Adobe Photoshop and CS

[Miqee]

I like to use ptlens for correcting barrel distortion, Alienskin exposure for black and whites, imagenomic noiseware pro for noise reduction and nik sharpener for sharpening.

Colin

 

[singjenn]

Just starting to get the hang of CS3, and I was wondering what plug-ins are your favorites and why?

Any kind of LOMO. I just love the look they create

 

[elizke]

I use PaintshopPro, but the plugins work the same.

My favorite paid for plug in is Focus Magic. It will not work for all photos, but within a certain range, it has saved quite a few for me.

Example....

After Focus Magic...

My favorite free plugins are Photo Plugins found here... http://www.photo-plugins.com/

Particularly the B&W one. I use it all the time for making a toned pic like this....

 

[jeniferrice]

inside my photos like that?

Thanks.

Jen

 

[Spectro is #1]

I only have PSE not PS but hear is how to do it.
You can do it by using the selection marquee tool and center it by eyeballing it. Then go to edit>stroke out line. you with get a dialogue box to choose your color and line size.

Or, select the whole photo go to >select>modify>contract. choose how much you want the border to go in and then do the edit>stroke as described above. The advantage is it will be perfectly centered but the corners may be a bit rounded. either way it is an easy quick way to achieve the effect.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

How about:

1) Select-->All
2) Select-->Modify-->Border-->100 (or whatever)
3) Edit-->Stroke
a) Set Width to 10 px (or whatever)
b) Set Color to White
c) Set Opacity to 40%

 

[jeniferrice]

Thank you both! I appreciate the help.

Jen

 

[fitzperry]

I tried all 3 of the techniques suggested above and I keep getting a wide, blurry line (in fact, I wouldn't even call it a line but more of a blurry area near the edge of the image--looks kind of like I melted the picture ). Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

Here's what I get:

 

[Spectro is #1]

It looks like your feather is set really high. To see click select>feather and it should be at zero.

 

[fitzperry]

It looks like your feather is set really high. To see click select>feather and it should be at zero.

When I do that it tells me I have to enter a value between 0.2 and 250, so I entered 0.2 and I still get pretty much the same effect, although it's whiter and not glowing quite as brightly (I think it had been set to 5). Oddly enough the tool bar at the top also has a box to enter a feather value and it has been set to zero all along, so I'm stumped.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

What type of stroke are you doing? I think I was doing a "normal" stroke.

 

[fitzperry]

What type of stroke are you doing? I think I was doing a "normal" stroke.

I've tried normal, overlay and linear light all with some variation of the blurry line effect. There is also a choice for location--center, inside or outside (IIRC)--and those don't have much effect either.

 

[Spectro is #1]

Your blend mode should be on normal. Inside, outside, center tells elements where to put the line in refrance to the marching ants. (ie if you choose inside the stroke line will be placed against the inside edge of the ants.)

You should be adding the frame on its own layer. If you used a filter or style on the picture layer, when you add the frame, the filter or style will be applied to the frame too.

 

[fitzperry]

Your blend mode should be on normal. Inside, outside, center tells elements where to put the line in refrance to the marching ants. (ie if you choose inside the stroke line will be placed against the inside edge of the ants.)

You should be adding the frame on its own layer. If you used a filter or style on the picture layer, when you add the frame, the filter or style will be applied to the frame too.

I'm feeling like a complete dunce, but I'm still getting the same result. I don't recall ever having so much trouble figuring something like this out. I wasn't adding the frame in its own layer, but doing that didn't change anything.

There is no filter or style on the picture layer that I'm aware of. The image was converted from NEF in Capture NX and then opened in PSE. Just to be sure it wasn't anything to do with the RAW conversion in NX, I tried another image that was converted in Lightroom and got the same result.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Spectro is #1]

Are you able to apply the effect to another jpeg?

 

[fitzperry]

Are you able to apply the effect to another jpeg?

Nope. I've tried it on three different images taken by two different cameras. One was originally shot in jpeg and the others were converted from NEF. I'm stumped.

 

[Spectro is #1]

try this, add a new layer above the picture. draw a rectangle. is the rectangular sharp?

If it works try this. make a new layer above the rectangle. go back select the rectangle, put your cursor right over the rectangle layer in the layers pallet, hold the ctrl button down (command on a mac) and hit the left mouse button. The marching ants will go around the rectangle. select the new layer you made above the rectangle and hit the edit>stoke. See if that sharpens it up. if that works than just delete the layer that has the rectangle on it. I can't figure out you are having so much trouble. let me know how you make out or if my kooky directions are, too kooky and I will try to clarify.


If it doesn't work abandon the simple frame and shoot for something like this. It might be easy-er.

 

[fitzperry]

try this, add a new layer above the picture. draw a rectangle. is the rectangular sharp?

If it works try this. make a new layer above the rectangle. go back select the rectangle, put your cursor right over the rectangle layer in the layers pallet, hold the ctrl button down (command on a mac) and hit the left mouse button. The marching ants will go around the rectangle. select the new layer you made above the rectangle and hit the edit>stoke. See if that sharpens it up. if that works than just delete the layer that has the rectangle on it. I can't figure out you are having so much trouble. let me know how you make out or if my kooky directions are, too kooky and I will try to clarify.

Ok, I'm having a little trouble following that, but it has been a long day! And you may never want to respond to my posts again, but in my determination to make the "select > modify > border" method work, I hadn't played with the rectangular marquee tool again. I tried it yesterday, unsuccessfully, but I decided to give it another go and it worked (although it's not centered to my satisfaction--did I mention I'm a perfectionist?--but that much I can work on). Thank you for taking the time to help me work this out.

If it doesn't work abandon the simple frame and shoot for something like this. It might be easy-er.

Cool! I've never messed around with out of bounds techniques. My dd will get a kick out of that (pardon the pun ).

 

[Spectro is #1]

Holy cow that is what the problem is. I did not notice that Mark suggested the select > modify > border. The modify border does not come out sharp. That is not the proper way to achieve that effect. I could have saved us a lot of pain if I had read the post more closely. (my bad).
I should have been clearer in my description too.

The step is:

open photo
add a new layer above your photo
using the square marque tool draw the frame on the new layer where you want it
hit Edit>Stroke (outline)
pick the thickness and color hit OK, that is all.
The only time you would need to open the select>modify drop-down is if you feather was set high (which we covered already)
try it that way, post your results.

By the way that is a real good photo.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Holy cow that is what the problem is. I did not notice that Mark suggested the select > modify > border. The modify border does not come out sharp. That is not the proper way to achieve that effect. I could have saved us a lot of pain if I had read the post more closely. (my bad).
I should have been clearer in my description too.

The step is:

open photo
add a new layer above your photo
using the square marque tool draw the frame on the new layer where you want it
hit Edit>Stroke (outline)
pick the thickness and color hit OK, that is all.
The only time you would need to open the select>modify drop-down is if you feather was set high (which we covered already)
try it that way, post your results.

By the way that is a real good photo.

Ooops....It worked when I tried it. I'm pretty weak at drawing with PS. My next suggestion was going to involve a ruler and liquid paper.