Plugins for Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom, PSP & others
Plugins for Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom, PSP & others
Plugin Newsletter - August 2011
CONTENTS
THE PLUGIN SITE UPDATES: Plugins Essentials article
POLL RESULTS: Do you use Photoshop plugins
less or more often than in the past? Do you use more or less Photoshop
plugins than in the past? Do you invest more or less money on Photoshop
plugins than in the past?
NEW POLLS: Which of the
following applications do you use for processing photos?
THE DISCUSSION FORUMS: Best
Animation, PSP X Plugin Problem, EyeCandy and MuraMeister Trouble
FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS: PixelSampler,
PostworkShop 2 Basic, Paint.NET, Microsoft Camera Codec Pack, Raw Photo
Processor, Avidemux
GRAPHICS NEWS: Graphics.com Sweepstakes, Artistic Halftone, Snap Art 3
Dear Reader,
Lately there were two public issues concerning image retouching and photography. First of all, two ads for cosmetic products were banned in the UK, one of them showing a too perfectly retouched Julia Roberts. I guess if companies were forced to show realistic pictures of the effects of their cosmetic products, they would either not advertise or not show any images of people in their ads. So instead of banning, maybe it would be better to make them print the following text "This ad was retouched with Photoshop. The retouching intensity corresponds to a 85% Gaussian blur.".
Secondly, photographer David LaChapelle was given the green light to sue Rihanna, because scenes in her music video "S&M" resemble some of his photos. The video was clearly inspired by the photos, although there are also quite a lot of differences. The question will be if LaChapelle's work is really genuine enough to justifies a compensation.
For more information see Discovery.com,
Dailymail.co.uk
and Dpreview.com.
Sincerely Yours,
Harald Heim
NOISECONTROL FOR MACOS X
The Mac version of our latest NoiseControl plugin was just released. It contains all features of Version 1.01 for Windows.
NoiseControl effectively removes image noise while preserving essential details and the photographic quality of the image. It offers sharpening, saturation and grain features for enhancing the image after denoising. You can also apply denoising with extreme settings to create painting-like effects.
NoiseControl removes image noise while keeping image edges and details intact and at the same time applies sophisticated sharpening without amplifying noise. It automatically calculates effective denoising settings by measuring noise or evaluating EXIF data. It also enables you to visually compare and select denoising parameters as well as apply different denoising to shadows, midtones, highlights and nine color areas.
For more information and for downloading a demo version
visit
The
NoiseControl product page
THE PLUGIN SITE UPDATES
Plugins Essentials article
The Plugins Essentials article contains new chapters called "Using
Photoshop Plugins with Adobe Lightroom" and "Moving your Plugins
to a New Computer". The PSP X3 SP3 16-bit/channel issue is now mentioned
in chapter 15.
Please read the article here:
Plugins
Essentials
POLL RESULTS
Do you use Photoshop plugins less or more often than in the past? Do you use more or less Photoshop plugins than in the past? Do you invest more or less money on Photoshop plugins than in the past?
Here are the results of the three latest polls:
Do you use Photoshop plugins less or more often
than in the past? (160 voters)
1. I use Photoshop plugins more often now. 46%
2. I use Photoshop plugins just as often as in the past. 33%
3. I use Photoshop plugins less often now. 21%
Do you use more or less Photoshop plugins than
in the past? (115 voters)
1. I use more Photoshop plugins now. 44%
2. I use just as many Photoshop plugins now as in the past. 29%
3. I use less Photoshop plugins now. 27%
Do you invest more or less money on Photoshop plugins
than in the past? (143 voters)
1. I invest less money on Photoshop plugins now. 42%
2. I invest more money on Photoshop plugins now. 34%
3. I invest just as much for Photoshop plugins now as in the past. 24%
46% of all voters use more Photoshop plugins and use
them more often than in the past. On the other hand 42% invest less money
in plugins, which may indicate that they are satisfied with the plugin
they already own. On the other hand
1/4 up to 1/3 of the voters have not changed their behavior concerning
plugins. Only approx. 1/4 of all voters use less plugins and less often
than in the past. All in all, these are quite stable numbers, which indicate
that Photoshop plugins are still a popular means for image processing.
For more poll results please visit the
Resources section
NEW POLLS
Which application(s) do you use for processing photos?
In this poll we present various types of image editing
tools, which scored high in old polls, and ask you to name the applications
that you use for processing photos. You can choose between 19 software
products and an "Other" item.
THE DISCUSSION FORUMS
Best Animation, PSP X Plugin Problem, EyeCandy and MuraMeister Trouble
Here are the latest posts on The Plugin Site Forum:
Best Animation
kismeera wrote: "What is the absolute best animation you've
ever seen, whether it's a movie, cartoon, or just a scene? I don't mean
story wise, I mean the actual animation. And I don't mean beautiful illustrative
quality with little movements, but actual beautiful animation..."
Read
More...
PSP X Plugin Problem
katiebuglove wrote: "Every time I open an image in PSP X,
promote to background layer, and try to apply a filter, the link in the
Effects menu is greyed out. I have to go into File Locations, delete the
location and re-add it. Then I can use my plugins until I close PSP. When
I reopen the program I have to do this all over again."
Read
More...
EyeCandy and MuraMeister Trouble
haseenaforever wrote: "I have PSP X3 and windows vista..I
have not had any problems with any of my plugins until a couple weeks
ago..Now when I go and try to use EyeCandy 4000 I am getting a message
that says plugin needs a selected area or transparency...Never said this
before... Tonight I was trying to use Mura Meister copies(Wallpaper) and
same thing...there is black around my image and it shows that it is copying
(Wallpapering) but when I apply it...it only makes the image black and
does not copy (wallpaper setting) it. Finding it very frustrating to do
my fav hobby...lol"
Read
More...
Please feel free to post suggestions or start a discussion
topic at
The Plugin Site Forum
FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS
PixelSampler, PostworkShop 2 Basic,
Paint.NET, Microsoft Camera Codec Pack, Raw Photo Processor, Avidemux
PixelSampler is a standalone
program as well as a Photoshop plugin (for Windows) consisting of seven
filters. PixelSampler applies nine photo effects called Black and White,
Contrasting Levels, Duotone, Starlight, Starpoint, Grain, Monotone, Tonal
Streak and Warm Cool. Most of the effects are rather simple, but useful.
With the help of an eraser tool you can also remove the effect from certain
image areas.
Visit website...
PostworkShop 2 Basic Edition
(for Win/Mac) is a tool for turning images into paintings with the help
of 50 artistic styles. The maximum rendering size is limited to 800x800
pixel.
Please notice that the Basic Edition is
actually not free as written on their web site. You need to enter a coupon
code on the order page and pay 1 cent. There are also two commercial editions
of PostworkShop, one of them featuring a Photoshop plugin. The free demo
version contains all features, but applies a watermark and does not let
you save styles.
Visit
website...
Paint.NET is a free image editing application
(for Windows), which is easy to use and contains most necessary features
like layers, brush and filters. There are hundreds of plugins available
for it that let you enhance its functionality. One of these plugins is
called PSFilterPdn and allows Paint.NET to apply Photoshop plugins.
Download Paint.NET
Download
PSFilterPdn and unzip it into the Effects sub folder of the Paint.NET
folder.
The Microsoft Camera Codec Pack (for Windows
7 and Vista SP2) allows viewing camera RAW files directly in Windows Explorer
and in Window Live Photo Gallery.
Visit
website...
Raw Photo Processor
is a Raw converter (for Mac) supporting almost all Raw photo formats.
There is no interactive preview, but it features a lot of adjustment options
and claims to provide superior conversion quality. It also offers Lightroom
and Photoshop integration.
Visit
website...
Avidemux is a free video editor (for Win/Mac/Linux)
for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks. It supports a large
variety of video codecs. Tasks can be automated using projects, job queue
and scripting capabilities. It lets you convert between video formats
and also cut video files without recompression.
Visit
website...
For more free plugins and tool, please visit the
Resources section
GRAPHICS NEWS
Graphics.com Sweepstakes, Artistic Halftone, Snap Art
3
The July Graphics.com Sweepstakes
offer our ContrastMaster plugin (for Win/Mac) as a prize. All you need
to do is to visit their Facebook page and click the Like button.
Visit
website...
Pixeology Artistic Halftone is a set of Photoshop
plugins (for Win/Mac). The Stipple plugin creates stippling artwork, the
Stochasitc Halftone plugin produces stochastic halftone screens and the
Anyscreen plugins lets you use a graphic of your own as the halftone shape.
All filters only have one slider, but can be influenced by an alpha channel.
Visit
website...
Alienskin Snap Art 3 (for Win/Mac) turns photos
into works of art that appear to be made by hand. It is available as a
plugin for Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and Photoshop Lightroom.
It offers new and enhanced effects, a unified and improved UI and a detail
mask for emphasizing image areas.
Visit website...
