Photoshop plugins: Freeware Boundary Noise Reduction is a big improvement on Photoshop’s own noise reduction filter
Publisher: Colormancer
Price: Free
Good for: Photographers
This Photoshop plugin is a freeware version of the full
Boundary Noise Reduction plugin from Colormancer. Offering a simplified
set of user controls when compared to the pro version, it's superior to
Photoshop's own noise reduction filter.
While Photoshop offers a handy Lens Correction feature, this
filter takes an entirely different approach. Use this Photoshop plugin
to adjust the focal length, roll and horizon height to correct for
panorama distortion easily.
This amazing free Photoshop plugin provides a new panel in
Photoshop CS5 and above, allowing you to quickly access real-media
preset effects in order to generate documents with natural paper
backgrounds, realistic water-colour brush strokes and many more.
If you're looking for a quick way to generate abstract,
random wave patterns for use as background art, this Photoshop plugin
could be just what you need. It's phenomenally complex, and it’s
surprisingly old - having been around for at least a decade - but still
does the trick and creates some amazing patterns.
It's frustrating working on mockups where you plan to use
web fonts in the final rendered web page, as up until recently it's been
impossible to legitimately get those web fonts onto your system. This
Photoshop plugin is one of a few solutions that are arriving, allowing
you to instantly install and use Google Web Fonts inside Photoshop.
If you're a designer in a hurry, or you're not yet confident
using Photoshop to create stylised images, virtualPhotographer is a
quick and effective way to get some sophisticated looks in a hurry.
This free plugin uses the cloud to perform the calculations required to convert your Photoshop layers into CSS3
layers, complete with live-rendered effects where these are achievable
with CSS. So, drop-shadows, strokes, outer glows, text and rounded
corners are all converted to CSS3 automatically. Well worth a try to see
if it could save you valuable coding time.
This plugin carries an expensive price tag, but the results
it can produce are absolutely stunning. Like Nik's Viveza plugin (number
25 on this list), there's a wide range of options with easy-to-use
controls, but all focussed around producing the best black and white
photographs possible. Give the free trial a go and see what you think.
This unusual plugin uses fractal patterns, apparently hidden
within the source image, to generate procedural effects that are
reminiscent of pencil sketches, or stylised light glow streaks.
This all-encompassing suite of effects covers everything
from textures to pseudo-3D effects, tonal correction and borders. It's
not cheap, but covers such a wide range of effects that if you want to
buy just one plugin, this should be in your shortlist of options.
Exposure is a creative tool that allows you to simulate film
effects on your digital images, rendering analog-style finishes,
borders, scratches and processing in a realistic and rewarding style.
Version 4 adds to the already excellent Exposure 3 with additional
controls for black/white, split toning and custom colour effects.
A combination of three different filters for Photoshop that
each provide seamless and rich textures you can incorporate into your
designs. Some of these are a little predictable, but the sheer range
available, along with the ability to generate true fractals, makes this a
great addition to Photoshop.
Masking is a fine art all in itself, and while Photoshop has
improved its built-in masking tools with CS5 and CS6, there's still
plenty of room for a dedicated tool to help you get the cleanest and
most accurate masks possible - especially around problem areas such as
hair and fur. Fluid Mask makes this normally laborious process quick and
(relatively) easy!
Portraiture is a combined plugin for Photoshop, Lightroom
and Aperture that automates the process of retouching portraits for a
perfect-skin look. The plugin automatically smooths skin tones while
removing blemishes and, crucially, avoids softening or destroying detail
areas such as eyelashes and skin texture.
This filter brings insanely beautiful scratchy textures to
your designs and images with accurate, believable weathering and aging
effects. Effects include the ability to place artwork on a leather base,
render onto wood with the grain visible through the artwork and rust
effects. It produces especially nice effects on simple typography.
While Photoshop has come on leaps and bounds with its own 3D
engine and rendering, there's still room for additional tools that can
simplify the process of creating complex 3D scenes and models. This
plugin features a simple object editor that uses a pen-like tool for
drawing and editing shapes.
Blow Up allows you to create pin-sharp enlargements from
photos without compromising on quality. The algorithm is more advanced
than Photoshop's own bicubic filters, which allows the plugin to produce
accurate images without artifacts. This makes it a great tool for
designers where clients send over images that aren't of a high-enough
resolution.
Photomatix Pro is an High Dynamic Range (HDR) processing and
toning tool that integrates with Photoshop either standalone or as a
plugin (depending upon which version you go for). This tool goes beyond
Photoshop's built-in HDR processing capabilities, especially with the
toning aspects and allows for the creation of extreme HDR images with
relative ease.
Perfect Effects 3 FREE is a handy tool for getting a quick
effect on an image, whether that's a colour treatment, addition of
texture and noise, or creative borders. The plugin features an effects
library (a bit like the filter gallery in Photoshop) and allows you to
stack multiple effects to achieve interesting new results.
Noise is a problem for everyone, but no more so than
Photographers who need to present clients with clean images regardless
of the conditions when the shot was captured. Noiseware is a specialist
noise-suppression tool that will both remove noise and sharpen at the
same time making it a really useful addition to Photoshop.
If you're a regular user of the PNG format, you'll know that
Photoshop can sometimes struggle a bit to render PNGs quickly. SuperPNG
aims to fix this by offering more control over your PNG output,
allowing for a balance between speed and file size, control over the
alpha channel and meta data. SuperPNG's a handy tool for taking control
of your image export, and is free!
SiteGrinder is a tool for converting Photoshop mockups into
fully functioning HTML and CSS webpages. It includes support for an
eCommerce module to further enhance the output, and a CMS-based module
adds the ability to maintain websites created using the tool. This isn't
really aimed at web professionals, but could be handy for novice
designers.
Wire Worm is a free plugin with a single, simple purpose
that may save you a lot of time removing telephone wires, fences and
similar obstructions in your images. The interface is simple, allowing
you to select an area around a wire or other obstruction and have the
tool automatically remove it. Results are surprisingly good, especially
for the price!
EyeCandy has been around for over a decade, offering a broad
range of effects ranging from fire to chrome, glass to extrusions.
Useful for many different scenarios, a lot of the effects need dialing
down from the default settings to achieve something other than a cheesy
result, but there’s a lot of hidden gems in the suite.
Viveza 2 is a great solution for applying localised colour
and lighting effects to your image. Working in a similar way to
Lightroom’s local corrections feature, Viveza allows you to place points
on your image and apply a series of effects that are automatically
blended to give a professional result. Fantastic results are pretty easy
to achieve, and above all else it's quick to use!
ToonIt is a straightforward way to turn regular photos into a
cartoon-style image, suitable for use in graphic novels or other
scenarios where you don’t want photo-realistic images but need to base
images on a photographic original. The plugin works automatically on an
image, but there is a degree of control you can exercise to change the
final output. Niche, but fun!
Red Giant is better known for its range of After Effects
plugins, but they’ve also brought their Looks plugin to Photoshop,
Lightroom and Aperture. This features the same interface as in Magic
Bullet Looks for After Effects and features a range of adjustment tools
to help you achieve the exact 'look' you desire. A range of usable
presets make this a great quick-fix tool.
Similar to its After Effects big brother, Knoll Light
Factory for Photoshop allows you to create a host of advanced lens
flares, integrating them into your image and adding immediate impact.
There are over 100 presets, and you can build new flare effects to your
own taste. A great tool for adding instant drama to photographs.
Digital Film Tools' Ozone plugin is a toning system for
images that duplicates a lot of the functionality found in Photoshop
itself, but makes it more accessible to novice users. Based on the zone system
established by Ansel Adams, it allows for different parts of an image
to be toned according to taste, defining the relative importance and
relationship of elements within an image.
Photoshop Edge FX is a simple solution for adding creative
borders around your images. The plugin ships with 100 frames and edges
and also allows you to create your own mattes for additional borders.
Simple and effective, this isn't offering anything you couldn’t achieve
manually, but does the job quickly and efficiently.
This straightforward plugin makes it simple to create
diptych (double), triptych (triple) and ntych (quadrule+) panels within
Photoshop. Choose the alignment, number of rows and columns, or hybrid
layouts, and Tych Panel 2 will create the layout for you utilizing Smart
Objects and layer masks to avoid destructive editing.
This simple Photoshop plugin makes it easy to create a grid
system in your Photoshop document, hijacking the built-in guides system
to create a pinpoint accurate grid according to your chosen settings.
You can use negative margins for special hanging columns, separately
define individual margins and gutters, and save your preferred options
for quick access in the future. Perfect for anyone using a grid to help
them create their layouts.
This super-handy CS6-only plugin makes it easy to export
your designs from Photoshop to the web. Rather than rely on Photoshop's
outdated export for web functionality, Cut&Slice me offers a new way
of doing things; allowing overlapping slices, multiple button states
and even exporting different resolutions of the same assets to cater for
different screen sizes and devices.
This in-depth plugin integrates with Photoshop to allow for
the creation of complete, functioning WordPress themes directly from a
PSD file. You start by generating a PSD from within the plugin's own
screens, then adapt the boilerplate design to suit your own aesthetic
treatment. Once complete, you can export directly to WordPress, and edit
otherwise static content using a special WordPress plugin. Ideal for
non-technical users who want to get started in web template development.
This handy Photoshop script converts layer comps into a
storyboard view, compositing your individual comps into a layout that
can be easily output as PDF for printing and sharing with others. This
turns Photoshop into a great place to create your blockbuster's
storyboard, doing away with all the tedious manual positioning and
exporting associated with generating your own board manually.
