Akvis has released Akvis Enhancer 11
(http://akvis.com/en/enhancer/index.php) for
Windows and Macintosh. The program allows
improving detail on an image, no matter what was
the cause of the unsharpness. Version 11 supports
the Smart Filter technology in Akvis Photoshop
CS3/CS4.

Akvis Enhancer is image enhancement software that
helps you improve detail in photos no matter what
caused the problem: poor/excessive lighting,
motion or poor focus. The software provides four
modes that can treat each problem separately:

° In Enhancer mode the program brings out details
on one single shot by intensifying color
transition. The tool is useful in cases when a
photo has an uneven exposure. For example, when a
picture has been taken against the light source
and consequently the objects on the foreground
are hardly discernible, which is especially
annoying when you take a picture of a person. Or
when a photo lacks dramatic effect due to
vagueness of the scene.

° The Focus mode improves blurred images by
bringing into focus the whole image or only
certain parts of it. It happens wheb the camera
fails to focus on the object being shot, and the
photo comes out fuzzy. This mode can rescue such
out-of-focus images. The mode offers several
presets that are recommended for the first
acquaintance with the program.

° The HDR mode is only available in the
Standalone version of Enhancer. The HDRI (High
Dynamic Range Imaging) technology expands the
dynamic range of an image and shows details in
both shadows and highlights.

New to this release is Smart Correction mode.
It's used for tone correction of images, which is
done by correcting the brightness of points in
the light and dark areas. As a result the overall
impression of the image improves considerably.
Changes can be made to the entire image or to a
part of the image depending on the colors
selected for correction.

The plug-in version of Enhancer includes
Enhancer, Focus, and Smart Correction modes. It
supports Photoshop batch processing that can
apply the same settings to a series of images.
The plug-in version is compatible with Adobe
Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Corel Paint Shop
Pro Photo, Photo-Paint, PhotoImpact, etc.

Akvis Enhancer 10 users can upgrade to version 11
for free. Upgrades for registered users of
earlier versions can upgrade for US$29. Akvis
Enhancer runs on Mac OS X 10.4 and higher. The
Akvis Enhancer Plugin sells for $69, and Enhancer
Standalone with HDRI support sells for $81. The
program also comes bundled with AKVIS Noise
Buster (noise reduction software) with a discount
of $35.