what plug-ins do you use?

[Pacificpowered]

Hello,

My name is Donald Kelly. I have been using Photoshop to retouch and edit photos for awhile now, but I have no experience using plug-ins.

I was wondering if anyone who retouches and edits could offer a list of their personal favorite plug-ins that they find useful to help get me started.

Thanks!

[frankxsi]

Nik
TopAz

[Pari Retouch]

Honestly, I use No Plugins

I mainly do high end retouching so using plugins is like cheating my clients so I never use it. I have seen that most of the good retouchers in the industry don't use plugins at all except plugins like Capture one.

[frankxsi]

using plugins is like cheating my clients

cheating would be if you have a contract or agreement to only use Photoshop for retouching.

pluging like Capture one

is not a plugging actually is a RAW converter

[Pacificpowered]

Originally Posted by frankxsi

Nik
TopAz

Are those plugins? I'm sorry.

[plugsnpixels]

Donald, the website below is dedicated to plug-ins and other digital imaging apps. Pretty much all the related info you need is there. nik and Topaz are both plug-in developers.

IMO the Topaz bundle is the best deal available for plug-ins, since you get so many (10) at a low cost and they can be used for both creative and corrective effects.

Those who don't use plug-ins are usually professionals with the Photoshop skills to do everything manually, but even then, some effects just can't be done without plug-ins (or the type of retouching they do doesn't require such). But most people don't have the chops or the time to do things the hard way, so for us there are plug-ins...!

[4personnen]

yes, sort of...

FFT plugin (is it a plug in?) for restorations.

Most of the instances in the Filters effect might be plug-ins for me (developped by third party companies and integrated to PS later on), so in that sense, yes, "liquify" ...

I tried some cut-out plugins but never found one that equal my manual skills, at least for the bulk I have (I'm testing Vertis at the moment) I think none of them worth the money they ask for. IMHO, of course.

HTH

[SEP Studios]

The only plug-in I've ever used professionally is Alien Skin Blow Up 2.0 for enlarging images. It's a fantastic plug-in, very expensive though. If you're doing large-format work like trade show booths it's invaluable.

It can't, unfortunately, take a low res image and magically make it high res. The starting image has to be of some decent quality.

Otherwise I'm old school, no plug-ins. I don't even like using layer effects because I can get more control building them manually.

Of course, if you're in a high volume production environment (catalogs, yearbook pictures, etc), you'll want to use anything that can improve your workflow.

Scott

SEP Studios Retouching
http://www.retoucher.net

[Flashtones]

For product retouching I like Topaz Detail and Topaz Denoise. I find they both work better than what I can get from PS alone.

I do similar retouching on-site without those products and feel my results are hampered.

[santoro80]

Whats the best plugin for noise reduction?

[frankxsi]

define 2
and topaz Denoise

[plugsnpixels]

onOne released their new Perfect Photo Suite 6 today. Discount available.

[Pacificpowered]

Originally Posted by Flashtones

For product retouching I like Topaz Detail and Topaz Denoise. I find they both work better than what I can get from PS alone.

I do similar retouching on-site without those products and feel my results are hampered.

Thanks. I'll check them out

[plugsnpixels]

Don't miss the discount on Topaz products if you choose that route.

[andrewrodney]

Originally Posted by santoro80

Whats the best plugin for noise reduction?

I’m a fan of Noiseware but to be honest, since the NR in Lightroom or ACR 6, I’m not using it anymore. I vastly prefer to handle this in the raw processing pipeline.

[plugsnpixels]

Adobe and the third-party developers keep trying to one-up each other! ;-)

[santoro80]

OnOne has some new retouching plugin. What do you think about it?

[frankxsi]

it is great but buggy as hell!! once they fix it it would be a fantastic tool

[santoro80]

Do you think its better than Portraiture?

[frankxsi]

have not fully tested the onone 6.0 due to the bugs but I love Portraiture

[plugsnpixels]

What bugs have you come across? I installed it yesterday (Mac version) and was able to get work done (see pic on main page, URL in sig). I worked with the newer titles. The "worst" thing I came across was that the effect preview pop-ups were touchy.

I had a personal demo of the suite at Photoshop World last month and think Perfect Portrait is on par with Portraiture (also listed on my site). I'll look more closely soon.

The folks at onOne have been in the plug-in business since the '90s (as Extensis) so they will sort out any problems ASAP.

[frankxsi]

Onone has the BEST customer service!!! and I know they will fix any problem in no time.

one of the bugs and the most serious is that i cant start the program from PSc5 as a stand alone it works not great but works

[plugsnpixels]

Please describe the problem further (which OS, etc.). I just tested and it seems to work fine.

[frankxsi]

thank you, im using windows 7 64bits the problem is when I have a picture loaded and the I chose one the plugging..it starts to load then stops in a black screen with some menus and it frozen there

[plugsnpixels]

OK, so you're not launching the standalone option but are accessing from within PS, yes? How much RAM do you have?

Try accessing the standalone options directly (look for the "Perfect Photo Suite 6" folder in your Applications folder). Quit other apps first just for fun.

[frankxsi]

8 Gb of ram dual core amd processor and a Nvidia gt430 video card
the stand alone works fine the problem is loading from adobe it gets stuck

[plugsnpixels]

That's weird. Bug around onOne's Support page and see if it helps.

[stormyboy]

I have a couple of questions about the new Onone suite:

Does it replace version 5.5 during installation or exist alongside of it?

Do the facial feature selections work like Potrait Professional (the eyes, nose, and mouth are roughly selected, but you have to fine tune things before applying adujstments), or are they a little more precise and automatic?

Thanks for any information,
Tom

[plugsnpixels]

6 replaces and deactivates 5.5.4.

Perfect Portrait launches and first finds faces, then finds features. A mask is created which is editable via the tools at left. I'm attaching a screenshot FYI.

I expect to spend more time getting up to speed with the new suite tomorrow.

[stormyboy]

Thanks for the quick reply!
Tom