So...Here I am, an old school techie that does everything the painful, excruciating, aching, manual way, writing about plug-ins. To begin with, I never use plug-ins! They just do stuff that can be done efficiently on plain Photoshop. I mean... come on! If I am paying $1000 for an image manipulation app like PS, I assume that either, I know how to use it, or have a big enough portion of my brain free from T.V and fast food to learn how to use it. Why am I going to pay $30 to $300 more for something that I can already do with a little exploration? Tonight is Champions League night. And Manchester United has just scored a goal. And I, the old school techie, am an Arsenal fan. This is one of those moments in life were you have to sit back and contemplate existence. Think calmly about your rights and wrongs, and avoid a psychotic outburst by looking at things from another perspective... Personally, I would rather spend a hundred bucks in a video tutorial or a book than in a plug-in. I oppose to plug-ins because they make users lazy and limit their knowledge. And I know that according to MTV, laziness and ignorance are both qualities strangely praised in this silicon breast infested (alleluia!) one hit wonder society. But we, legion of dark misfits and outlaws, don´t dig that. Or do we? Manchester United has scored again. Shit. We ARE in the XXI century ladies and gentlemen! And it is true that TIME IS MONEY. And we, fierce legion of designers all around the world, have to meet deadlines! So, I admit that there are cases when we have to use the god damn plug-ins in order to be (say it in robot voice) “Fitter, happier, more productive.”

After 3 straight days, ten jars of coffee and fucking up my Photoshop with 50 demo versions, I am going to share with you my thoughts about twenty-five plug-ins that I believe could be attached into an everyday workflow with some degree of success. Either I liked them or not, all these plug-ins deserve a try and a judgment on your own. I strongly encourage you not to pay any attention to this review, since I am on amphetamines right now and I know that I will not remember what I just wrote in a couple of hours.

1. AKVIS CHAMELEON V.6.0

Photo Collage creation http://akvis.com/en/chameleon/index.php $75

Basically, it's a collage creation tool. I work in advertising and know for fact that photo montage is an everyday thing. So the promise of saving time in such a task as blending and merging objects into different ambiences and backgrounds seems tempting. The specs and the info on the well organized Akvis page seem clear enough, so I began testing.

 

The interface is straight forward, and the process is rather simple. First, you choose the element you want to insert with the PS selection tools and apply the "grab fragment" filter. Then, choose the layer that is going to be your background and apply the "make collage" filter in order to pop up the “Akvis Chameleon” interface. There, you make two outlines over the subject and let the program do the rest. I am impressed at the isolating calculations of “Akvis Chameleon”. With two simple outlines, one (the blue one) just under the contour of your object, and the other, (the red one) around the object, the plug-in identifies and deletes the useless areas and integrates the two elements.

 

 

But it seems to me that all of Akvis efforts end there because the user has little control over the final output. You have little room to tweak the final mask, and although you can save your selection, you cannot use it outside the plug-in. With the simple free form pencil tool you have available, I made my outlines in only six minutes. To compare performance vs. time, I decided to make that same mask manually with brushes in mask mode in plain Photoshop. I lasted 18 minutes!

That´s three times more! BUT...there was a huge difference. First off, when you make a selection in Photoshop, you have zillions of tools to improve your masks and, most important, after you finish, you have a perfect mask with which you can do whatever you want to. You can save it, convert it to path, export it, reuse it on another layer, etc... You do end up with a faster selection with Chameleon, BUT, the time you save is useless at the end because you have little control to tweak it, and can´t use it beyond the confinements of the plug-in.

 

 

Other issue that disappointed me about Chameleon, was that it merges automatically the fragment with its background in one layer. So, again, you lose control. You can't tweak the borders or make any kind of adjustments to the two elements independently. That is not good. So, I guess Akvis Chameleon is a nice try to automate a process that requires fine tuning and judgment. I think of it as a very good fun plug-in for beginners that want to joke around sending funny pictures to their friends. But I see a rather limited use in a professional environment.

 

 

Area of use: Home, School My rate: 2/5 Pros: Chameleon is very good at isolating your subject from unwanted areas with very little effort by the user. Cons: User has almost no control over the final merged result. Don´t know why by default it resizes my fragment at 75%

Let´s make some Noise

We all know what noise is. And we all know how annoying it can be. To this date, this irresistible, stunningly attractive, monstrously sexy reviewer used to get rid of noise with the good old PS Noise reduction filter or using blurred images blended on top of my original. And I thought that was enough. And, surely, It could be enough for the majority of cases. But after trying out 4 different “plug-ins” for noise reduction I definitively think different. (By the way, the sexy thing is a joke) I have to say that in comparison, the Photoshop filter gave me the shittiest result. So, in some degree I have to admit that PS is not all that mighty. I finally found a task that deserves a Plug-in. Noise reduction technology has gone a long way. What I didn't like about Noise reduction software in the past, was that images turned out like pastel paintings because of the annihilation of detail. This does not happen anymore. All the plug-ins I tested worked perfectly. All of them give excellent results and have neat features of their own.

I began testing with a jpeg image from my short film, shot entirely in front of a blue screen on a F900 Sony CineAlta with Canon Lenses in HD resolution. I converted the 16Bit DPX file of one frame of footage to 8Bit Jpeg to add artifacts to make the noise reduction task a little tougher.

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2. AKVIS NOISEBUSTER 6.1

Noise reduction http://akvis.com/en/noise-buster/index.php $49

 

3. KODAK GEM NOISEFILTER

Noise reduction http://asf.com/products/plugins/gempro/pluginGEMPRO/ $99.95

4. NIK SOFTWARE DFINE 2.0

Noise reduction http://www.niksoftware.com/dfine/usa/entry.php $99.95

 

5. IMAGENOMIC NOISE WARE PROFESIONAL 4.0

Noise reduction http://www.imagenomic.com/nwpg.aspx $69.95

Imaginomic Noise Ware Professional and Nik Software's Dfine were my favorites by a nose. Both programs have a clean, pro looking interface. I loved how Dfine gives the user many ways to view what is happening, and many ways to control the noise reduction. You can reduce noise by color range or by control points, or even use a brush to wipe out manually over the image. On the other hand, Noiseware presets and speed are assets to take into account. Both plug-ins have excellent balance between blur and detail and gave the most pleasing results. I personally liked the Dfine interface better. It just seemed to me more robust and less daunting. But the results of both plug-ins are incredible and if I were going to buy just one of them, I´ll stick with the Noiseware solution, because it's 30 bucks cheaper. Area of use: Professional My rate: 5/5 (for all of the noise reduction plug-ins reviewed here) Pros: Good documentation, Does what it is expected to do. Power to the user. Cons: I don´t have them.

6. ALIEN SKIN SOFTWARE IMAGE DOCTOR 2

Image Repair and retouching http://www.alienskin.com/imagedoctor/index.aspx $199

WOW! Two hundred bucks for a plug-in? The price immediately discards any "just for fun" use. This plug-in is certainly aimed at a pro consumer level, and by “googling” it a little, you can see that it is used extensively in the photographic industry. So, I was pretty eager to discovery the "kwan" of this baby. The plug-in is divided five filters, so I began to test them one by one.

Smart Filter

My task here was to erase Paul McCartney from the cover, since, well; all of us know that he isn't the real Paul. :) So, I got a little bit carried away and just selected all McCartney with the PS lasso tool and applied the filter. What was I thinking? Was I expecting that Image doctor is some kind of a digital Aladdin lamp that one can rub and ask anything you want? This is the real world and you can´t always get want you want.

The result was disastrous since the Background behind Paul is complex and has different kinds of texture, lighting, and shadows. So I had to use my dusty brain to figure this out. I made 4 separate selections of Paul, getting the plug-in to work on areas were the background was homogeneous. Or almost. Inside the plug-in interface you have some presets and a sampling source box to fill in the areas you want to disappear. I lasted 20 minutes from start to finish. And I am surprised with the final result. It is kind of sloppy, since it’s the first time I use the plug-in, and given that I didn't refine it with any PS tools. I guess Smart filter can be an interesting aid to your normal retouching workflow to make things faster and easier, but I can´t imagine using the smart filter alone for professional work, believing that retouching is a task that requires artistry and taste, qualities still exclusive to human beings. (Sorry HAL 9000) Think of Smart Fill as kind of a clone tool on autopilot. Use it. But don´t trust your life on it.

Dust and scratch remover

To test this filter I used a much damaged 62 year old photo from The "Bogotazo", a tragic event that almost destroyed the city of Bogotá in the late 40's.

Again, I got carried away in my first attempt and selected ALL of the scratches. Once more, my result was terrible. The program tried it´s best but just couldn't process what should be cloned to fill in the damage. So I began selecting medium pieces that shared somehow the same background texture, and began to work it from there. It took me one hour to finish.

The scratches were so little, and the photo has so much detail that the program had a rough time figuring out what to clone and what to fill. At the end I had to correct a lot with the usual PS clone tool. If I were repairing exclusively with the plug-in, I would have spent ages because of the tiny selections I had to make to avoid the program going nuts. It is a bit unfair to judge this software because of this difficult example, but I truly think that in an hour of work I could have come out with a much better result by only using the clone tool and a couple of reference photos of the building. My early opinion about the dust and scratch remover is that it can work better with large areas of damage over not so complex backgrounds.

Bottom line: Don´t dig it.

 

Blemish concealer

Now, this is my idea of a plug-in. A simple, yet powerful tool that is capable of reducing tasks and effort considerably. This filter alone is worth of the whole package. I just selected the most famous mole of the cold war and removed it in minutes! If this plug-in can do this to history what else can you expect! I congratulate the guys of Alien Skin for giving this beauty to the world! This plug-in in combination with the smart fill can truly make wonders and I believe it can be implemented in a pro retouching workflow this high success.

Skin softener

 

HOLY SHIT! My eyes hurt and the monitor has just cracked! Is that Kate Moss! Man! She looks like Gollum's cousin in this photo. I think I really put the plug-in to the test with this example, and surprisingly it didn't disappoint. Fast, Easy. Just the way things should be. The feature that most impressed me was the ability to eliminate oily skin. With just one push of a button you pull a task that requires ten times more effort with plain PS. In conjunction with smart fill and blemish concealer you can get your work done before you finish your cup of coffee.

Jpeg Repair

Not much to say about this one. Simple and very fast, Repairs blocking, and smoothens. Good job at doing it I may add. But... don´t see much use for it since you shouldn't be working with fucked up and compressed images in first place!

 

Area of use: Professional My rate: 5/5 Pros: Skin softener and Blemish Concealer are worth the price alone. Cons: The Dust & Scratch remover is the weakest filter of the set.

7. ALIEN SKIN SOFTWARE BOKEH

Focal Effects, Lens simulator http://www.alienskin.com/bokeh/index.aspx $199

 

I approached Bokeh with reluctance. Photoshop has many tools to blur and many tools to select. Why give away your pennies for something that you already can do? I have to be honest and say that Bokeh is a great defocusing plug-in. It´s aim is to provide the photo retoucher with various elements to achieve faster and more realistic defocusing. And that´s exactly what it does. I really think that it´s presets with real world lenses save hours of research and work. I was impressed at the option to strengthen the highlights inside the blurred area, since it made it so easy to achieve an effect that can be a hassle if done manually... But I personally think it is far from indispensable.

 

Area of use: Professional My rate: 3.5/5 Pros: Extremely realistic results. Planar and radial selection control for any type of defocusing effect. Cons: Doesn't bring anything extraordinary new to the PS arsenal.

8. REDFIELD PLUGINS SKETCHMASTER 3.2

Image Effects http://www.redfieldplugins.com/filterSketchMaster.htm $39.90

The good people at Redfield really try hard to improve the "artistic" filters in Photoshop, used to create funky effects on images and to give that "hand drawn" look. And they somehow succeed in giving better results with less process. The plug-in saves you the hassle of finding textures to overlay and It gives you plenty of options with more than 10 sliders to tweak the final output.

I must say that I felt lost at first, because it´s not that clear which button does what. But you find out your way pretty fast and when you get used to the interface, you begin to have fun. This is an entertaining plug-in, and from now on it will be one of my top 5 activities to procrastinate, but beyond that, I don´t really see an impressive tool to stick into an everyday pro workflow. Area of use: Home, School My rate: 2.5/5 Pros: It’s easy to use. Has plenty of pre-sets. Everything is customizable. Cons: Unimpressive.

9. ALIEN SOFTWARE SNAP ART 2

Image Effects http://www.alienskin.com/snapart/index.aspx $199

I´ve always been reluctant to the so called "artistic" filters because the end result always seems phony and cheap to me, and I´ve never ever used them in any kind of work. Once, I had to make storyboards from 3D MAX generated stills, and was given a very tight deadline.

I tried to use the PS artistic filters, but the output was so unsatisfying, that I ended up retexturing and re rendering my 3D scenes with flat, toon type materials in order to meet the deadline. I am sure that if this plug-in had been around by that time, I wouldn't hesitated to use it. This is in deed a hell of a plug-in. The results look truly artistic and outstanding to me. I would use this in pro work any time, because of it´s unique look and versatility. I´m not becoming a true believer, since I still don´t imagine my self using plug-ins extensively for my everyday work, but at results like these I just have to give in.

Area of use: Professional My rate: 5/5 Pros: Very, very impressive results. FUCK YEAH! Cons: The user could benefit with a couple more preset styles. But a perfect piece of software anyhow.

10. ONONE SOFTWARE FOCAL POINT 1

Focal Effects http://www.ononesoftware.com/detail.php?prodLine_id=35 $159.95

Onone software is known for having a very neat corporate image, giving their clients quality and very good support. I love the design of their webpage and the thorough knowledgebase for their products. Their web site is my favorite among all the companies I have reviewed here, with plenty video tutorials and resources. When I began testing focal Point, I liked their interface and the idea of the "focal bug" seemed original to me. The "Focal Bug" is a circular thingy from which we control all the parameters. We can adjust the focused area or "sweet spot", the amount of blur and it´s direction. But after testing the ultra realistic "Bokeh" from Alien Skin Software this plug-in seemed a bit limited. It doesn't offer too many options for adjusting the type of defocusing, and because it´s emphasis on vignetting, it´s main aim seems to be portrait photography rather than anything else.

It does offer good options, and has the courtesy of exporting your output in a new layer along with a mask so you can fine tune the areas of interest. But I don´t see anything than couldn't be done in PS that deserves the hundred + bucks that this costs.

 

It does offer good options, and has the courtesy of exporting your output in a new layer along with a mask so you can fine tune the areas of interest. But I don´t see anything than couldn't be done in PS that deserves the hundred + bucks that this costs. Area of use: Professional My rate: 3.0/5 Pros: Good quality defocusing. Very original interface. Good Support. Cons: Lacks versatility. Limited.

11. ONONE SOFTWARE GENUINE FRACTALS 6 PROFESSIONAL EDITION

Image amplification http://www.ononesoftware.com/products/genuine_fractals.php $299.95

I have to confess something now. I don´t know if all the cigarettes I’ve smoked in my life are taking their toll, or if all my lascivious thoughts have diminished my cognoscitive capacities... please... people at Oneone... forgive me... But, I really just don´t get the point here. I mean... can´t we resize and change DPI already from Photoshop? Isn't that just a natural consequence for buying a $1000 imagine manipulation package? I just don´t understand. I tested this plug-in up sizing the HD still we saw earlier to Cineon Full. That is almost three times the size.

 

The Genuine Fractals plug-in has an easy to use interface, with clear sliders and plenty of presets, plus lot´s of options for cropping and repositioning. But... does anyone out there really see a $300 dollar difference between “uprezing” in PS and in Genuine fractals? Am I going nuts?

I couldn’t believe my eyes, so, I tried something else. I downsized my HD still to 10%. And then I up sized it again ten times to it´s original size. Can you guess what I got? A. A Still from Captain Sky and the World of Tomorrow. B. The actress popped out of the screen. C. A still with the same quality of the original. D. A better image than the original. E. A fucking horrible, almost watercolor like kind of an image, full of artifacts, bad vibrations and evil, very evil spirits that are ruining my mojo for ever.

Area of use: ??? My rate: 1/5 Pros: You can give yourself another method to resize your images for $300 bucks. After all, monotony is bad for your mental health. Cons: !!!

12. ONEONE SOFTWARE INTELLIHANCE PRO 4

Image Enhancement, Color Correction http://www.ononesoftware.com/detail.php?prodLine_id=3 $159.95

 

I think color correcting is an art. It is a complicated task that requires skill, taste and technique. I am surprised how almost everyone "color corrects" images just moving sliders randomly until something works out. Intellihance doesn't bring anything new to the PS set.

Photoshop is already a powerful and robust application for color correcting, and In fact, I think it is one of the best things it does. But intellihance is not a tool to disdain at all. It's a dynamic image enhancement tool that stands right in the middle between fast out of the box, point and click looks, and fine tuning pro user settings.

I think that the Power Variations feature is one of the coolest things onone software has made. For example, when using the color balance option, you can see your image with various color casts overlayed onto it. If you wanted to remove a nasty magenta tint from your photo, you simply click on the opposite color in the color scheme (green) and voilá! It´s just as easy as it gets. And you see dynamically all the changes you make, in a layout of variations of the same image. Area of use: Professional My rate: 3.5/5 Pros: Fast dumb proof presets, plus easy, but powerful control features. You can see your changes dynamically. Cons: Very neat plug-in, but not completely necessary.

 

13. ONEONE SOFTWARE PHOTOTOOLS 2 PROFESSIONAL

Image Effects, Image Enhancer http://www.ononesoftware.com/detail.php?prodLine_id=29 $259.95

It is at the end of the workflow, that you try to give that final "special" look to your work. In PS you have endless possibilities to create distinctive, artistic looks and styles to ad punch and professional appeal to your images. I really recommend that you learn how to do this, so that your work doesn't end up looking prefabricated and stock. But when you are working for a rushing client looking over your shoulder, that wants’ to see everything right on the screen in seconds, this software is going to help. It comes with hundreds of presets, ranging from film noir and bleach bypass looks, to Polaroid emulsion emulators. There are so many presets, that it is easy to go nuts with this plug-in. The interface is simple and bullet proof. You can stack and control the intensity of each preset so you can be free to create and build new styles. [caption id="attachment_634" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="I really miss her."]

I liked this plug-in very much, because it´s perfect to impress clients in a fast and effective way. Also, it can be a tool to unify and illustrate concepts in an art department of any kind. If you know the concepts and the principles behind the creation of these effects, I don´t see a problem in improving your work speed with this plug-in. If you don´t, well, better invest in a video tutorial and get that ass off the couch!

Area of use: Professional My rate: 5/5 Pros: Very good for handling impatient clients. Gorgeous looking effects by Kevin Kubota and Jack Davis. Flashy. Cons: It makes you lazy if you don´t understand the muscle behind the looks.

 

14. ALIEN SKIN SOFTWARE EXPOSURE 2

Film Simulator http://www.alienskin.com/exposure/ $249

After playing for a while with it´s bot it´s presets and customizations, I can say that "Exposure" is a very accurate film simulator. They tell us on their web site that they have the most realistic grain on the market. And I agree. "Exposure" resizes and distributes grain over the image proportional to it´s size and the emulsion simulator you choose. And it does that wonderfully. From what I have seen so far in the Bokeh and "Exposure" plug-ins, Alien Skin Software has a knack for extremely realistic results unparalleled to any tool out there. If you want that level of realism, you can trust their products blindfold.

 

In the above example, with just one click, I obtained the much craved Velvia Film effect, adding that characteristic intensity to primary colors and boosting contrast.

The results are very, very impressive indeed. But I want to raise a question here. How many times in a lifespan would a client rush into your agency yelling out "hey you lousy losers, I need this cell phone photo look like a FUJI FP100C that has stayed too long in the pod"???!!!... I mean... come on! I know clients make very, very unusual requests, but I must say that you can achieve similar, and flashier results with plain Photoshop and a couple of reference pictures. I don´t want you to misunderstand me. "Exposure" is really the BEST film simulation software out there. It is capable of rendering the subtle and unique characteristics of a wide range of film prints and emulsions in an extremely realistic manner. And if you are so picky about the realism in your final results, look no further. But I personally believe that you can get away with the look 90% of the cases without any plug-in.

Area of use: Professional My rate: 3.5/5 Pros: Extremely realistic film simulation tool. Best in the market. Cons: You can have a successful life, raise beautiful children and please your lovers efficiently without it. Not indispensable.