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Your favorite "must have" plug-in


hjoseph7

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<p>Out of curiosity, there are allot of plugin software packages out there these days and trying to sift through them all to get to the good ones is not allways easy. Some are really good and some are ridicously cheazy. What I mean by "plugin", is software packages that can be added to the filter section of Photoshop and that behave as if they were part of PS.<br>

Right now "Neat Image", "Helicon software" and "Topaz labs" are the only plugins I use, but there are a tons of them out there. Some can tie your shoe-laces and even pour you a cup of coffee in the morning. I just wanted to get an idea of what is being used out there especially by the pros and highly skilled amateurs.</p>

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<p>I'd be curious to see what people come up with too. I have tried a number of them over the years and over many versions of PS, but none of them have earned a permanent place, although somewhere I have a little folder of a few that I keep handy "just in case"). I think almost all of them that are actually in my Plug-ins folder are from Adobe.</p>
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<p>I frequently run my photos through <strong>Virtual Photographer </strong>(optikVerve Labs), to convert it to monochrome and through simulated red, green, yellow, or orange filters. It also has effects for color images. It's the best and most useful freeware I've ever downloaded.<br />Another plug-in I use is<strong> Flamingpear.com's</strong> Aetherize, Melancholytron, Lacquer, and Swerve. These cost money, but fortunately come as package deals.</p>

<p>I hope someone comes up with some sort of A.I. software to remove dust and scratches post-scan (for b&w negs).</p>

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<p>Like most digital photographers I have a ton of 'em. Some are more useful than others. The only "must have" one I use all the time is Convert-to-BW Pro by the Imaging Factory (no longer in operation). It uses an approach to B&W conversion that is familiar to an old film guy like me. A ton of fine controls. Works in 16-bit. Best part is it's now free! I paid $100 for it years ago. Worth every penny. PC or Mac<br>

<a href="http://www.theimagingfactory.com/theimagingfactory/keys.html">http://www.theimagingfactory.com/theimagingfactory/keys.html</a></p>

<p>I second the recommend of Virtual Photographer. A barrel of fun and free too. A major time sink. Only PC and 8-bit though. </p>

<p> </p>

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<p>My contribution to this thread is what I want when it comes available. Earlier this year I bought a 64 bit computer and installed CS5 suite in 64 bit. Prior to these purchases, last year I inquired about two plugins that looked to be very usefull for my needs. Both are being rewritten for 64 bit now. The first is the older refocusing tool and other functions it contains and is called Optipix. The other is George deWolfe's Perceptool for black and white images.</p>

<p>I could have bought both as 32 bit plugins but made the decision to make the upgrade across the board. So now I wait, and sometime next year these plugins will be available as I want them. I just hope they were worth the wait.</p>

<p>CHEERS...Mathew</p>

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<p>Too easy - Noise Ninja. It's the sliced bread and microwave oven of photography. Still the quickest and most efficient NR utility I've tried. And it helps keep me satisfied - not to say thrilled - with my ancient D2H for taming high ISO noise. Noiseware comes close, is very similar to NN, and may even be slightly better technically, but I'm accustomed to NN.</p>

<p>Another good 'un was the PhotoTune 20/20 Color MD plug-in. Not the quickest to use for correcting batches, but the comparison type paradigm was very intuitive for me since I have some minor color perception problems that become painfully obvious when I try to edit photos of people to get healthy looking skin tones.</p>

<p>At one point I thought one of the many b&w conversion utilities would be my fave, but I invariably end up going back to doing it my way, using selective color channel controls for saturation, brightness, etc., on a photo-by-photo basis, which already came with my ancient copies of photo editing programs I still use. In particular I like to be able to control the green and red channels to suit each photo and none of the dedicated utilities or plug-ins does it any better. And none of the b&w film emulation utilities really resemble my results with Tri-X or other films.</p>

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<p>I use Color Efex Pro 3.0 with my NX2 software and love it.</p>

<p>Probably my biggest unmet need at the moment is for an NX2 plug-in to do borders and watermarking (ie image 'finishing') but nothing is currently available that integrates with the NX2 application. I've exchanged a few emails with Nik Software about it (and I must say they are very friendly and responsive and open to ideas so I was impressed).</p>

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<p>Imagenomic's Noiseware is my must have. I have portraiture but for the most part I found I do a better job through use of photoshops masking and filters. For black and white I have Nix SilverEfex, without it I have no idea how to process BW images to be completely honest. My photographic life has been based on color so I have never had the chance to learn proper photoshop for BW images~</p>
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<p>NeatImage and Focus Magic (for capture noise reduction and capture sharpening)<br>

PictoColor iCorrect EditLab (straightforward color correction and levels, most of the time)<br>

Nik Color Efex<br>

Pixel Vistas PhotoLift (local contrast enhancement, though the developer seems to be out of business)</p>

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<p>Nik Complete Collection for PS and LR, Topaz suite for PS. DxO for lens distortion correction, but as said above, LR and PS are getting better. I still think DxO is a more powerful tool for perspective distortion correction, and for volume anamorphosis correction, which LR/PS doesn't do.</p>
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