Product overview: onOne Software's FocalPoint is included with their Plug-In Suite 5, or can be purchased on its own as a separate plug-in. From the description on the box: "FocalPoint gives photographers a way to create realistic depth of field, control the plane of focus and add selective focus to any image after it is photographed allowing for more control and flexibility than any other solution." Plugs 'N Pixels takes a hands-on look at FocalPoint and reports the results below.
		Attention iPhone, consumer-grade point-and-shoot and Kodak box camera owners: It no longer matters that the lenses included with such cameras don't generate decent (if any) depth-of-field focus effects. Even DSLR owners with a handful of lenses to choose from may still not own that financially elusive high-end 1.2 maximum-aperture glass. But no matter; by using onOne's FocalPoint 2 you can add selective focus and view camera-like planar/tilt effects to any digital or scanned image in post-processing! The main point of adding focus effects to an image is to control where you want the viewer's eye to go (ie, accentuate your subject or a portion of it). Or you might simply want to artsy-up your work with some extra visual punch. Either way, FocalPoint has all the tools you need. The screenshot above shows FocalPoint's one-window interface. Starting from the top, there is a familiar Navigator for easily moving around an enlarged image. Clicking on the "Fit, 1:1, 2:1 and 4:1" magnification presets helps you standardize the viewing of images of different sizes and resolutions in the main work area. Next up is the FocusBug controller pane. The FocusBug (shown in the center of the screenshot above) is the means by which you control tilt-shift or selective focus lens effects via software. There is one handle each for controlling Blur Amount and Vignette Lightness; the other handles control the width, height and overall shape of the focus effects. The center of the FocusBug can be dragged anywhere in the image to place the effects as needed. The FocusBug panel also provides the means for starting with Round or Planar effects, as well as adjusting the feathering and opacity. Additional focus effects can be added in layers-like fashion by clicking on the "+" sign. All this is just the beginning of what you can do! The next adjustment pane deals with Blur control. First, choose from FocalPoint version 1 or 2 blurs (version 1 retains the look of FocalPoint 1 effects while version 2 creates more realistic and natural bokeh highlights). The Lens options (a pulldown list of 22 presets that match the characterists of popular Canon and Nikon lenses so photographers in both camps happy...) range from Canon 35/1.4 up through 300/2.8 and Nikon 50/1.4 through 300/2.8, with minimum aperture settings of 5.6. So if you are struggling with any gear envy, you can end it right here! You can control blur Amount from just a hint of bokeh to large and obvious; Optical Quality varies the density of the aperture for effects ranging from sharp to fuzzy. Going a step beyond the capabilities of any particular physical lens, FocalPoint offers you a selection of aperture shapes from between 3- and 11-sided (as well as settings for aperture curvature and rotation) that are directly reflected in the bokeh highlights in your processed images. And the list of options is not yet exhausted. The Options pane controls additional attributes of the blur. Highlight Bloom increases the brightness of highlights in the bokeh and increases the number and strength of aperture shapes in the bokeh. Brightness and Contrast and the Film Grain adjustments offer yet other means of strengthening the quality of your image and keeping it looking natural after the effects are applied. The FocusBrush pane takes an entirely different approach to that described thus far, enabling you to paint on selective blur or sharpening focus effects. Either refine an existing FocusBug area or create one from scratch. Wacom tablet users will enjoy even more control when applying the brush. The next-to-last pane is for adding Vignettes. This is an additional approach from traditional photofinishing to place your viewer's eye where you want it. You can control the lightness or darkness of the vignette effect, the placement of its midpoint, burn/dodge-like overlay blending and whether or not the vignette follows the FocusBug. Finally, FocalPoint comes with Preset capability, with both NAPP (their shortcuts as accessed from within Photoshop are shown at lower right) and onOne presets already loaded with more available online. you can apply presets inside of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom or Apple Aperture via the FocalPoint dialogs in each. You can even share presets with other users online with the onOne Exchange. The onOne Extension palette (accessible from within Photoshop via the Window menu) is also shown at lower right and is a great way to speed up the process. FocalPoint is supported in Mac OS-X 10.5 or 6 (on G5 or Intel hardware), and Windows XP through 7 (on Pentium 4 or better hardware). Older video cards are not supported (OpenGL 1.5 is required).
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