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  #1  
Old 11-11-2004, 07:52 PM
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Photoshop CS 3rd party plug-ins?

I'm just now starting to dig a little deeper with my photoshop CS than the 3 auto-fix's so I'm wondering if there are any 3rd party plug-ins I might want to take a look at? Any recomendations?
thanks...
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  #2  
Old 11-11-2004, 10:20 PM
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SharpByCoop SharpByCoop is offline
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Yes...

http://www.fredmiranda.com/software/

I use a little add-on called 'Intellisharpen II' that was created as an upgrade to the Unsharp Mask feature of Photoshop. It works on PS CS and PS 7.0.

It has a great dialog window and has a LOT of settings to tweek and adjust. Well worth the money ($24) for me.

Look at all the others for good ideas.

Coop


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  #3  
Old 11-12-2004, 06:43 PM
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I use a great add-on from www.Fixerlabs.com called Focus Fixer.
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  #4  
Old 11-23-2004, 01:00 PM
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Quick follow-up:
I recently had a good experience with Fred Miranda Software as recc'd by Coop above. For $12 I downloaded a plug-in for Photoshop CS called "Frames." I was pretty impressed with it. It basically does frames and/or mattes for images, a la a framed painting. Here's my first "right out of the box" effort: http://knifenetwork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25347
For $12 I figured 'what the heck' and I was pleasantly surprised. Looks like they've got lots of other good stuff too.


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Old 11-23-2004, 02:26 PM
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I'm apparently overlooking something as I downloaded the Frames Plug-in but can find no instructions on specifically how to use it. Any help?
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  #6  
Old 11-24-2004, 12:11 AM
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Yeah, they don't actually overwhelm you with helpful hints do they? I think they assume we're familiar with the actions option under the Window menu.

First thing is select tools to show then click on one of the color boxes. That would be background. Select a color, click OK. Then click on the other color. That would be foreground. Select a different color and click OK.

Then click on the FM frames arrow and read the read me file. Then scroll down to one of the styles like thin frame, thick matte. Click on the arrow and choose plain or light wood or whatever. Then select the first option and hit the 'play' button below. It looks like the 'play' button on a CD player or tape player.

After that just check the OK box every time and see what you wind up with. That's what I did just to see how it worked. Work with a duplicate image and if you don't want to save your first try, close the image but don't save.

After a few times through checking out the different options and colors etc. I kind of got a feel for it. Compared to the built in frames module that came with the Photoshop CS the FM version seems to produce a less gimicky and more sophisticated result.

However, take all this with a grain of salt since I was never an expert to start with and have only just discovered that I could put frames around images and write stuff in there like Terrill, Coop and others do.


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Old 11-24-2004, 04:08 PM
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Yep,,after I foolded with it for a while I figured out how to do it. Cool plugin for $12.

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  #8  
Old 11-24-2004, 05:40 PM
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notdos -
Glad that worked out for you! Coop mentioned above the FM Intellisharpen II for $24. I think I'll give it a try just for fun. I just recently figured out how to better use the built-in CS 'unsharp mask' after reading a magazine article about it and I'm interested to see how FM does it. And of course, if Coop suggests it................well, who am I to doubt it!


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Old 11-24-2004, 06:32 PM
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Yup, I really like the Intellisharpen add-on. (It only works in Photoshop.)



It has a number of adjustments, and it works over the photo in layers and masks and other voodo. It takes about ten or more seconds to do it's thing. When I do a photo for the web, I do a process that starts with sharpening it at the large level, reducing the size, and then sharpening the fine detail at the smaller level. The program has a number of slide bar settings for this.

And then you can reduce the overall effect with the 'Intensity Tweek' bar, if you went too much.

I made up an action that does all of this in one swoop. Once I played around and found settings that worked visually well, I haven't changed or played much since. No need.

Coop


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Old 11-24-2004, 07:20 PM
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I ended up getting FocalBlade and Colorwasher. Both of these are from the same vendor in Germany no less and I was really pleased that I could see what was happening as I tweaked the settings. I also picked up Intellisharpen as it is different from either of the others.
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  #11  
Old 12-05-2004, 11:10 PM
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Installed Intellisharpen (Thanks, Coop!) and am getting familiar with it. I like it so far. I've done a couple of side by sides with Unsharp Mask vs Intellisharpen and I think it takes a more sophisticated approach, breaking the image down into a number of tone/light/detail/contrast levels and deals with each separately. It's also cool to watch it work automatically! When I settle upon the best settings for each of the three or four basic types of images I shoot, I can see that I will save a lot of time using Intellisharpen. Discovering the best settings for each basic type of image I shoot will take some time, as it did for Unsharp Mask as well - but I think the results will be better.


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Old 12-20-2004, 01:18 PM
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I don't think I could live without IntellisharpenII. It's that good. When I downsize for the web with PS CS I choose Bicubic Sharper which was made for downsizing in CS, as normal bicubic lets the image loose native sharpness when downsized, and then give it as low a level possible where it looks good, normally level 5 to 11 (both normal and fine detail) depending on the image but some take more. Of couse all cameras and methods will differ and that is the beauty of IntelliSharpenII. You have lots of options.

You want some good free actions? Look Here You will find some usless ones but some are very nice. Check out Bud's frames, especially the EZ Miter. There are many other catagories for some off the wall eclectic stuff if you are ever in the mood.


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Old 12-22-2004, 01:20 PM
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Howdy Glen! Nice to see you posting on the forums again. Since Coop steered me to Intellisharpen II I have not cared to return to the Adobe 'unsharp mask' at all. In fact, I credit it for helping me take my images to a higher level of sharpness that formerly I was struggling (and failing) to reach. Makes me wonder what else is out there that could do the same for color balance. Having fun down there in the desert?
Buddy


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Old 12-22-2004, 03:43 PM
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Photoshop is coming out with an upgrade around spring if the word around the campfire is accurate. They always make big jumps in quality commands and tools. I would bet more color improvements are on the way.

I'm having and great time in the deserts as this image from last week will attest to. It was deep shade but the day was relatively warm.



The knife is barely visible but the hike was pure exhilaration.

Oh, BTW, I have the 20D now with a couple of new lenses including the 50mm 2.5 Macro.


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Old 12-23-2004, 09:40 AM
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Glen,
The 20D - a great choice! Us 10D owners are a pretty happy bunch but we're kind of stuck. The 20D is significantly improved over the 10D but not enough to justify the switch. Since I'll stick with the Canon line, the obvious upgrade choice is the 1D MKII but it costs 3k more than the 20D and will probably be significantly re-vamped by Canon in the next 12-18 months at most. So the real upgrade choice becomes the 1Ds MKII at 7.5k street price! Now to me, this is 'stuck'! If I could easily access a good used 1D MKII for around 2.5k I might jump. I haven't looked yet so I don't know what they're going for used. Anyway, I bet you're loving the 20D!

I have the 50mm F2.5 macro too - and I should use it more now than I do because it's a nice lens. One reviewer said: "If you need both (50mm normal and macro) in one lens - the Canon EF 50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro Lens is for you! If 1:2 macro is good enough, the Canon EF 50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro Lens is a good value lens. Image quality is very good. There are many uses for this lens, but semi-close-up photography is a good candidate. Product photography is one example. Small non-moving items such as jewelry, fashion accessories, documents ... are more examples."
Mine is older and has been banged around during travel, spent a month in dusty Africa, made the trip up Mt. Kenya and Kilimanjoro and so on. I guess I figured it was old and no good any more. Of course now I'm old too - does that mean I think I'm no good any more as well? Guess I need to re-think things a bit.
Buddy

Last edited by Buddy Thomason; 12-23-2004 at 11:41 AM.
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