Interesting Additional Plugins

[benspinks]

Hi There

Not so long ago I decided to move forward a little with my post processing and bought the Nik complete collection.  It's been wonderful to work with and I'm very happy with it, but seeing the dozens and dozens of additional plugins available it got me wondering what else would be cool to look at.  I'm not looking for Nik alternatives, but rather additions to the collection.   Could be minor or major, serious or a little wacky .  Just looking for some interesting non-essentials.

Many thanks
Ben

   

[John E]

Well, I've bought two Topaz products - Adjust and Infocus (names might a bit off, as I'm away from home at the moment). Infocus I really don't use much, as I haven't been able to get good results from it (it's supposed to help with out of focus or missed-focus situations). As for Topaz Adjust, I do occasionally use it, but you have to be really judicious with using it (on layers, where you can control the effect), as their various presets can get over-the-top really easily. I do find that using a couple of the more conservative functions (mild Photo Pop and mild Color Pop, to name - or possibly misname - a couple), can provide improvements to some shots.

The other plug-in (not really a plug-in, as it operates in a separate window, but the software can be accessed from either Lightroom or PS), I regularly use is NIK's Silver Efex to do B&W conversions. While many will argue that the effects in this software can fairly easily be done in PS or LR, I'm lazy, and appreciate the speed of this program.

John

[AlanPezzulich]

I recently purchased a plugin called Retrographer. The documentation is a little sparse but it produces some interesting results.

Alan

[sniper]

I like alien skin bokeh for adding OOF effects, and redynamic is pretty good for a hdr/local contrast type effect.

[benspinks]

Many thanks for the suggestions.  Some really interesting things to play with there.

BR
Ben

[ablankertz]

Akvis Enhancer. It's like the shadows portion of shadows/highlights on steroids.

Belousov's Multiple Histogram Equalization plugin (http://www.unicontel.com/). I don't think I've actually used it in production, but it can be fun to play with. Best of all, it's free! There's also a free deconvolution plugin on the same site.

ALCE  http://www.bigano.com/index.php/en/consulting/40-davide-barranca/228-alce-local-contrast-enhancer-photoshop.html

[Philip Weber]

This is my current software stable.

Adobe: Lightroom 4.0, Photoshop CS5.  Nik: Color Efex Pro 4.0, Silver Efex Pro 2.0, HDR Efex Pro 1.2, Viveza 2.0. Topaz Labs: Adjust 5.0, Denoise 5.0, Detail 2.0, Simplify 3.0, InFocus, Lens Effects 1.2, B&W Effects 1.1, Star Effects 1.1.  Alien Skin: Snap Art 3.0, Bokeh 2.0. Photomatix Pro 4.1.  Imagenomic: Noiseware 4.2.  PictureCode: Noise Ninja 2.3.  Redfield Plugins: Fractalius 1.7.  Mediachance: ReDynaMix, Dynamic Auto-Painter 2.5.  Totally Rad: Dirty Pictures 1.5.  Flaming Pear: Designer Sextet.  Red Giant Software: Magic Bullet PhotoLooks 1.5, Knoll Light Factory 3.2.  Helicon Focus Pro 5.2.  Flypaper Textures and Frames.  

The entire lineup of Topaz products are a lot of fun. I find I use their Detail a lot, and Adjust and Simplify some, 98% of the time in layers, with opacity brushed in/out to taste. I've found Alien Skin Bokeh to be very helpful too. Most all of these have free trial demos so I'd encourage you to experiment. Some don't get much use but when I have an image that requires a certain look...they're there.

I hope this helps,
Phil