BackscatterXTerminator

[CaolIla]

Incredible result

[Loïc35]

It seems that $179.95 is the introductory price (Dema) valid until November 29th.

[waterpixel]

I have seen it in beta, and now purchased it. Very happy with it so far.

I noticed today that several pictures still had a lot of backscatter, but I realised quickly that it was my monitor which was dirty and dusty.. 😅

[makar0n]

On 11/26/2024 at 6:29 AM, Fabian said:

What do you guys think about the pricing?Looking at the price: might be fair from a time saving perspective, but comparing it to star removal plug-ins for astrophotography, I feel it's a bit of overcharging.

Haven't tried it yet (probably next weekend), and still need to figure out how to implement it in my workflow. I use capture one to edit and organize my pictures, only export lower resolution pictures to my NAS to have them available on my phone. I only open photoshop for object removal/serious work on backscatter removal for pictures I want to have in high res for printing/selling... if that would be a capture one plug-in... 

 

its the usual:

-piece of string - 1 Euro

-the same piece of string but labeled "diving" - 5 Euro

-the same piece of string labeled "diving and camera" - 50 Euro

 

And the plugin falls into the last category.

 

I wish they offered support for other software, including open source Dark Table, rather than just the Adobe "let me force you into never ending subscriptions" Photoshop. But one can dream 🤣

[Floris Bennema]

On 11/26/2024 at 6:29 AM, Fabian said:

What do you guys think about the pricing?Looking at the price: might be fair from a time saving perspective, but comparing it to star removal plug-ins for astrophotography, I feel it's a bit of overcharging.

 

And that's not all, as Loic35 said "It seems that $179.95 is the introductory price (Dema) valid until November 29th.

 

I think it's to high for a plugin, it stopped me from buying. From now on I have a new challenge, flash with perfect strobe positions to be able to compete.

 

Edited November 27 by Floris Bennema

[Fabian]

I'm glad I'm not the only one with this impression of the pricing. I'd certainly be willing to pay for it*, but yeah, the effort went in during the astro photography plugin development, they now probably trained the same AI with a different set of pictures. So I'd be willing to pay the same as for the astro plugins.
*if it works with my older PS version, going to try this

[RomiK]

A note to all naysayers from a former owner of a software company (sold it and well) - things cost money. These money can be recovered only through sales. You thinking UW photography market is big? Look at subscriptions of UW market on YT for example. How many channels dedicated to UW photography ratings are there? How many Nauticam housings you think are being sold every year? I am grateful that someone got the balls and spent hundreds of some man-hours to tweak what caters probably many multiples sized market (astrophotography) for our needs... just think about it.

[humu9679]

7 hours ago, RomiK said:

A note to all naysayers from a former owner of a software company (sold it and well) - things cost money. These money can be recovered only through sales. You thinking UW photography market is big? Look at subscriptions of UW market on YT for example. How many channels dedicated to UW photography ratings are there? How many Nauticam housings you think are being sold every year? I am grateful that someone got the balls and spent hundreds of some man-hours to tweak what caters probably many multiples sized market (astrophotography) for our needs... just think about it.

There’s a market for this. I’m buying. 

[RVBldr]

Software isn't cheap to build and costs need to be recovered somewhere along the value chain. People don't like Adobe's subscription for the Photo Package, but for about $10 USD/month, I get updates regularly and a solid bit of software. I need to pull down the Backscatter Xterminater package for a demo. I've continuously provided the same feedback to Adobe, but the capability hasn't progressed with them. After 14 years with Microsoft, customer inputs take a lot of time to make their way into the software product cycle, to supporting the small developers will usually provide new features way faster then the monoliths at some minor risk. 

[hellhole]

for those that complain about the price... 

 

go make your own... if they can do it... u can too right....

😁

[Davide DB]

Guys, let's try not to be so polarized. We are not on Facebook 😄

 

Everyone can make his own judgment. Besides, we are not 7 billion Tom Hanks in Cast Away. We are a society. I am a sw engineer. Should I be willing to pay any amount of money for a steak because I don't know how to be a butcher? Come on...

 

Maybe before I stop diving, someone will come out with a similar plugin for video. A dream.

 

 

[Ido]

Ok. I could'nt  wait - So I took an old random pic with backscatter. Here are the results. 

Bare in mind that this is an automated process, So I could not control any parameter. I didnt not perform any editing work on the pic - besides the backscatter removal.  

 

[humu9679]

12 hours ago, Davide DB said:

Guys, let's try not to be so polarized. We are not on Facebook 😄

 

Everyone can make his own judgment. Besides, we are not 7 billion Tom Hanks in Cast Away. We are a society. I am a sw engineer. Should I be willing to pay any amount of money for a steak because I don't know how to be a butcher? Come on...

 

Maybe before I stop diving, someone will come out with a similar plugin for video. A dream.

 

 

 

I hope I didn't come across as angry, and the other commenters didn't come across to me as angry. Far from it. This has been an good back and forth on the pros and cons of this new software in my opinion.

[Davide DB]

3 hours ago, humu9679 said:

 

I hope I didn't come across as angry, and the other commenters didn't come across to me as angry. Far from it. This has been an good back and forth on the pros and cons of this new software in my opinion.

 

Absolutely not 🍻

In the end it is the market that decides.

From the feedback I see around I think it will sell a lot of licenses. In the Blackwater scene they cry tears of joy 😹 

[hellhole]

Hm... I wonder if there will be any effects on uw photo competition... Will the judge see less of a pix if this level of Photoshop is applied?

[Dave_Hicks]

1 hour ago, hellhole said:

Hm... I wonder if there will be any effects on uw photo competition... Will the judge see less of a pix if this level of Photoshop is applied?

Most contests look at raw photos and will specify the degree of edits allowed.

 

This is just a labor saving tool, there is nothing in this that can't be done with existing post processing tools like Photoshop.

 

So i don't see anything new changing in competitions.

Edited November 30 by Dave_Hicks

[fruehaufsteher2]

If anybody has any idea whether the plugin can be used without PS…. I would be happy. But I don‘t think so… 

[Dave_Hicks]

8 minutes ago, fruehaufsteher2 said:

If anybody has any idea whether the plugin can be used without PS…. I would be happy. But I don‘t think so… 

Just download StarNet++. You can run it from the command line or a simple Gui applet. It's about 80% as good as this app, but free. But honestly, you need to use these tools with a app that supports masking and layers. Fortunately they are plenty of non Photoshop solutions for that too.

[fruehaufsteher2]

Oh perfect! I’ll try as soon as I am back home. Maybe I have to come back to you if that’s too complicated for me… 

thank you! 

[Davide DB]

14 hours ago, fruehaufsteher2 said:

If anybody has any idea whether the plugin can be used without PS…. I would be happy. But I don‘t think so… 

 

A friend of mine bought it and he use it as plugin into PS He sent me a couple of photos never edited of a dive we made on the wreck of a JU 52 WWII airplane near Capri Island.

 

Photo credits: Marco Bartolomucci

 

 

 

 

 

[fruehaufsteher2]

21 hours ago, Dave_Hicks said:

Just download StarNet++.

Already read the tutorials. Seems to be the same as the Xterminator but less comfortable. Very valuable! 

[humu9679]

On 11/29/2024 at 7:04 PM, fruehaufsteher2 said:

If anybody has any idea whether the plugin can be used without PS…. I would be happy. But I don‘t think so… 

I believe you can use this with Affinity.

[RomiK]

13 hours ago, Davide DB said:

 

A friend of mine bought it and he use it as plugin into PS He sent me a couple of photos never edited of a dive we made on the wreck of a JU 52 WWII airplane near Capri Island.

 

Photo credits: Marco Bartolomucci

 

 

 

 

 

I too believe this tool will breath second life into many previously "not worth the effort" or "impossible to clean" images... as well as PS AI powered denoise and other tools do

[Pooley]

I got a couple of family members to chip in to get this for a Christmas present - and downloaded it early obviously. Picked a shot where I got pretty much everything wrong, but as an example and my first go with the software I am pretty impressed 

 

No other editing done so not supposed to be the final product, but a fantastic starting point in my opinion. I'm pretty proficient with photoshop, but doubt I could have done this so well manually - at least not within 30 minutes!

 

Mike  

Edited December 7 by Pooley

[Proteus]

I wish it cost less, but I always wish for less cost 🙂 ...

 

But I bought the product and am very happy.  It really works to save photos that (otherwise) would take hours of editing.  I'm sure I'll be saving photos that would otherwise be trash.

 

I REALLY wish I could use plug-ins directly in LightRoom but I know there is some-or-another LightRoom limitation preventing that.  It's something that I wish Adobe would add as a feature.

 

OH well ... Gary