. This means photographers can combine multiple images from Lightroom into a single image. They can also open existing Photoshop documents from within Lightroom. Uses of Perfect Layers include merging two or more exposures of the same scene into a single image and masking in the desired portion of each exposure. Compositing multiple images, such as action shots, becomes a simple task with Perfect Layers. Also with Perfect Layers, Lightroom users can now have access to the power of blending images together with blending modes. Blending layers together is a great way to stylise and enhance a photo as well as to retouch a portrait. Files created with Perfect Layers can be opened by Photoshop and Photoshop Elements later for additional editing if desired.
• Masking brushes — Control how much of each layer is visible by using the Masking brush created originally for PhotoTools 2.6 and FocalPoint 2. Similar to using a layer mask, the Masking brush can be used to reveal or hide selected areas of a layer. The Masking Brush is non-destructive and can even be re-edited with Photoshop.
• Blending modes — Perfect Layers brings the power and creativity of blending modes to Lightroom! Blending modes determine how two layers interact with each other. For example, you can blend a black-and-white version of an image with a colour version to get a very dramatic and stylised look. Perfect Layers includes the following blending modes: Normal, Lighten, Darken, Screen, Multiply, Overlay, Soft Light, Hard Light and Color.
• Adjust layers — The streamlined interface in Perfect Layers contains all the controls needed to size, align and reorder layers. A number of useful blending modes offer the ability to dramatically alter images by changing the brightness, altering the colour or even creating special effects. All the adjustments can be easily modified.

The Perfect Layers Public Preview enables photographers to start experimenting now with a subset of the features that the complete, shipping version of Perfect Layers will provide. The complete shipping version of Perfect Layers will add more features including:

• • Support for Apple Aperture
  • The ability to adjust the image/canvas size
  • The MaskingBug control from PhotoTools 2.6 to create smooth gradient masks
  • Color fill layers and several other new features

As a public preview release, similar to a beta release, the Perfect Layers Public Preview is not indicative of the final performance and quality of the forthcoming complete shipping version. Technical support is not available for the preview release. Users can submit their feedback on this public preview from within the application.

Availability

The Perfect Layers Public Preview release is available immediately at www.ononesoftware.com/perfectlayers. The shipping version will be available, with additional features, by mid 2011 as a standalone product for US$160 and as part of the Perfect Photo Suite 5.5. Owners of Plug-In Suite 5 can upgrade to Perfect Photo Suite 5.5, which will include Perfect Layers, at no additional cost. The Perfect Layers Public Preview is a time-limited release and will expire on 30 June 2011.