What are your go to plugins?

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What are your go to plugins?

I would love to hear what your fave plugins are and what they do! smiley

Definitely, Eye Candy, which I need to repurchase. It creates metal, fur, glass, all sorts of things. It's basically the only plug-in I use.

You ladies are awesome because I had never even used plugins before, but I found this cool list - https://www.creativebloq.com/photoshop/best-photoshop-plugins-912722
I'll be following the thread to find out which you feel are the best!

@Kelly Give Eye Candy a go. They have a 30-day free trial. It's terrific for designing elements!

Thank you so much Christina I will definitely try it out!

Filter Forge, I use it for everything especially backgrounds

@Kelly You're welcome! smiley

@Jackie Just downloaded the free trial of Filter Forge. Seems as though I'd totally like it. Thanks!

smiley

I didn't quite know where to post this, so I'm putting it here. This is not actually a plugin but a great lil font installer. You can install fonts with it just while your using your program ie..Photoshop. Once you close the font program the fonts aren't installed anymore. ( hope that makes sense). This keeps your computer from getting loaded down with all those great fonts. I've used this for years even though it's not been updated in quite a while it still works great.

AMP Font Viewer is the name of it..There are alot of places to download it from, and I didn't post a link cos everyone has their preferences on where they like to download from. Just google it to find your go to download site.

smiley

Filter Forge too. I featured it on my blog and even had a full-length class on it.
(scoop: I will have one Pro license to give away in September!)

Hi,

I like
Filter unlimitet:
Paper Background, Paper textures

Xero
Graphic Plus
FM Tile Tools
Filter Factory Gallery A-U

I needed them especially for paper textures and frames
so I created a Word file and wrote down my frequently used filters, the subfilter name and the effect. I could also take a photo, put the respective filter over it and collect them in my bag of tricks ( PI-X3 ) and transfer them to my object with just one click.

So cool! I will look it up!

smiley That is such a great list, thank you Doska!

@Carol Cassel:So cool, Carole. I was really tied up and am just seeing this. Honestly, Corel has many advantages.

Yes, surprisingly, PaintShop Pro is often underestimated!

Wow, thanks Ladies, more exciting things to look into.

Thanks for this list of resources!

Strangely, I did not know Filter Forge, we learn about it every day smiley!

Thank you for starting this thread. I'll have to look for a plugin. Eye Candy and Filter Forge sounds like a good place to start. Thank you, Kelly, for the link!

One of my favorite plug-ins is Nik collection. I believe it was originally by Nikon for Nikon cameras. Then a few years back Google bought it.

Anyway, the old version is still free and works very well, imo. There is a paid version though I have no experience with that one.

Although the plug-in has various features my favorite is its Pro Sharpening 3.

I've used this plug-in for over 10 years and like anything, the more you use it the more comfortable you'll become with it.

Oh.... Here's a link: https://lenscraft.co.uk/photography-blog/can-i-get-the-nik-collection-download-free/

Very interesting, Sharin! I will checkout the link. Thank you, thank you!

You're welcome, Sharon. I hope you like it. It really does *so* much more than I've stated... HDR effect, Silver Effects (which is what they call B&W after the old darkroom chemical process).

smiley I love Nik Collection, Sharin.

This is an awesome idea:

Quote:
I created a Word file and wrote down my frequently used filters, the subfilter name and the effect. I could also take a photo, put the respective filter over it
. Thank you for sharing!

Thank you Sharin for the Nik Collection. I used to use it years ago so I'll have to d/l again. I love the Filter Forge. Thank you for the link smiley

some people already mentioned EyeCandy which I 200% second. it does all kinds of amazing things.

now i use PSP9 so i don't know if these work in PS since it seems most here use PS:

one of my biggest go-tos is the Visman set - there are TONSSSSS of them and they can do all sorts of amazing things, from zoom blurring to "instant art" which can make some fun looking backgrounds.

also Alien Skin Xenofex - you can make lightning, put cracks in items, and more. constellation is my main favorite because you can either make backgrounds of stars/sparkles or you can select transparent background and just add sparkles to stuff.

Tramages helps me make backgrounds/paper textures as well. Pool Shadow is my favorite Tramages item.

and last but not least, the Lokas set. Lokas does awesome effects on text like Gel, Aqua, Ice and more. i suppose it could be used on other items too but i primarily use it for text. the name "Lin" on the tag below i made last Christmas uses Lokas Gel.

I used to have Xenofex and loved it! It was discontinued around 10 years ago, though, and doesn't work with newer versions of PSP. Xenofex burned edges, constellation, shatter, stain, cracks, etc. all were very useful filters. It's a shame they only moved some of the effects to Eye Candy, which hasn't been updated for several years and I don't believe they are going to update it either. smiley

It's quite unfortunate that many of the old plugins haven't been updated. There were so many that did some amazing effects. I really wish I could still use SuperBlade Pro. Best text effects ever! Also superior for making metal elements.

well there's one more reason to be a dinosaur and stay with PSP9 smiley i am not giving up my Xenofex! among other things lol.

i never tried SuperBlade Pro but i heard it could do fun things. maybe some day i'll find it...

I actually just Googled SuperBlade Pro (it's by Flaming Pear Software), and it seems as though they've updated it. I'm emailing their customer support to find out more information. I'd gladly buy that filter again! lol

I use mostly Photoshop actions to quickly create different effects like embroidery, torn paper, watercolor and so on.