Is Ken Rockwell high?

[photogdave]

So I saw this link to a Polaroid dust/scratch removal plug-in for photoshop on kenrockwell.com.
He really raved about it and his sample seemed to show it doing a really good job. So I downloaded it and tried it.
It takes FOREVER to render on my G5 1.8. I'm trying all kinds of different settings to find a good combo that doesn't blur the whole image too much but it's taking ALL NIGHT!
Does anyone with a faster computer want to give this a whirl if this type of thing interests you? Ken's example was on a landscape shot and I'm trying this on a portrait but haven't found an acceptable combo yet.
If anyone wants to try this out I would be very interested in your results.
Cheers!

 

[Stephanie Brim]

I have a dual G4 at 1.25 GHz each and I doubt I'd fare any better than you. I also have 768 megs of good RAM in this machine...but that probably doesn't mean anything anymore, either.

 

[photogdave]

I have a gig of RAM and it's still real slow with this plug-in.:bang:
Strangely, this set-up renders Final Cut transitions and such quite fast!
Dual G4 is a sweet set-up! You can still use SCSI devices. 😎

 

[Stephanie Brim]

Yeah, but I don't need a 10.000 RPM HDD. 😉

I'm going to bump this machine up to 1.5 gigs soon...I'm tired of Photoshop slowness. It's also about that time...the time to clear out what I don't use and burn things to CD that I use occasionally, burn my photo scans to CD, and do a general reinstall of everything. Woop-de-doo. 😀

 

[ghost]

lots of good old film scanners use scsi. 😀

 

[RObert Budding]

Don't assume that Rockwell has used something just because he's reviewed it!

 

[jano]

Isn't that an old program, like from late 1990's and early 2000? That could be why it is slow, not designed for today's larger images.... I recall reading about it at least two years ago.

 

[jshelly]

That was one of the first thread titles that made me laugh

Thanks!

 

[arthury]

I consider Ken as an entertainer. I only go to his website for entertainment. Reading this articles without a grain of salt is like walking across the street with your eyes closed.

 

[rogue_designer]

Dual 2Ghz G5 with 2 gigs of ram.

This might be the slowest plug-in ever. And I'm not that happy with the results yet either.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

I tried it once; I thought it was ridiculously slow too. I have an AMD-64 3200 processor, 1.5 GB of RAM.

Can't go wrong with Neat Image.

 

[anabasis]

I try never to go to Ken's site. Hate to give him a hit for the drivel he posts. I always say I take anything Ken says with a pound of salt, make that a kilo if he is reviewing something he doesn't own.

JCA

 

[Socke]

I'm trying all kinds of different settings to find a good combo that doesn't blur the whole image too much but it's taking ALL NIGHT!
Does anyone with a faster computer want to give this a whirl if this type of thing interests you?

I use it regularly and it works well on my 2.2GHz, 1GB RAM Notebook and on my AMD 1400, 768MB RAM Desktop from the stoneage.

But I use the standalone version, not the PS Plugin. Much more controll over what is dust and what isn't.

 

[Bobbo]

I think I'll be nice and not say anything about Ken Rockwell. "If you can't say anything nice, don't say nothing at all."

Like the South Park episode where the president says Saddam Hussein has WMD's in Heaven where Satan sent him to live with Mormons after the two broke up. After the president explains the situation and a proposal to bomb Heaven, a member of the media at the press conference stands up after a long pause and says, "Are you high, or just incredibly stupid?" and the president says, "I assure you, I am not high."

I have another anecdote, but it isn't very nice, so I'll follow my own advice I think 🙂.

 

[kbg32]

Don't assume that Rockwell has used something just because he's reviewd it!

True. Ken admits that he personally doesn't "review" everything he says he does.

 

[photogdave]

I agree with all of you with regards to the correct mixture of salt and Rockwell for appropriate laughs. 😀
He's totally full of **** when it comes to photography ("Never shoot RAW", "Never buy third party lenses" etc.) but he's usually bang-on when it comes to computers, so this is disappointing.
Maybe I'll take Socke's advice and try the full version.
What's Neat Image? Is it free?

 

[dmr]

I've got this installed but I seldom use it. I just tried it and it did a 24 meg .tif file in about 27 seconds.

Of course it falsed and blotted out several street lights in the background in the process. That's why I seldom use it.