Plugins for Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom, PSP & others
Plugins for Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom, PSP & others
Plugin Newsletter - April 2009
Contents
========
EDITORIAL
POSTCARD CONTEST 2009: Where are your postcards?
PLUGIN BOOK GIVEAWAY: Win three copies of Stulberg's and Zuckerman's new plugin book
PLUGIN REVIEWS: Bokeh and Engraver 2
POLL RESULTS: How much would you pay for a useful Photoshop-compatible plugin?
NEW POLL: Do you use the 32bit or 64bit version of Photoshop CS4 for Windows?
THE DISCUSSION FORUMS: Fisheye Effect, Family History Poster, Bridge CS4 Problem, PSP6 under 64bit Vista, Actions in Elements
FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS: AAA Plugins, virtualPhotographer/virtualStudio,
Vue 7 Pioneer, PhotoColorist, tintii photo filter
GRAPHICS NEWS: Filter Forge Mac, GraphicDesignerToolbox, Silver Efex Pro for Lightroom, Preset Viewer 2, Dynamic Auto-Painter
PRODUCTS FROM THE PLUGIN SITE
ABOUT THE PLUGIN SITE
Dear Reader,
Thanks to all people who offered their help in reviewing plugins. At the moment we started with a few reviewers, but we may need more soon. So if you already wrote us, you still may get a chance to do a review for The Plugin Site. Thanks for your patience.
More than 100 people registered for the Postcard Contest so far, but only a few of them sent something in. I hope this will improve in the coming months. Your chance to win one of the great prizes is really good at the moment.
For more news see below....
Kind regards,
Harald Heim
www.thepluginsite.com
POSTCARD CONTEST 2009: Where are your postcards?
-----------------------------------
The deadline of August 31 for the Postcard Contest is still far away, but I wonder why so few postcards have been sent in. So far we have only got 1 postcard for contest category #1 and five postcards for category #2. Nine cards from one participant were disqualified, because they were prints and not postcards. If it continues this way, we will have to keep most of the great prices for ourselves :-). Are you sure you really want that? I don't believe that.
I know it is old-fashioned and inconvenient to send something by postal mail than over the internet, but that is what this contest is about. As it looks now your chances are fantastic to win something. You just need to invest a bit of your time and postage. So please have a look at the contest pages again and get creative!
You can request participation at the contest pages
at
http://www.thepluginsite.com/gallery/postcard/
PLUGIN BOOK GIVEAWAY: Win three copies of Stulberg's
and Zuckerman's new plugin book
-----------------------------------
Lark Books recently published a book dedicated to Photoshop plugins. It has the title "Digital Photographer's New Guide to Photoshop Plug-Ins" and was written by Jim Zuckerman & Scott Stulberg. It consists of 160 pages and shows you how you can use various plugins in creative ways. Not only does it feature our own Instant Mirror plugin from our Plugin Galaxy product, it also discusses Flaming Pear Flood, Photomatix, Photoshop's Liquify and Lighting Effects, nik Color Efex and Silver Efex, Alienskin Exposure 2 and Snap Art, Noise Ninja, ASF Digital GEM, OnOne PhotoFrame and FocalPoint, Helicon Focus and Tiffen DFX .
For more information about the book see
http://www.larkbooks.com/catalog?isbn=9781600592126
We asked Lark Books to provide three copies of the book as a Giveaway. If you want to win one of the books, please go to the URL below and enter your email address. Three people will be chosen randomly at the end of May and will receive the book.
http://www.thepluginsite.com/gallery/larkpluginbook/
PLUGIN REVIEWS: Engraver 2 and Bokeh
-----------------------------------
We started to fill up the Review section of The Plugin Site with new content by asking a few people to write some reviews about Photoshop plugins. This time we have two new reviews
In his review Kay M. Kuhnlein points out that Engraver
2 from Alpha Plugins offers a well structured window, useful presets and
many engraving styles. He criticizes the zoomless preview. Kay created
an artwork with the help of Engraver, which is also presented with the
review. Read more at
http://thepluginsite.com/reviews/showproduct.php?product=45
Lori Davis had a look at Bokeh from Alienskin. Lori
is impressed by the possibilities that Bokeh offers. She only misses the
ability to use custom aperture shapes. Read more at
http://thepluginsite.com/reviews/showproduct.php?product=44
If you own a certain plugin, you are welcome to post
your own review at the following URL. If you want to read some more reviews
please also visit
http://thepluginsite.com/reviews/index.php
POLL RESULTS: How much would you pay for a useful
Photoshop-compatible plugin?
-----------------------------------
171 people voted in our latest poll about plugin prices.
27% of all voters only use freeware. The results of the remaining 124
votes are here:
$300 1.6% 1.6%
$250 3.2% 4.8%
$200 2.4% 7.2%
$150 2.4% 9.6%
$125 5.6% 15.2%
$100 15.3% 30.5%
$80 4% 34.5%
$70 3.2% 37.7%
$50 21% 58.7%
$30 16.9% 75.6%
$20 16.9% 92.5%
$10 3.2% 95.7%
$5 2.4% 98.1%
According to the poll almost 60% of all people would purchase a plugin for $50 and a bit more than 30% would pay $100. Only these two prices seem to make sense for plugins according to the poll. With other prices a plugin developer would lose money. This is a very similar result compared to the poll a few years ago. However, the result cannot be generalized, because people would certainly pay more or less depending on the features of a certain plugin and how a plugin compares to other plugins. So it can only be seen as what people are willing to spend for plugins.
For more poll results, please visit the Know-How section
at
http://thepluginsite.com/knowhow/
NEW POLL: Do you use the 32bit or 64bit version of
Photoshop CS4 for Windows?
-----------------------------------
We would like to hear from you if you are using the 32bit or 64bit version of Photoshop CS4 for Windows and how you feel about many Photoshop plugins only working in the 32bit version so far. You can also vote if you are using an older version of Photoshop. The poll is only meant for Windows users, because there is no 64bit version of Photoshop available for the Mac.
Please vote at the bottom of the page at
http://www.thepluginsite.com/
THE DISCUSSION FORUMS: Fisheye Effect, Family History Poster, Bridge CS4
Problem, PSP6 under 64bit Vista, Actions in Elements
-----------------------------------
Here are some interesting posts from The Plugin Site Forums:
Fisheye Effect
YLChin asked: "Do You have Fisheye effect plug-In? I am wondering
if there is such a Plug-In? Thanks"
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3168
Family History Poster
cdotty wrote: "A few years back, a relative who's since passed away
did a wonderful 11X17 "family history/genealogy" poster in an
older version of Photoshop. I was given the file, and the mission of not
just updating it but of creating a "sister poster" with the
same info but in a graphical fashion, like a timeline so that the younger
ones in the family get a real sense of their history. ... I reckon I need
to create some type of database/chart file with the dates to create a
colorful timeline, and THEN import that into Photoshop... but the problem
is:
HOW to I go about it? What software does one use for this kind of chart?"
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3153
Bridge CS4 Problem
Allen-H wrote: "Hi, I am having a small problem with Photoshop Bridge
which was installed as part of the Photoshop CS4 package. My problem is,
that suddenly, my RAW images will not display as an image, just the PS
Logo. Probably operator error and I have clicked something. Any help appreciated
Thanks"
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3149
PSP6 under 64bit Vista
shydove wrote: "Hi, I just bought a new computer, and it turns out
to be a 64-bit, now I have a Problem. I installed psp6, upon opening the
program a sign came up & said-Failed to update the register-Please
try using REGEDIT. My Question now is, will psp6 work in Vista 64-bit?"
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3152
Actions in Elements
Daisy wrote: "I love ... actions, brushes, etc. I do not have Photoshop.
... CS - CS4 is really beyond my budget. Do actions work in Photoshop
Elements?"
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=9444
For more discussions please visit the forums at
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/
FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS: AAA Plugins, virtualPhotographer
& virtualStudio, Vue 7 Pioneer, PhotoColorist, tintii photo filter
-----------------------------------
Jim Clatfelter offers three new plugins (for Windows): AAA BLENDER lets you open a mask, texture, grunge or paint layer and blend it with your image with various blend modes. It is also possible to blend the current image or a modified version of it with itself. AAA Buzzer simplifies images while retaining sharp edges. It works slower at a higher ratio and also removes more details. AAA Framer adds a variety of frames to images. You can adjust the width, contour, brightness and frame color.
Version 1.5.6 of the virtualPhotographer plugin (for Windows) has a new
resizable and more organized dialog. It offers 200 presets, a split-screen
preview and a batch processing option. OptikVerve Labs also an image processing
application called virtualStudio (for Windows). Apart from standard image
editing features virtualStudio also supports Photoshop plugins that are
installed in its Plug-Ins sub folder. The virtualPhotographer plugin is
installed there by default.
http://www.optikvervelabs.com/
Vue 7 Pioneer (for Win/Mac) from Cornucopia3D is a free 3D creation and
animation application. It is meant for newcomers to easily create realistic
3D landscapes. It is available in English, German and French. Content
and additional modules can be purchased to enhance it.
PhotoColorist (for Windows) lets you colorize B&W images. It lets
you choose a certain color for e.g. skin, hair, grass and sky areas and
lets you select these areas in the image with the help of brushing or
scribbling.
http://www.fdshows.com/freephotocolorist-software.html
tintii photo filter (for Windows/Linux) is a free tool that converts photos
to B/W while keeping one color. A Photoshop plugin is also installed,
but requires to purchase an activation key in order to use it.
http://www.indii.org/software/tintii/
GRAPHICS NEWS: Filter Forge Mac, GraphicDesignerToolbox,
Silver Efex Pro for Lightroom, Preset Viewer 2, Dynamic Auto-Painter
-----------------------------------
The Mac OS X version of Filter Forge has been released. Filter Forge is a Photoshop plugin (for Win/Mac) containing filters that generate textures, create visual effects, enhance photos and process images in various ways. It also lets you create your own filters and gives you access to almost 6000 user-created filters.
Opcoders introduced GraphicDesignerToolbox 1.0, a Mac OS X graphics editor
for generating textures, composing logos, photo manipulation, text effects
and web graphics. It provides adjustable building blocks which allows
for extensive tweaking and re-use.
http://graphicdesignertoolbox.com/
Nik Software announced that Silver Efex Pro (for Win/Mac), its black-and-white
solution, is now available for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.3 and higher.
The update is available now as a free download to current owners of Silver
Efex Pro.
http://www.niksoftware.com/silverefexpro/
TumaSoft Preset Viewer 2 (for Windows) is a commercial application that
lets you locate and browse Photoshop brushes, patterns, custom shapes,
swatches, styles and various image files. Preset Viewer offers thumbnails,
filmstrip and tiled viewing modes and shows all presets at a larger size
than Photoshop does.
Dynamic Auto-Painter (for Windows) is an application that automatically
turns an image into a painting that looks similar to real world artists.
It uses the input image only as a guide to automatically paint the scene
with different brushes and artist inspired techniques.
http://www.mediachance.com/dap/
