must have plug-ins for cs3?

neastguyneastguy Registered Users Posts: 199 Major grins
edited February 1, 2008 in Finishing School
i'm new to this , but is there some must have plug ins that you guys can suggest that you cant live without? thanks.....

Comments

  • gchappelgchappel Registered Users Posts: 120 Major grins
    edited January 7, 2008
    neastguy wrote:
    i'm new to this , but is there some must have plug ins that you guys can suggest that you cant live without? thanks.....
    I'll jump in first. I have tried, and use, a BUNCH of plugins.
    Please understand I have yet to find a plugin that does something that I can't do manually myself in Photoshop. The plugin just does it easier and faster.
    Much faster. Not better- actually usually not quite as well- but much faster. When I was further down the learning curve these plugins seemed magical- but I just didn't know enough to do them myself.
    I still use several. I personally like nik define and sharpener. I like nik efex3, but actually use onone phototools. There is a pluging by image trends called pearlywhites that automatically whitens teeth- call me lazy but I use it. I batched over 300 pictures- and several people liked how white their teeth looked. It is not hard to do manually- but this automates it and I have it in an action, so it is easy ( I have the older version and you do have to dial it down a little- still in the action.) Most have free demos- try lots of them. They help you learn, they show you what can be done- and heck you may even buy a couple of them. I'll be interested in what others use as well
    Thanks
    Gary
  • neastguyneastguy Registered Users Posts: 199 Major grins
    edited January 7, 2008
    gchappel wrote:
    I'll jump in first. I have tried, and use, a BUNCH of plugins.
    Please understand I have yet to find a plugin that does something that I can't do manually myself in Photoshop. The plugin just does it easier and faster.
    Much faster. Not better- actually usually not quite as well- but much faster. When I was further down the learning curve these plugins seemed magical- but I just didn't know enough to do them myself.
    I still use several. I personally like nik define and sharpener. I like nik efex3, but actually use onone phototools. There is a pluging by image trends called pearlywhites that automatically whitens teeth- call me lazy but I use it. I batched over 300 pictures- and several people liked how white their teeth looked. It is not hard to do manually- but this automates it and I have it in an action, so it is easy ( I have the older version and you do have to dial it down a little- still in the action.) Most have free demos- try lots of them. They help you learn, they show you what can be done- and heck you may even buy a couple of them. I'll be interested in what others use as well
    Thanks

    thanks
    Gary

    thanks the teeth one sounds cool.... I downloaded the noiseware and that works great... thats what got me started on the plug in thingys... thanks.. again....
  • CAFieldsCAFields Registered Users Posts: 25 Big grins
    edited January 7, 2008
    PTLens 4 me
    neastguy wrote:
    i'm new to this , but is there some must have plug ins that you guys can suggest that you cant live without? thanks.....
    Can't live without PTLens, and it's a bargain for $15 IMHO.

    LINK to PTLens
  • Duffy PrattDuffy Pratt Registered Users Posts: 260 Major grins
    edited January 8, 2008
    Only one I can't do without is noise reduction software. I use Noiseware, but Neat Image and Noise Image also have great reputations. I've been thinking about getting Photokit's sharpener as well.

    Duffy
  • arodneyarodney Registered Users Posts: 2,005 Major grins
    edited January 8, 2008
    Only one I can't do without is noise reduction software. I use Noiseware, but Neat Image and Noise Image also have great reputations. I've been thinking about getting Photokit's sharpener as well.


    Noiseware is super awesome, I'd agree.
    Andrew Rodney
    Author "Color Management for Photographers"
    http://www.digitaldog.net/
  • kwcrowkwcrow Registered Users Posts: 132 Major grins
    edited January 8, 2008
    Curvemeister
    Four that I use constantly that are amazing

    1-Curvemeister is a fantastic Curves plug-in, if you do alot of curves. I can't live without it and am frustrated using CS3 curves. Simple things like
    a)histogram on curves graph.
    b)large gamut CMYK mode.
    c)Keep midpoint constant and increase color seperation without introducing color casts in LAB mode.
    d)pushpins for setting shadow, highlight and neutral points.
    e)Pushpins colors for common things like skin color, grass and trees.
    f)Easily lock down different colors in LAB mode. i.e. Lock down skin colors (yellow and magenta channels) on outdoor portraits and crank up the blue and green colors of nature by steepening their curves only.

    I wish CS3 would implements some of these ideas.
    Check it out at:http://www.curvemeister.com/

    "Dan margulis" recommends it in his book.

    2-Photomatix HDR software. You can get some amazing outdoor and landscape photos with this software and multiple exposures.
    http://www.hdrsoft.com/

    3-Noise reduction software (Neat Image, Noise Ninja and Noiseware are all good but each have there own advantages for different things) Neat image does well with images that have a large area of common color to sample. Noise Ninja takes many smaller samples to get it's noise information, thus doing better on images with no large area to sample. Noiseware does a better job with many pictures to process because it can be more easily automated in an action.

    4-Portraiture is also a fast batchable way to get good skin smoothing if you are a portrait photographer.
    http://www.imagenomic.com/pt.aspx
  • gman33gman33 Registered Users Posts: 279 Major grins
    edited January 31, 2008
    http://www.optikvervelabs.com/

    Great software and it is free...use it alot
    Ed G - Philadelphia, PA
    http://ergphoto.smugmug.com
  • canon400dcanon400d Banned Posts: 2,826 Major grins
    edited January 31, 2008
    gchappel wrote:
    I'll jump in first. I have tried, and use, a BUNCH of plugins.
    Please understand I have yet to find a plugin that does something that I can't do manually myself in Photoshop. The plugin just does it easier and faster.
    Much faster. Not better- actually usually not quite as well- but much faster. When I was further down the learning curve these plugins seemed magical- but I just didn't know enough to do them myself.
    I still use several. I personally like nik define and sharpener. I like nik efex3, but actually use onone phototools. There is a pluging by image trends called pearlywhites that automatically whitens teeth- call me lazy but I use it. I batched over 300 pictures- and several people liked how white their teeth looked. It is not hard to do manually- but this automates it and I have it in an action, so it is easy ( I have the older version and you do have to dial it down a little- still in the action.) Most have free demos- try lots of them. They help you learn, they show you what can be done- and heck you may even buy a couple of them. I'll be interested in what others use as well
    Thanks
    Gary

    Hi Gary,
    I have downloaded the free trial of Image Trends of Pearlywhites. How do I go about using this on portraits on CS3.
    Kind regards

    Bob
  • arodneyarodney Registered Users Posts: 2,005 Major grins
    edited February 1, 2008
    kwcrow wrote:
    a)histogram on curves graph.

    There is a histogram on curves in CS3.
    b)large gamut CMYK mode.

    What's that mean? CMYK is an output color space
    I wish CS3 would implements some of these ideas.

    If you or anyone else can write up WHY to the Photoshop team, in such a way that they would feel its useful to the broad market, it might happen. There is a feature request area on Adobe's site and the engineers do read the posts. Problem is, most users don't know how to properly ask and explain why the requests would be useful.
    Andrew Rodney
    Author "Color Management for Photographers"
    http://www.digitaldog.net/
  • Duffy PrattDuffy Pratt Registered Users Posts: 260 Major grins
    edited February 1, 2008
    People use CMYK all the time in their work, for example, to extract the K channel and do a number of things with it. If you create a wide gamut CMYK, you can get a four channel space which, on conversion, does not lose data as a result of clipping. The data loss, thus, is confined to rounding errors that occur with any conversion from one space to another. In this context, a wide gamut CMYK is not an output space, but a working space -- at least in the sense that people would only use it temporarily to do work.

    I haven't used Curvemeister, so I don't know the mechanics of their different color space modes. For all I know, they may not even involve a conversion. If that were so, then the wide gamut CMYK mode would provide a way to write a curve on a "K channel", e.g., without actually having to ever having to do the color space conversion. I guess that would be like using a Hue or Saturation adjustment in an RGB space in PS. You don't have to convert to that color space to get an approximation of the effect that you are looking for.

    Duffy
  • JimWJimW Registered Users Posts: 333 Major grins
    edited February 1, 2008
    I use Noiseware and I also like Photokit from Pixel Genious, which I have found very useful when I'm in a hurry, which is often.

    I don't want the cheese, I just want to get out of the trap.


    http://www.jimwhitakerphotography.com/
  • arodneyarodney Registered Users Posts: 2,005 Major grins
    edited February 1, 2008
    People use CMYK all the time in their work, for example, to extract the K channel and do a number of things with it. If you create a wide gamut CMYK, you can get a four channel space which, on conversion, does not lose data as a result of clipping.

    Let's try this again. the CMYK color model is by its design an output referred color space based on a particular printer, substrate etc. If you're treating CMYK like an RGB working space, you are fooling yourself. There's no such thing as a "wide gamut" CMYK space per say. There are devices that have wider and narrower gamuts due to the inks, colorants etc.

    Think about WHY we use K in CMYK and I think you'll see, you're looking at a very specific type of color model using K due to impurities of CMY inks (specific CMY inks).
    In this context, a wide gamut CMYK is not an output space, but a working space --

    No, its not. You (or Dan or someone) is using the term working space incorrectly! A working space is an editing space not based on any output device. All RGB working space are theoretical spaces, Quasi-Device Independent if you will. They are defined using three simple mathematical targets. All CMYK output spaces are solely device dependent. Based on a specific device. Adobe, the ICC, and just about anyone else who understands the role of color management would not use a CMYK space as being described. Its like the term "false profile" or "impossible" color. There's no such thing (but that doesn't stop people from making up terms and unfortunately, others latching onto them as if they are real).

    As the Chinese proverb says: The first step towards genius is calling things by their proper name.
    Andrew Rodney
    Author "Color Management for Photographers"
    http://www.digitaldog.net/
  • Ric GrupeRic Grupe Registered Users Posts: 9,522 Major grins
    edited February 1, 2008
    arodney wrote:
    As the Chinese proverb says: The first step towards genius is calling things by their proper name.

    nomenclature deal.gif
  • bhambham Registered Users Posts: 1,303 Major grins
    edited February 1, 2008
    2 plugins I use alot are nik Color efex, mainly for a good bw conversion, that then I can batch, and genuine fractals. I have older versions that I have had since photoshop 7.
    "A photo is like a hamburger. You can get one from McDonalds for $1, one from Chili's for $5, or one from Ruth's Chris for $15. You usually get what you pay for, but don't expect a Ruth's Chris burger at a McDonalds price, if you want that, go cook it yourself." - me
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