The Plugin Site - Plugin Newsletter

Plugin Newsletter - January 2007

Contents
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EDITORIAL

THE PLUGIN SITE UPDATES: Polls 2006 page, Free Plugins page, Commercial Plugins page

PLUGIN ESSENTIALS: New "Using Older Plugins under MacOS X" and "Non-Destructive Filtering with Plugins" paragraphs

POLL RESULTS: Which is your favorite technique for selectively adjusting a photo?

NEW POLL: How simple or complex do you like plugins to be?

FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS: Photo Tinter, Proxel EXIF, Apophysis, Gloodle ...

GRAPHICS NEWS: Photoshop CS3 Public Beta, PhotoLift, Royalty-free-stock Sites, Snap Art, .psd Magazine, AKVIS Coloriage, Adobe Magazine

PRODUCTS FROM THE PLUGIN SITE

ABOUT THE PLUGIN SITE

Hi,

I hope you had nice Christmas holidays and a great New Year celebration. Unfortunately several things have postponed the release of this newsletter issue. But better late than never.

During the last few months the spam post had increased on The Plugin Site Forums, so we had to take some counter measures. Now the number of spam posts was decreased from seven per day to one per week, which is a great relief.

With the unexpected release of the Mac version of Photoshop CS3 Beta a lot of plugins are not working anymore if you use an Intel-Mac. Luckily this problem can be solved by running Photoshop in Rosetta Mode. This way you can bridge the time until native Intel versions of your Photoshop plugins are available. We are also working on a Mac-Intel version of our PhotoWiz plugins and will release them as soon as possible. For instructions on how to switch Photoshop to Rosetta mode, see my Plugin Essentials article, which is mentioned below.

Kind regards,
Harald Heim

http://www.thepluginsite.com

THE PLUGIN SITE UPDATES: Polls 2006 page, Free Plugins page, Commercial Plugins page
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The Polls 2006 page from the Know-How section, the Free Plugins page and the Commercial plugins page from the Resources section of The Plugin Site have been updated with information that was posted in the previous editions of this newsletter.

http://www.thepluginsite.com/knowhow/polls2006.htm
http://www.thepluginsite.com/resources/freeps.htm
http://www.thepluginsite.com/resources/commercialps.htm

PLUGIN ESSENTIALS: New "Using Older Plugins under MacOS X" and "Non-Destructive Filtering with Plugins" paragraphs
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Due to the release of the new Photoshop CS3 Public Beta I added two new paragraphs to the Plugins Essential article, which provides essential information about the world of Photoshop plugins.

The first addition mainly describes how to use plugins that were created for the PowerPC processors on the new Intel-Macs in Photoshop CS3. The second added paragraph explains some facts about the new smart filtering feature of Photoshop CS3. Additionally some other places in the article have been updated and some outdated information has been removed.

http://www.thepluginsite.com/knowhow/tutorials/introduction/introduction.htm

POLL RESULTS: Which is your favorite technique for selectively adjusting a photo?
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More than 650 people voted in the latest poll about their favorite method for selectively adjusting a photo. Here are the results:

28% - Adjustment Layers: I use adjustment layers and their layer masks for selective adjustments.
21% - Filter-Based Masking: I do selective adjustments with the options that are provided by built-in filters or plugins.
17% - Masked Layer: I duplicate the image on a new layer, apply an effect and use a layer mask to limit the effect to certain image areas.
13% - No Selective Adjustment: I adjust photos as a whole and do not do any selective enhancements.
9% - Layers from Selection: I create a precise selection, copy it to a new layer and modify it there, but I don't use layer masks.
7% - No Layers: I don't use any layers, but selectively adjust the background image with the help of selections or brush tools.
4% - Other: I use technique that is not mentioned here.

Although many people probably use more than one of these techniques, we wanted to know what the favorite one is. It is no surprise that most people use adjustment layers, because they are very convenient. But as some effects are possible with adjustment layers, you sometimes need to apply an effect directly to a layer and use a layer mask to selectively apply the effect. Rated on its own this approach made it on place 3. 45% of all voters favor both techniques.

The second most favored technique is to use the masking options that are provided by filters or plugins. Although it doesn't always allow for so much control like layer masks, it is a very convenient and time-saving way to selectively apply effects.

Almost one third of all voters apply no selective adjustments, use no layers or only use layers without layer masks. These techniques are usually only used for very quick image adjustments.

For more poll results, please visit the Know-How section at
http://thepluginsite.com/knowhow/

NEW POLL: How simple or complex do you like Photoshop plugins to be?
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Some people prefer doing a lot of fine-tuning of an effect with plugins while others prefer only simple adjustments with plugins and doing the fine-tuning in the image application itself. So this month we ask you to vote for the level of simplicity or complexity of plugins that you prefer. You have the following five choices ranging from Simple to Complex with an explanation of what is meant with these terms:

1. Very Simple: Only a few sliders whose effect is easy to recognize in the preview.
2. Simple: Some sliders and simple features, but no masking options.
3. Medium: Several sliders and a simple masking feature.
4. Sophisticated: Many sliders and options plus different masking options.
5. Complex: All imaginable features for fine-tuning the effect and many adjustable masking options. The more the better.

Please cast your vote at the bottom of
http://www.thepluginsite.com/

THE DISCUSSION FORUMS: Crosshatching Pen-Ink Filter, Plugins in LightRoom, Placing multiple images in one layered image, CD Labeling, Dot Effect, Using Photoshop Tutorial with PSP, PSP Freeze, VM Zoom Blur Problem
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Here are some of the latest messages from The Plugin Site Discussion Forums:

Crosshatching Pen-Ink Filter
kiki wrote: "... around 1997 (the exact time is not clear) www.Inklination.com offered a free filter called "crosshatching Pen-Ink Filter"(?I'm not sure), it simulates sketch effect, but I visited the web site recently and found it's closed. Does anyone know where i can download this filter?"
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2523

Plugins in LightRoom
Michael wrote: "To speed up the workflow in my case it would be really handy to have plugins running in Lightroom besides running them in Photoshop - it might sound impossible, odd and wired, but in my case it would really help.... But I guess there's no chance having something like that running in Lightroom, right?"
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2534

Placing multiple images in one layered image
carrito wrote: "If you have heard of a way or a plugin that can take multiple images and turn them into ONE single layered image (and each layer being each image that you choose) PLEASE LET ME KNOW!! Having that plugin or function would be of sooo much help. Doing that manually is killing me since I have to do it for hundreds and hundreds of images!"
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2508

CD Labeling
Kevin Miramon wrote: "I want ... a plugin that allows me to use a scanned cd image for a label. I end up with a canvas or workspace which is square surrounding the actual image I want.Sort of a square hole with a round peg situation I would say I see this plugin http://thepluginsite.com/resources/gizmo/index.htm but I cant see how to put this into Elements 4. Is it possible?"
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2525

Dot Effect
Mizz_Creative wrote: "I am looking for a Plugin, filter.. that makes the little dot effect on this image...Do you know?"
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2535

Using Photoshop Tutorial with PSP
jackie4 wrote: "here is a tutor I found in photoshop tuts. Explain this 2 for me and how I can use it in psp8.
http://photoshoptutorials.ws/photoshop-tutorials/photo-effects/bloom.html
and what is apply image in photshop that can be done in psp8? And change the mask to backgound?"
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2511

PSP Freeze
asglitterfalls wrote: "I just installed PSP 9 onto my laptop yesterday. I installed all of the updates and put the dll files where they belonged. So I go and download some plugins and get ready to tell PSP where to find them and when I go to the File/Preferences?File Locations menu the program freezes up and I get a box pop up saying there was an unknown error with FileLocations. ... Can anyone please help me?"
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2463

VM Zoom Blur Problem
Sedona wrote: "I am Having a problem with Visman Zoom Blur showing up in PSP 10 & 11. I have all the dll's in the right place and still it does not show up in PSP 10 or 11. However it does show up in PSP 7? ... does it work for anyone in PSP 10 Or 11?"
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2533

For more interesting discussions please visit
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/

FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS: Photo Tinter, Proxel EXIF, Apophysis, Gloodle ...
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The AmphiSoft Photo Tinter plugin (for Windows) allows extracting tone maps from existing black and white images and applying them to new images. It is meant as an alternative to Photoshop's Curves filter. Several profiles are already included.

http://photoshop.msk.ru/aspt/

The Mac version of the Proxel EXIF plugin is now available. It can display EXIF and other meta information of a file from the filter menu in Photoshop.

http://www.proxel.se/exif.html

Apophysis is a fractal flame editor (for Windows). Fractal flames are randomly generated patterns that look like light strings, smoke or cosmic nebulas. There are other tools (e.g. the KPT Frax Flame plugin and the Fractal Flames AE plugin) that create such images, but Apophysis seems to offer much more control over the effect.

http://www.apophysis.org/

Gloodle (for Windows) is a free drawing tool for using 3D shapes to create 2D images. It is a simple application: you just draw on the window and some things happen. There are also plenty of controls to experiment with.

http://www.wondertouch.com/gloodle.asp

GRAPHICS NEWS: Photoshop CS3 Public Beta, PhotoLift, Royalty-free-stock Sites, Snap Art, .psd Magazine, AKVIS Coloriage, Adobe Magazine
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Adobe released a public beta version of Photoshop CS3. It is available for MacOS X, Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Vista. The CS3 Beta is not yet complete, but many features are fully implemented and ready to try. The Photoshop CS3 beta is available in English for licensed users of Photoshop CS2, Adobe Creative Suite 2 and other Adobe product bundles. You need to provide your serial number, otherwise you can only use it for two days. The final release of Photoshop CS3 is planned for spring 2007.

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/photoshopcs3/

Pixelvistas offers a Windows Photoshop plugin called PhotoLift for local contrast enhancement. It allows enhancing image detail quite aggressively, which can be particularly useful in landscape photography.

http://www.pixelvistas.com/

Chris from Graphics.com has created two web sites which are directories of royalty-free stock photo and stock footage sites. On the royalty-free-stock-images.com site there is a portfolio category with photographers who sell their own royalty-free photos on their sites.

http://www.royalty-free-stock-images.com/
http://www.royalty-free-stock-clips.com/

Alienskin released Snap Art (for Win/Mac). Snap Art instantly creates natural media effects with no laborious hand editing. It claims to produce a hand-crafted look from any digital image. Styles include oil paint, pencil sketch, pen & ink, comics and more. Hundreds of presets are delivered with it.

http://www.alienskin.com/snapart/

The .psd paper magazine shows its readers the secrets of Photoshop with a load of tutorials. Step by step it demonstrates practical ways of using the features of Photoshop for achieving interesting effects, retouching photographs or designing a web page. Each tutorial is accompanied by a training movie on the included CD.

http://www.psdmag.org/en/

Version 4 of AKVIS Coloriage was released. It is a Photoshop-compatible plugin (Mac/Win) that lets you colorize your B&W photos and add color to hand-drawn artwork, replace colors in a color photo, try out different color schemes for designs and selectively colorize and desaturate areas in a color photo.

http://akvis.com/en/coloriage/

Adobe launched the "Adobe Magazine for Creative Professionals", the successor of the discontinued Adobe Magazine and Proxy Magazine. It will be a free quarterly online magazine with articles and tutorials from the world of visual communications. The first issue will be published soon. You can subscribe to it on the following web site:

http://www.adobemagazine.com/

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