Any recommendation on Photoshop Plugins

[stubbsy]

There are lots of PS plugins out there both free and not. I've done some looking/playing and it occurred to me this must have been done by others.

So - Do you have any recommendations on useful plugins for photoshop. I don't mind paying if they're good (eg the Nik Color Efex 2 plugins seem mighty appealing, but they are US$200 or so for the full suite)

TIA

[Onyx]

VirtualPhotographer. Since introduced to me by JordanP, it has renewed my interest in the use of photoshop (I used to really hate using PS, now I hate it less!)

A great variety of preset and customisable effects and options - especially instant soft focus high key portraits. Along with the usual B&W, sepia, monotone tints, etc.

Grab the earlier version off Killakoala's site (IIRC http://www.SteveKilburn.com ).

Noise Ninja 2, the PS plug-in is in beta - but just recently having played with NC4.2 I think NN2 has just been made obsoletele in my workflow.

[sirhc55]

stubbsy - are you on a mac or PC?

If you are on a mac I can let you have stacks of stuff.

[stubbsy]

stubbsy - are you on a mac or PC?

If you are on a mac I can let you have stacks of stuff.

Chris
Unfortunately I'm on a PC (although by history I'm a mac person having started with Apple way back in 1979 my work has ended up forcing me into the PC camp)

Thanks for the offer.

Onyx

I dl'd Virtual Photographer a while back from their site, but haven't really played with it much. I'll have a good look over the weekend (after I've got home from the Sydney meet)

[Nnnnsic]

I use Eye Candy 4000 and Deep Paint 3D most out of the plugins I have, unless you call GF Print Pro a "plugin" (it is... but it's not for effects), in which case I use GF Print Pro more often than anything else.

[birddog114]

I use Eye Candy 4000 and Deep Paint 3D most out of the plugins I have, unless you call GF Print Pro a "plugin" (it is... but it's not for effects), in which case I use GF Print Pro more often than anything else.

Leigh,
Is GF = Girl Friend?

[Nnnnsic]

If I had a plugin that printed off Girlfriends for me, do you seriously think I'd be on this board as often as I am?

[birddog114]

If I had a plugin that printed off Girlfriends for me, do you seriously think I'd be on this board as often as I am?

That why I asked

[stubbsy]

nnnsic.

I've had EyeCandy 4000 since it was released and have been dl'ing the new updates released in the last few months as they've dribbled out. I've always thought of it as a graphic design rather than a photography program. Another one I need to go back & look at

[Nnnnsic]

It is more for graphic design, but some of the effects can be quite helpful.

There are also the Kai's Effects packages which do some neat things.

[stubbsy]

Reluctantly going off topic....

nnnsic - how is genuine Fractals useful?

[sirhc55]

Stubbsy - Genuine Fractals is basically the same as pxl SmartScale. It is very useful for enlarging images using complex algorithyms.

I have used both but prefer pxl

[Nnnnsic]

It gives you a larger image when you don't actually have it by use of fractal interpolation... in other words, it can essentially create a 9 or 12mp image out of a 6mp...

I've used pxl but I prefer GF.

[stubbsy]

sirhc55 nnnnsic

Thanks for the info and the divergent recommendations. Just finished reading a review on GF. Will try both out to see which works for me.

Now all I need is a pic worth printing bigger than A4

[sirhc55]

stubbsy - took a D70 shot and increased the size by 100% in both pxl and GF to give a 68Mb file. I then did a crop of the top left hand corner on both.

Genuine Fractals:



pxl SmartScale

[MattC]

Chris,
Are you able to show us a 100% crop of the original sized shot. This has got my curiosity peaked.

Cheers

Matt

[sirhc55]

Chris,
Are you able to show us a 100% crop of the original sized shot. This has got my curiosity peaked.

Cheers

Matt

Hi Matt

Made a mistake I thought I had cropped the top left but you will see from this that I did not.

100%

[MattC]

Thanks Chris,

I was actually after the same cropped area (not resized for web) as you used in your enlargement examples for comparison. My curiousity is how well these software packages deal with interpolation of pixels.

Cheers

Matt

[stubbsy]

Chris

Thanks for taking the time to create a sample. Very impressive. I've just installed GF to have a play. Then I'll try smart scale. Both are pretty impressive from your sample.

[sirhc55]

Thanks Chris,

I was actually after the same cropped area (not resized for web) as you used in your enlargement examples for comparison. My curiousity is how well these software packages deal with interpolation of pixels.

Cheers

Matt

I am having a bad day:

[MattC]

Chris,

Thanks for the time and effort on that one. Much appreciated.
Both packages seem to do a pretty decent job based on your example - not the same but first impressions says both are acceptable. Just finished downloading GF demo (limited to 10 images, so I will need to take care as to what images I use), so I will give it a bash myself.

Cheers

Matt