Plug-Ins

Fans of Nik Software's intuitive U-Point technology (which is everybody who has used it in applications like Color Efex Pro or Capture NX) are in for a big, happy surprise with Nik Software's newest application, Viveza. If you're not familiar with U-Point powered Control Points, they allow you to apply adjustments selectively to particular areas of an image without the need for complicated masking.

While you can do just about anything to an image with Photoshop, some tasks can be fairly labor-intensive or tricky to accomplish unless you know exactly what to do. Plug-ins are applications that extend the capabilities of Photoshop, most often by providing a more automated, simplified approach to an otherwise complex Photoshop task. They typically launch from within Photoshop and use a customized window with specialized tools for the job at hand.

Plug-ins are useful accessories for your image-processing program. These small software programs work within the main program, using the host to do marvelous things with your images. Since plug-ins come with many different functions, you have to examine them carefully to see if they fit your needs.

Since the beginning of digital imaging, noise has been a serious problem for photographers. We've longed for a way to reduce noise while not affecting image quality and camera performance.

It seems only natural that legendary optical manufacturer B+W would use its expertise to develop a set of software filters. Some of the filters stand in for glass filters you'd use over your camera lens, but many of the plug-ins go beyond that to provide effects that can be challenging to produce, even with image-editing software.

For all its power and capability, Photoshop is a program that can leave a photographer's eyes glazed over. The seemingly endless assortment of features and different ways to achieve similar results can lead many of us to spend more time emptily gazing into a computer monitor rather than creating images behind a camera. Enter Photoshop-compatible plug-ins—tools that make photo editing simpler, more efficient and intuitive.