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The Best Free Photoshop Plugins - Free Photoshop Plugin Downloads
April 17, 2008
I went out looking for some free Photoshop plugins and I came back with some nice little gems. So here they are, all linked up and with little blurbs. My work is done. I hope you find something insipiring.
AutoFX Dreamy Photo
Free plugin by Auto FX Software that give photos a soft, dreamy quality. Toggle functions include blur, blend, ghosting, tint color, soften mask, zoom, and zoom offset. Documentation also available. Email address needed to activate.
Available for Windows and Mac.
Topaz DeJPEG
From Topaz Labs, Topaz DeJPEG is a freeware program that removes from JPEGs their telltale signs of compression, including “blockiness” and other artifacts. Capable of batch processing images. A user's guide is also provided.
Available for Windows.
Harry's Filters
A free collection of fairly simple photoshop filters, provided by Harald Heim's The Plugin Site (http://www.thepluginsite.com), that help to achieve the desired effect with ease. Includes dozens of image effects, all categorized into nine groups: Artistic, Color, En/Decrypt, Gradients, Nature, Noise, Patterns, Warp, and Other. Presets can be saved as well.
Available for Windows and Mac OS Classic (must provide email to download).
virtualPhotographer
A free plugin by optikVerve Labs that makes it ridiculously faster and easier to turn digital images into professional, traditionally stylistic photos. VirtualPhotographer has more than 50 presets which let you toggle settings for color, contrast, film grain, focus, and other properties.
Available for Windows.
Neat Image Demo
Another “image noise” eraser, the Neat Image Demo is advertised as using “the most advanced noise reduction algorithms in the industry”. It pioneers the use of “device noise profiles”, so that when an image is being refined, Neat Image compensates for the specific camera or scanner that was used in digitally capturing it. The program's device profiles, of which there are a good many, are updated with each version.
Available for Windows and for Mac.
Paint Engine
Offered as freeware by Fantastic Machines, Paint Engine is probably the quickest way to make a photo look like a painting in photoshop. You can toggle brush type and stroke type, as well as other controls.
Fully functional beta version available for Windows.
Photo-Plugins
A collection of 8 freeware plugins offered by George Fournaris is based on both dark room techniques and image processing theory. Plugins are basic, and include b/w conversion, contrast mask, gradient blur, high pass sharpening, lens correction, local contrast enhancement, selective saturation, and soft focus.
Available for Windows.
Xero Plugins
A dynamic selection of 40+ plugins provided by Xero Graphics, some simple, some more inventive.
Available for Windows.
Mehdi Plugins
A growing collection of 25+ very useful and easy to use plugins. A must for anyone new to Photoshop.
Available for Windows.
Luce
From Antonino Perricone, Luce is a plugin that easily generates or intensifies beams/rays of light from an image. Some properties that can be manipulated include light color, intensity, type, and shadow intensity.
Available for Windows.
VDL Adrenaline
Five free plugins for Windows from VanDerLee: Harmonix lets you render harmonic waves and mix up to ten of them. Snowscape can cover a landscape, or anything else, in snow. Camouflage, NightVision, and Snowflake are also available.
Available for Windows.
Redfield Freeware Plugins
A variety of photoshop plugins from redfieldplugins.com. On their download page, seven of the programs offered are completely freeware. Especially noteworthy are Seamless Workshop, which creates seamless tiles of an image, and Face Control, which changes facial expressions quite realistically.
The other freeware downloads are Craquelure 3D, Water Ripples, Jama 3D, Lattice Composer, and Redfield++ Bas-Relief (a two-in-one filter which can convert an image to bas- relief or a pencil sketch).
Available for Windows.
Deep Paint 2
Once a retail product from Right Hemisphere, Deep Paint 2 is an application that can function as a photoshop plugin. It lets you convert a photo to a painting, manipulate brush and canvas properties, and simulate acrylic, oil and watercolor paint. The product was discontinued because of the graphics industry's recent transformation in focus from 2D to 3D. Though increasingly tough to find, it can still be downloaded as freeware.
Available for Windows.
FilterFoundry (for using FilterFactory plugins under MacOS X)
Provided by Toby Thain at telegrapics.com.au, filter foundry is a clone of the “Filter Factory” photoshop filters plugin originally released by Adobe, now ready for mac users.
Available for Windows and Mac.
8bf Plugin Filters
Thirteen plugins designed by Jim Clatfelter and free to download from his page 8bf.net: Frame Works, Foto Frame, Texture Frame, Transparent Frame, Marble Mask, Single Hue, Textures, Simplifier, Edge Art, Blot and Smudge, Good Vibrations (which makes waves, rumples, etc), Transparent Vignette, and Custom Filter (a convolution filter with many adjustable settings).
Available for Windows.
SmartCurve (Curve tool for Photoshop Elements)
A plugin from Alois Zingl that applies and adjusts curves in an image. Originally developed for elements to compensate for its lack of a curve command, but also works in the full vesion of photoshop.
Available for Windows.
Red Paw Freeware Plugins
Three free plugins from Red Paw Media: Beautifier, HotPixel, and BleachBypass. Beautifier creates “flattering soft-focus, high-key and infra-red simulation effects”, HotPixel removes “hot pixel” noise, and BleachBypass simulates the “bleach skip” technique used in traditional photography, in which the bleaching stage in processing is skipped and silver remains in the negative. Freeware links found at bottom of download page. Available for Windows.
Cybia Fotomatic
A collection of 8 basic but well constructed photoshop plugins from S.W. Upham's Cybia. Downloads can be found on the site map under digital photography/fotomatic.
Flaming Pear Free Plugins
A collection of plugins by Flaming Pear Software. Includes Ornament, ChromaSolarize, Tachyon, Ghost, Solidify, Vitriol, RGB/HSL, Circle to Square, Make Cube Tile, and others. Under Free Plugins on the download page.
Available for Windows and Mac
Reindeer Graphics Free Plugins
Six free photoshop plugins from Reindeer Graphics (http://www.reindeergraphics.com/): Select Edges, Wide Histogram, Adaptive Equalization, Tabbed Text Format, Enter Magnification, and Custom (a custom convolution filter).
Available for Windows and Mac
Enjoy!
posted by Jennifer Apple | permalink | RSS feed | bookmark | comment
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