The first thing I learned when I set out to try AKVIS Alchemy is that it is not a plugin. Alchemy is a bundle of of 13 plugins, (also available as standalone software tools) encompassing AKVIS Software's entire product offering.

• Retoucher for removing dust, scratches, creases, and other flaws from old photos.
• Chameleon, a tool to produce creative photo collages.
• MultiBrush to retouch and enhance photos.
• Enhancer to improve sharpness, exposure, and detail in photos.
• Coloriage for adding color to black and white or undersaturated pictures.
• Noise Buster, a noise reduction tool.
• Sketch, which converts photos into pencil sketches.
• Decorator, for adding texture to objects.
• LightShop, a set of lightning and laser effects.
• ArtSuite, artistic frames and effects.
• SmartMask for streamlining the masking process.
• Magnifier to increase image size.
• ArtWork for creating painting-like images from photos.

Clearly, this suite covers a wide array of image editing options, and while I haven't been able to dig into all of the features I have been pleased with what I've tried. My experience has mostly been with three elements of the bundle: SmartMask, Magnifier, and Sketch.

Installation of the plugins in the Alchemy bundle was very straight-forward, and presented no problems. The tools all had similar interfaces which were easy to use and understand.

Sketch tackles a very specific task, generating pencil or charcoal sketches from photographs, and does it quite well. While the interface provides several sliders for fine-tuning your new masterpiece, I found that it was difficult not to get a decent result, even without reading any documentation.

Magnifier was also easy to use, with an interface similar to that of Sketch. The results, however, I found to be less impressive. Perhaps my eye was not keen enough, but I didn't notice a striking difference from what is offered in Photoshop's "Image Size" function.

AKVIS SmartMask, which does not have a standalone version, presents an alternative method to creating masks in Photoshop. To create a mask using SmartMask, you simply draw a blue line inside the edges of the object you want to remain, and then draw a red line outside the edge. SmartMask then uses those hints to determine how to mask the edge of the object. I found that those simple steps were enough to generate usable masks for simple objects, but SmartMask also provides a set of tools for refining the mask and handling difficult to mask areas like hair. One note: the SmartMask plugin would only work for me in the 32-bit version of Photoshop.

AKVIS Sofware's tools, available in bundles or induvidually are available on their website at www.akvis.com.