I’m a recent PhD grad in computer graphics and I’m hoping to bring some of my research to the real world! I’ve been working on a Photoshop plug-in for color transfer - it does pretty much the same thing as the “Match Color” tool already built into Photoshop, except it gets much better results. I’m running an open beta this month and I was hoping you guys would like to take the plug-in for a spin. At the moment it only works in RGB mode with 8 bits per channel. Besides those restrictions it should work on anything. I’d love to get your feedback on how the plug-in could be improved, and I’d love to see what kind of cool transfers you guys come up with using this technology.

http://www.synthetechinc.com/colorbandit.html

+++++++DOWNLOAD THE PLUG-IN)++++++++

www.synthetechinc.com/ColorBandit/ColorBandit.8bf I’ve tested the plug-in on CS4, CS5 and CS6 in 32 bit mode (I suspect earlier Photoshops will work as well. I’m pretty sure this will not work for 64 bit versions).

+++++++ INSTRUCTIONS ++++++++

You need to copy the ColorBandit.8bf file to your “Filters” folder in the plug-in directory. Assuming you installed Photoshop normally, this would be C:/Program Files (x86)/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop CS#/Plug-ins/Filters

To use Color Bandit, go to the "Filters" menu on the top bar, go down to "Synthetech" and select "Color Bandit". A dialog will pop up with two options, grab and apply. Grabbing will capture whatever image currently has focus and store it to a buffer. Apply will transfer the colors from whatever image was last "grabbed" to the current image which has focus. Color Bandit should work with selected regions of an image, please let me know if it does not.

NOTE # 1: CS6 does not have a “Filters” folder in the Plug-ins directory, so you’ll need to create one).

NOTE #2: Make sure you copy to “Program Files (x86)” and not “Program Files”. Also make sure that you open the 32 bit version of Photoshop, not the 64 bit version.

+++++++++ CONTEST +++++++++

If you guys produce any cool transfers I’d love to show them off to the world! If you’d like your images to be used to promote Color Bandit then just post them in this thread. If I like them and use them then I’ll both cite you as the original author, and I’ll send you a commercial license for Color Bandit as a gift (NOTE: you have to own the rights to these pictures). If you can think of an uncommon/unconventional use for Color Bandit then that will be favored as well.

+++++++++ QUESTIONS +++++++++

I have some general survey questions – just stuff to help me choose where to allocate my time in order to deliver the best plug-in to the most users. Feel free to answer as much or as little as you'd like :)

What version of Photoshop do you use?
Do you plan to switch to creative cloud in the next year?
What platform do you use? Win, Mac?
How important would 16 and 32 bit RGB image support be to you? (1=low ---- 10=high)

Businessy questions

Would you use this as a hobbyist or commercially? If commercially then what/where is your job?
Where do you usually go to find/buy new plug-ins?
What would this plug-in be worth to you as a hobbyist or commercially (in $)?
What Photography/Photoshop websites/magazines do you read to find out about stuff like this?

Thanks for your time and enjoy the beta!