Plugins for photoshop are more popular than ever, but which ones to use? Which ones are the best? Which plugins work best for professional photographers?
I myself am, at the moment, using plugins from Nik (Google) and Anthropics in my daily workflow. But I’ve tested a lot of trial-ware out there from other companies. And my feeling at the moment is; “aslkdjaslkjalsfajfljrkljfea….what?!? Which ones are actually the best? And which ones will live on? Or should you never use plugins? (My opinion on the last question is; Use the method you feel comfortable with.)
So let’s together discuss this topic. Share our experiences. Write a comment. To help you I can start out by naming the ones I know:
- Nik (Google)
- onOne Software
- Topaz Labs
- Anthropics (Portrait Pro)
- Alien Skin
- MacPhun
- Imagenomic
- HDRsoft (Photomatix)
To start off I can tell you what I am using and how. To import my images and to do the absolutely first kind of adjustments, I start out using Lightroom. Somewhere around 80% of my images that I like get a turn in Photoshop, and with 80% of that images I’m using Nik Collections Color Efex Pro. Often small tweaks that I stack upon different layers and then paint in using layer masks.
On portraits it depends what kind of image I’m aiming for, but very often I’m using Anthropics Portrait Pro. Again, in a different layer to scale down or paint in the effect using layer masks or opacity.
Why am I using plugins instead of only Photoshop? I’m getting results much faster. Almost any effect or retouch I’m doing is doable with only Photoshop, but it saves me tons of time using plugins instead. Time that I instead use to take more pictures.