Photoshop plugins are small extensions that Photoshop loads into the Filter menu at start-up. Most plugins focus on effects that are hard to duplicate in Photoshop. Today, however, we find on the market a number of plugins that do very sophisticated image retouching that would otherwise have been difficult or time consuming in Photoshop. More recent versions of Photoshop has been inspired by some old plugins and does similar things, like lens correction and proper black-white conversion.
Installing plugins into Photoshop is pretty easy. Adobe Photoshop installs with a folder called Plug-Ins inside the Photoshop folder. Place the plugins inside the Plug-Ins folder, and you are done. Launch Photoshop and the menu Filters will have your plugins listed. If Photoshop was already running, when you installed the plugins, you will have to quit Photoshop and launch Photoshop anew. The plugins can in fact be installed in any folder you want, not just Photoshop's Plug-Ins folder. Follow these guidelines to install plugins in any folder you like:
1. First make sure you have an alternative plugins folder. Create it where ever you like and call it what you will. 2. Launch Photoshop. 3. Open the menu Edit. Go to the bottom of the Edit menu to Preferences. Open Preferences. 4. In Preferences go to Plug-Ins or Plug-Ins and Scratch Disk, depending on your Photoshop version. 5. Check Additional Plug-Ins Folder to activate it. 6. Use the Choose button to browse to your alternative plugins folder.
That's all there is to it! You now have an alternative plugins folder where you can store all your personal plugins. Exit the preferences and relaunch Photoshop. Next time you run Photoshop, the menu Filters should have all your personal plugins listed at the bottom.
In general there are two kinds of plugins: 1. Retouching plugins. 2. Plugins that add effects. Retouching plugins don't add anything new to the photo, but rather manipulate what is already there. Effects plugins on the other hand add, well, effects to the photo. Examples of retouching could be sharpening, exposure or saturation. Lens flare, bokeh or raster would be examples of effects. The distinction is not always so easy. What about lens correction? Is that a retouch or an effect? It is a retouch if you correct barreling or pincushion, but if you make a regular image look like a fish eye picture, it is an effect.
Third party plugin support was first introduced in Photoshop 2 in 1991. Three years later Joe Ternasky released Filter Factory for writing third party plugins. In 1997 Alex Hunter released Filter Meister as an improvement over Filter Factory and many of today's plugins are written in Filter Meister. Ten years after Filter Meister was released, a novel approach to filter development was released as Filter Forge. Filter Forge does not build stand alone plugins, but only plugins that run within Filter Forge. Filter Meister plugins are currently only for 32 bit Photoshop, but the developer, Alex Hunter, promises 64bit support will be released some time 2013. Filter Meister is only available for the Windows platform.
Installing plugins into Photoshop is pretty easy. Adobe Photoshop installs with a folder called Plug-Ins inside the Photoshop folder. Place the plugins inside the Plug-Ins folder, and you are done. Launch Photoshop and the menu Filters will have your plugins listed. If Photoshop was already running, when you installed the plugins, you will have to quit Photoshop and launch Photoshop anew. The plugins can in fact be installed in any folder you want, not just Photoshop's Plug-Ins folder. Follow these guidelines to install plugins in any folder you like:
1. First make sure you have an alternative plugins folder. Create it where ever you like and call it what you will. 2. Launch Photoshop. 3. Open the menu Edit. Go to the bottom of the Edit menu to Preferences. Open Preferences. 4. In Preferences go to Plug-Ins or Plug-Ins and Scratch Disk, depending on your Photoshop version. 5. Check Additional Plug-Ins Folder to activate it. 6. Use the Choose button to browse to your alternative plugins folder.
That's all there is to it! You now have an alternative plugins folder where you can store all your personal plugins. Exit the preferences and relaunch Photoshop. Next time you run Photoshop, the menu Filters should have all your personal plugins listed at the bottom.
In general there are two kinds of plugins: 1. Retouching plugins. 2. Plugins that add effects. Retouching plugins don't add anything new to the photo, but rather manipulate what is already there. Effects plugins on the other hand add, well, effects to the photo. Examples of retouching could be sharpening, exposure or saturation. Lens flare, bokeh or raster would be examples of effects. The distinction is not always so easy. What about lens correction? Is that a retouch or an effect? It is a retouch if you correct barreling or pincushion, but if you make a regular image look like a fish eye picture, it is an effect.
Third party plugin support was first introduced in Photoshop 2 in 1991. Three years later Joe Ternasky released Filter Factory for writing third party plugins. In 1997 Alex Hunter released Filter Meister as an improvement over Filter Factory and many of today's plugins are written in Filter Meister. Ten years after Filter Meister was released, a novel approach to filter development was released as Filter Forge. Filter Forge does not build stand alone plugins, but only plugins that run within Filter Forge. Filter Meister plugins are currently only for 32 bit Photoshop, but the developer, Alex Hunter, promises 64bit support will be released some time 2013. Filter Meister is only available for the Windows platform.
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