Have Nik... Any other plugins?

[BigBadWolfie]

I bought Nik and I've really enjoyed using them. Really makes life easier. I was wondering if there are any other plugins I should look at or buy that would complement what I have. I want to try avoiding duplicating functions, but if it does things better I don't mind. Here are a few plugins I've been looking at in order of seriousness of consideration:

Alien Skin Exposure: Seems like a good program for obtaining some specific "looks" I want fairly easily and quickly but it's real pricy. Wouldn't mind the bundle but the price is insane IMO.

Imagenomic bundle: Specifically I'm looking at Portraiture. Is it worth it over using dynamic skin smoothener? I don't do a whole lot of close-up portraits but I do find skin tones to be really hard to get. Don't really need Noiseware but if it's better than Nik's Dfine, I suppose it can't hurt to have.

Qimage: Highly regarded software. Just for printing though.

Dynamic Auto Painter: Neat effects. Not sure if I'll use it a whole lot though.

Topaz: The entire suite or pick and choose. A lot of the software seems to do similar things compared to Nik, but it's priced really well relatively speaking.

OnOne: I haven't really looked into this suite all that much but it seems to be quite different from the Nik suite.

So? What do you guys think?

[pbelarge]

One aspect of all this processing is the learning of the different software and actually becoming proficient with it.
I have LR, NIK, Photomatrix, the new NIK HDR, and CS5. I hardly use CS5 as I am putting a large effort into LR/NIK.
I then plan to use CS5 for the pixel work, which is even more work - learning wise.

I will say I have looked at other plug-ins. I see a lot of redundancy and people have their favorites possibly due to when they adopted the particular plug-in they like.

I do like the possibility of Tiffen filters though, yet I am in no hurry to add more to the learning curve just yet.

[garryknight]

I use Topaz Adjust and Lens Effects and like both of them a lot, and I believe that OnOne has a filter similar to Lens Effects, though it doesn't have an equivalent of Adjust. What OnOne does have is Perfect Mask which is similar to Topaz Remask, and Perfect Effects which allows you to add one-click effects to your photos. There's a cheaper plugin (as in free) called VirtualPhotographer which gives you one-click effects with film emulation and colour filters.

[BigBadWolfie]

One aspect of all this processing is the learning of the different software and actually becoming proficient with it.
I have LR, NIK, Photomatrix, the new NIK HDR, and CS5. I hardly use CS5 as I am putting a large effort into LR/NIK.
I then plan to use CS5 for the pixel work, which is even more work - learning wise.

I will say I have looked at other plug-ins. I see a lot of redundancy and people have their favorites possibly due to when they adopted the particular plug-in they like.

Ya. The way I see it, these plugins are just tools that makes it easier to achieve the look I want. I've really enjoy using color effex. For most photos I don't really apply any effect, but for some photos where I have something in mind it's nice having various tools at my disposal. But you're right, there does seem to be a lot of redundancy that's why I'm trying to find something that makes sense for me to have.


I use Topaz Adjust and Lens Effects and like both of them a lot, and I believe that OnOne has a filter similar to Lens Effects, though it doesn't have an equivalent of Adjust. What OnOne does have is Perfect Mask which is similar to Topaz Remask, and Perfect Effects which allows you to add one-click effects to your photos. There's a cheaper plugin (as in free) called VirtualPhotographer which gives you one-click effects with film emulation and colour filters.
I looked at Adjust and it seems very similar to the tonal contrast filter in color effex. Maybe Adjust will be better at achieving some looks but it doesn't seem to offer anything different from what I have in the Nik package. Lens Effects does seem to work better than the blur filters in Nik, but I suppose you can achieve something similar simply by masking and lessening background sharpening and focus.

Have you compared Remask with Perfect Mask? And more importantly, does it do a better job than CS5?

[Maxdave]

I have all of NIK except HDR Pro. I use it with CS5 Extended. I also have Topaz Adjust 5.

I only use a few of Topaz Adjust 5's filters, but those seem to either to be unique to it, or at least easier to use than to use NIK for that specific effect. For the rest of the effects and corrections I need, either CS5 itself, or a NIK component, seems enough for me.

I used to use the Imagenomic Noiseware, but for me, DFine is as good and as easy. I don't think you need both. I also used to use the Portraiture package and really liked it ... however I haven't missed it since I got the NIK package.

Maxdave

[garryknight]

Have you compared Remask with Perfect Mask? And more importantly, does it do a better job than CS5?

I haven't tried any OnOne products yet. And Remask is probably the next Topaz filter I'll buy, but I don't have it yet.

[kiss-o-matic]

Exposure is nice, but there is very little in it you can't do with a collection of Curves,Saturation, and Filter layers. In fact, you can decode what most of them do and just make your own layers and group them together. You can get all that from the demo. The B&W stuff isn't quite as straight forward.

[BigBadWolfie]

Exposure is nice, but there is very little in it you can't do with a collection of Curves,Saturation, and Filter layers. In fact, you can decode what most of them do and just make your own layers and group them together. You can get all that from the demo. The B&W stuff isn't quite as straight forward.
Ya, I'm not a big fan of playing with Curves. Just a lot of work. I guess I'll download the demo and see how much I like it.

[stealthdave]

rad actions are also worth a look. I have used Topaz adjust but only find a couple of the actions worthwhile.

[NovCJ]

I've had problems with OnOne plugins in the past as they seem to crash a lot for me but I suppose it could be my system - no problems with other plug ins though.

[squiLL]

You guys should try Dfx.
http://tiffensoftware.com/

[bedojo]

I have tried alot, I use lightroom and photoshop.
a few presets and actions and my own custom actions.
scott kelby seems to use nik alot,,,, or so he says :P

i find the plugins don't give me what i want :S

[ktc1]

I have a couple OnOne plugins and never use them; they are too complicated and not intuitive. NIK is the way to go IMO, and I have all of their plugins. They are all very intuitive and useful.

[Palladium]

Imagenomic Portraiture

IMO its the king of skin

If your doing female portraits and want to touch up the skin - it great

[Picture North Carolina]

I have a couple OnOne plugins and never use them; they are too complicated and not intuitive. NIK is the way to go IMO, and I have all of their plugins. They are all very intuitive and useful.

Nik ColorEfex - never seen a better collection of filters myself

Nik dFine - better than noise ninja which I used for years

Nik SilverEfex - no debate. The best BW conversion app in the universe.

Nik complete set of filters - no debate here either, shockingly overpriced. I mean, just a little less than Photoshop itself? Seriously??

[kiss-o-matic]

I think the shame in ColorEfex & SilverEfex is that with very, very little practice in Photoshop you can do the same w/ Layer Groups. Probably even faster if you use Smart Objects.

[tonylong]

I think the shame in ColorEfex & SilverEfex is that with very, very little practice in Photoshop you can do the same w/ Layer Groups. Probably even faster if you use Smart Objects.

You know, there is a link in the FAQ for Photoshop links:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=57523

The thread is old, but what you mention, if you had a link that has some kind of tutorial, could really add to that thread if you posted a link!

It would be cool if that thread could be kept up-to-date whenever someone came across a particularly useful tutorial or article!

[Picture North Carolina]

I think the shame in ColorEfex & SilverEfex is that with very, very little practice in Photoshop you can do the same w/ Layer Groups. Probably even faster if you use Smart Objects.

I would agree with SilverEfex. However, I have found some of the effects produced in ColorEfex to be very, very hard to reverse engineer.

[kiss-o-matic]

I need to download the demo and try. If so, maybe worth the money. I've found for Exposure, that it is basically a GUI wrapped around a group of layers as I've explained above. There was one setting I never got though.

Sry, Tony -- no tutorial. Maybe I'll write one sometime.