TIP: Non-plugin helpers for PS

[Doug Nelson]

Got a useful program to use with Photoshop, but it's not a plugin? No problem. Just add a shortcut (alias) to that program into the 'Helpers/Jump To Graphics Editor' subfolder. Then you can use the File menu to jump your image over to that app and then come back, just like PS jumps to Imageworks.

I've used this with Knockout and Streamline. I'm sure there's tons of other apps that could be used.

[cendres]

Thanks for the tip Doug...

I look forward to trying your recommendations, one question, I have used Knockout, but I had not heard of Streamline. Can you let me know what this is?

PS - If you have any tips on Knockout I would love to hear them,
despite having used it numerous times, I have a hard time getting good selections without needing a lot of clean up. It does capture blowing hair better than anything I have seen out there.

Take Care & thanks for hosting this website - Carl

[Doug Nelson]

Streamline is an old Adobe app for vectorizing raster files. It was powerful, but very unpredictable, and newer versions of Illustrator do this almost as well so they stopped updating it.

Knockout has a fine reputation, but since Adobe included 'extract' with PS6 I stopped using it. It's been over a year since I last used it, and I never did master it. My 'tip' would be to use extract, or upgrade to PS6 and then use extract

For things such as blowing hair I use extract on a duplicate layer then manual masking of the odd bits (but it really does a fine job on its own).

[thomasgeorge]

Doug, tried the shortcut tip and it works great!!! Now I can cram all kinds of neat things into Photoshop!!! (Until I crash it. ) Thanks Tom

[ljung37]

Masking with Corel Knockout

To Cendres

If you have the Knockout program, why not go to the Corel newsgroup.
Describe the work and the problems you have and
i'm sure you'll get feedback, even if you are using Photoshop.
As always, good result comes with experience. But if you have
very complicated pictures, you can't avoid some cleanup or
adjustment work afterwards.
Here is the adress:
news://cnews.corel.com/corel.graphic_apps.knockout

By the way, Corel is coming with a new Knockout
version 2.0 soon. But its a pretty expensive upgrade
i've heard.