Plugins for Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom, PSP & others
Plugins for Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom, PSP & others
Plugin Newsletter - May/June 2020
CONTENTS
LAYERSHOP (LAYERSXXL) 2.0 FOR WINDOWS:
130 new features, Enhanced UI, Photoshop Support
ELEMENTSXXL 7.03 FOR WINDOWS: Support for LayerShop, Speed improvements
METARAW 3.08 FOR WIN/MAC: Support for New Camera Models and DNG Converter 12.2.1
POLL RESULTS: Do you use Photoshop-compatible plugins more or less often than in the past?
NEW POLL: What do you do with Photoshop (Elements)?
THE PLUGIN SITE FORUM: Fixed and reopened
FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS: Penta Plugins, Parametric Curves, Transform Each, Font Awesome
GRAPHICS NEWS: Nik Collection 3, set.a.light 3D
Dear Reader,
In recent months we worked on version 2 of LayersXXL. As many of the new (and some old) features are also useful in Photoshop we decided to make it support Photoshop too. Our other products with "XXL" in the name only work in Photoshop Elements, so the name "LayersXXL" had to be changed to "LayerShop". This means that 4 of the 7 products of the Elemental Bundle now also work with Photoshop.
Next we will be working on version 8 of ElementsXXL. Although it may seem harder to come up with new features every year, there is still plenty of stuff on the to-do list that can be added or enhanced. As usual there is by no means a lack of ideas. There is only a lack of time to implement them. As usual we will do a survey to make sure that only the features that most ElementsXXL users want to have are added.
This year The Plugin Site will be 20 years old. It started early 2000, but only at the end of 2000 it became fully active. Thanks for all the support, bug reports and comments that we received from countless people in the last 20 years! Highly appreciated! We love you, guys!
Kind regards,
Harald Heim
LAYERSHOP (LAYERSXXL) 2.0 FOR WINDOWS
130 new features, Enhanced UI, Photoshop Support
Photo Credits: Gerd Dollhopf & ffotograff65/pixmac
LayerShop 2.0 (previously called LayersXXL) offers 130 new features and now additionally works in Photoshop. In addition to a greatly enhanced UI and usability, it offers new stack modes, detail/object removal, SuperResolution, denoising, underexposure fixing and fade/blend features. Two new panels make most features quickly accessible. The new "Place Documents as Layers" feature makes turning multiple images into layers a breathe. Additionally most of the old features were enhanced.
LayerShop offers up to 300 photo and design features for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements for Windows. It provides tools for performing the many image enhancement tasks with multiple image files, like HDR, denoising or panorama creation, and offers layer composition and layer style features. LayerShop upgrades Photoshop Elements with features of Photoshop and but also adds many new features to Photoshop.
For more information visit the
LayerShop Page
ELEMENTSXXL 7.03 FOR WINDOWS
Support for LayerShop, Speed improvements
Photo Credits: Opolja & Chunhahca/Dreamstime
Version 7.03 fixes some compatibility issue with LayerShop. We recommend upgrading for the best experience of using ElementsXXL and LayerShop together. The new ElementsXXL release makes Auto-Align Layers, Auto-Blend Layers and Simplify Layer works faster with multiple layers. Besides a small UI enhancement a bug was fixed that caused a crash in rare circumstances.
ElementsXXL adds up to 1300 powerful features to Photoshop Elements for Windows that were previously only available in Photoshop. These features are included as 320 new menu items, 80 dialogs, 40 icons, 30 key shortcuts, 8 panels and 3 drop-down buttons. ElementsXXL greatly enhances the image editing experience in Photoshop Elements.
For more information and a trial version visit the
ElementsXXL Page
METARAW 3.08 FOR WIN/MAC
Support for New Camera Models and DNG Converter 12.2.1
MetaRaw 3.08 supports DNG Converter 12.2.1. The built-in MetaRaw Converter works with 20 new camera models. It correctly crops certain raw files and renders better colors for the raw files of various new cameras.
MetaRaw extends the functionality of the Adobe Camera Raw plugin in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. It lets you open camera raw files with Adobe Camera Raw, which are normally not supported by it, and allows applying Adobe Camera Raw to image layers.
For more information and a trial version visit the
MetaRaw Page
POLL RESULTS
Do you use Photoshop-compatible plugins more or less often than in the past?
Here are the results of the previous poll about patterns of plugin usage:
1. I use them as often as before. 38%
I use plugins more often than in the past. 38%
2. I do not use plugins that often anymore. 21%
3. I never used plugins. 3%
So 76% of our readers and web site visitors use Photoshop plugins as often as before or even more frequently than in the past. 21% reduced plugin usage and 3% have never used them. So it seems that Photoshop-compatible plugins are still a useful tool for image editing tasks, even if a lot of photographers have switched to Lightroom as their main tool in recent years. As Ron C commented below the poll: "... there are so many good plugins providing so many capabilities along with time-savings."
For more poll results visit the
Resources section
NEW POLL
What do you do with Photoshop (Elements)?
The new poll asks you about the tasks you perform in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. You can choose between Photo enhancement, General image editing, Graphics design, Web design, App design, Video editing, 3D graphics, Scientific usage, Printing and an "Other" category.
You are welcome to participate in this poll by voting at
Main page...
THE PLUGIN SITE FORUM
Fixed and reopened
The forum on our website was not working correctly for some time. It is now updated and easy to use again. Nevertheless we disabled registrations to avoid that it is spamed. All 1000 users that ever posted something can still login and post. If you do not have a login and want to post something, please contact us. Otherwise the forum is in read-only mode for the near future.
Check out the forum at
The Plugin Site Forum...
FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS
Penta Plugins, Parametric Curves, Transform Each, Font Awesome
Pentacom created some popular Filter Factory plugins back in 1998. Now they offer enhanced and 64-bit versions of their Photoshop plugins (for Win/Mac). ToyCamera produces some nostalgic paper camera effects. VTR Filter 2 creates interlace and displacement effects. The Rounded Corner plugin adds rounded rectangle frames. Garbage Collections produces artifact-style effects and colorDot places a dot pattern over images. There are also various other tools for download on the same page.
Visit
website...
Parametric Curves is a Photoshop script (for Win/Mac) that lets you create curves effects with mathematic formulas. It adds the result as a Curves adjustment layer. This can be used to create gradients, displacement maps or depth maps.
Visit website...
Transform Each (for Win/Mac) is a Photoshop script that lets you scale and rotate multiple selected layers.
Visit website...
The Font Awesome extension (for Win/Mac) lets you place Font Awesome icons as shapes right inside Photoshop.
Visit website...
For more free plugins and tools, please visit the
Resources section
GRAPHICS NEWS
Nik Collection 3, set.a.light 3D
DxO announces Nik Collection 3 (for Win/Mac), which will include a new Perspective Efex plugin for fixing distortions or producing miniature effects. There will also be a revised Nik Selective Tool and a non-destructive workflow. The product works as a standalone and also within DxO PhotoLab, Photoshop and Lightroom Classic.
Visit website...
set.a.light 3D is a light simulation application (for Win/Mac) that lets you test photo studio light setups on your computer. It also exports and prints a plan with all settings.
Visit website...
