RadLab is a Photoshop action set. With its own palette, you can start RadLab and decide whether you want it to work with your image on the same or a new layer, or as a smart object.

RadLab’s interface overtakes the Photoshop interface: On the left is the image; a middle column shows all the available effects (Stylets in RadLab speak); and at right are the controls. Users get a histogram, a Save/Cancel button, and for each group of effects a couple of simple slider controls. There are also sliders that control brightness, contrast, and warmth.

Totally Rad! claims their interface is the first one to make photo effects simple—a bold statement. I found RadLab’s interface not dramatically easier to use than Nik’s Color Efex Pro, which allows for more fine-tuning of each filter.

RadLab has a number of interesting effects you won’t find anywhere else and, as with Color Efex, users can create recipes by combining effects. But RadLab has its flaws. For example, if you tune an individual effect or Stylet, the change is immediately applied to all Stylets. One Stylet—the POS Lens—showed strange artifacts when I set the Strength and Vignette options to 179%. My images started showing pure red and yellow discoloration at the edges.

The way changing recipes rippled through the entire Stylets library was confusing. I could only get back to default values by resetting the recipe after saving it, or by restarting RadLab.

Company: Totally Rad! Inc.
Price: $149
Web: www.gettotallyrad.com
Rating: 2.5
Hot: Contains a number of nice effects or Stylets
Not: Not as simple as it claims to be

Some of you may already know about Filter Forge because it’s one of the most popular plug-ins in the industry today. For those who don’t, it’s a pretty robust plug-in for Photoshop that’s aimed at everyone from novice to expert, so there’s something for everyone here. Filter Forge provides graphic artists, 3D modelers, Web designers, and photographers with the ability to create a wide variety of photo effects, as well as abstract and realistic textures that you can use for pretty much whatever your creativity can come up with. The long-awaited Filter Forge 3 has finally launched and it’s packed full of features that really take the possibilities up a notch, so let’s take a look at what they are.

We’ll start with a peek at just how much is here out of the box (so to speak)! You won’t feel shorted on extras because Filter Forge 3 offers more than 3,800 graphic effects and 4,300+ backgrounds and textures—a total of 8,593 filters! You can also use the visual filter editor to create your own filters by assembling them from various components—blurs, gradients, color adjustments, noises, distortions, or blends.

Next up is probably one of the most requested features (and also the biggest drawback in prior Filter Forge versions): Support for multiple source images, which has now become a reality. Up until now, you could only use a single source image (or PSD layer), thus limiting the capabilities and creative ways you could use the product. Well, that’s no longer an issue, because now you can load multiple images to work with to create richer, more dynamic compositions.

Another great feature in version 3 is the ability to create B©zier curves with a powerful new curves editor that lets you create tone curves in your work.

The revamped user interface in Filter Forge 3 is also much improved. It’s more intuitive and allows the user to finally stretch out over dual monitors. Yes! That has always been an issue for me (with any program), as I need the real estate.

Other new features include the Edge Detector, which finds the edge in a single click; progressive previews that allow you a low-res preview of the rendered image; and a host of others.

Now for the good news: You can try out Filter Forge 3 for free for 30 days before you purchase it. This lets you give it a good test run and, coupled with the great tutorials they have, you’ll be well on your way to creating great images in no time!

I think that this release of Filter Forge 3 has really stepped up its game and added more of the features that will keep the experts happy. I’ve been using this plug-in for years and encourage everyone to at least take a look at the free copy to see the creative possibilities that Filter Forge 3 offers.

The only issue I have with the product is the pricing structure. For only a slight feature upgrade from Basic to Standard, they could have just had two levels and kept the price a bit more reasonable.

Company: Filter Forge, Inc.
Price: Basic: $149; Standard: $249; Professional: $399
Web: www.filterforge.com
Rating: 4.5
Hot: Multiple source images; revamped interface; number of filters
Not: Pricing structure

Many of you know the PhotoTools plug-in from onOne Software, but did you know it has been rebranded as Perfect Effects 3? The result is you get most of the same effects with a ton of new capabilities. Perfect Effects 3 packs a complete library of photographic effects that you can stack for unlimited creative possibilities in Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom, and Aperture, or you can even use it as a standalone application.

So let’s take a look at some cool new features in Perfect Effects 3. My favorite has to be the most straightforward of them all—Live Preview. This allows you to preview each effect on an image and when you get the exact effect you want, simply apply it. No trial and error, just preview then select! Next are the Vintage Effects. These allow you to get a range of vintage looks that used to take hours to create. I also like that the controls give you the capability to dictate every aspect of the effect on your image. This includes strength, tone, color, and even texture. There’s no limit to what you can do with the creativity on your images.

This is one of the best plug-ins available for applying effects to your images. The control and capabilities give you a wide range of options for your images. The fact that you can preview each effect before you apply it is fantastic and makes the process much less painful. This is a great addition to your plug-in arsenal. Perfect Effects 3 is available for $99.95 or as part of the onOne Perfect Photo Suite 6, which includes a total of seven applications for $299.95.

Company: onOne Software
Price: $99.95 (Upgrade: $69.95)
Web: www.ononesoftware.com
Rating: 5
Hot: Ease of use; fantastic borders and effects
Not:

Perfect Layers 2 from onOne Software is a Lightroom and Aperture plug-in, as well as a standalone Mac OS X and Windows application, for layer-based image editing outside of Photoshop. Its familiar interface makes easy work of editing images with layers without requiring the overhead that comes along with Photoshop—and with a much lower price tag.

New features, such as retouch brushes and a file browser, are part of version 2, and features from version 1, such as blending modes, adjustment layers, color fill layers, and masking brushes are still there.

Perfect Layers 2 is great for mixing multiple exposures into a single HDR-style image, or for creating effects by mixing pieces from similar images. I was able to make edits quickly without it ever feeling tedious.

The interface has a familiar feel that’s easy to figure out since it’s similar enough to image-editing tools we already use: tools are grouped in panels; layers can be toggled on and off; and the masking settings include easy-to-use slider controls.

Perfect Layers also supports Wacom tablets, so you can control brush settings simply by applying more or less pressure with your stylus.

Edited images are saved as PSD files, so you can continue working with them in Lightroom or Aperture. Or, if you want to make additional edits in Photoshop, the file layers are fully editable there, too.

The tools and interface are well thought out, and they should be because Photoshop User Editor-in-Chief Scott Kelby helped design the app. Perfect Layers 2 just adds the layer tools Lightroom and Aperture users need to quickly make their images look even more professional, without too much pain in the pocketbook.

Company: onOne Software
Price: $69.95
Web: www.ononesoftware.com
Rating: 5
Hot: Adds great layer editing to Lightroom and Aperture
Not:

Perfect Mask 5 is the next generation of Mask Pro from onOne Software. It can be purchased as a standalone or as part of Perfect Photo Suite 6, and promises to make high-quality masks in just a few clicks.

Perfect Mask can be accessed directly from Photoshop, Lightroom, Photoshop Elements, and Apple Aperture. Because there’s no masking in Lightroom or Aperture (without a plug-in), photographers who use these programs for the majority of their workflow would benefit most from this application. Likewise, Perfect Mask is a good standalone substitution for anyone who needs to mask photos but doesn’t own Photoshop, or who owns it but isn’t a whiz at masking. The interface is easy to navigate, fairly intuitive to use, and makes quick work of masking. If Perfect Mask detects a solid-color background, it can remove it automatically. So if you’ve shot on a solid background or a green screen, this is a great timesaver.

This being Photoshop User, it’s impossible not to compare any masking software to what’s available natively in Photoshop. If you already have and are comfortable with Photoshop, you likely already know an array of techniques that are on par with or exceed the capabilities of Perfect Mask. Personally, I’ve used Photoshop for more than 17 years, so I can make great masks very quickly. My comfort in Photoshop probably made the learning curve in Perfect Mask greater for me than it would be for someone new to masking.

Perfect Mask is an affordable masking tool for photographers, either as a standalone or with applications they already employ. onOne offers a free 30-day trial, so you can run it through its paces before deciding to buy.

Company: onOne Software
Price: $99.95 (Upgrade: $69.95)
Web: www.ononesoftware.com
Rating: 3
Hot: Works alone or with popular photographers’ applications
Not: Takes time to master

“Effortless” skin retouching often ends in even more effort—and is usually more apparent—but Smooth Skins from Digital Heavens offers a lot of options, with a lot of support. It teaches all levels of Photoshop users a better way to clean up even dramatic skin imperfections but also gives the pros the natural results they want.

Launching the tutorial first demystified every aspect of the installation and use of Smooth Skins. Like other actions, the set is loaded from within the Actions panel in Photoshop, or by double-clicking on the action file, but Digital Heavens also includes an action that explains what will happen and why. Smooth Skins is clearly for larger image files, supporting both 8- and 16-bit images, but in spite of adding steps to editing your image, the results occur much more quickly.

Once the action splits your image into both high- and low-pass layers (texture and luminosity, respectively), you can select from a variety of smoothing types. Each of the actions produces its own style of correction with as much or as little as you need based on your desired look. Unlike traditional plug-ins, after the actions run, the user applies the results to specific areas by painting on a layer mask. If you don’t love the change, undo is also much faster than with other retouching plug-ins.

When all is said and done, Smooth Skin’s output is natural and the process becomes fun as you play with the limitless possibilities. With a bit of use to become more fluid, this nondestructive skin-correction software can be stacked, blended, adjusted, and corrected with just your eyes as a guide, allowing for quite a retouching feeding frenzy.

Company: Digital Heavens
Price: £24.95
Web: www.digitalheavens.co.uk
Rating: 5
Hot: Effective solution; natural-looking output; thorough tutorials
Not:

NoiseControl 1 is a plug-in for Photoshop and compatible programs (both Mac and Windows) that’s remarkably effective at reducing image noise while keeping edge details and natural grain. It can also sharpen a noisy image without increasing noise, and even add simulated film grain to an image to make it appear more natural.

While discerning photographers may use NoiseControl’s advanced controls, its two-button Easy mode works well on most images. The Auto Sample button finds a flat area in the image and samples the noise there to remove the noise from all areas. The Auto Preset button uses the EXIF camera and ISO data built into your photo to take a guess at what to remove. I found both to be remarkably effective.

You can even create custom presets for your camera by shooting a series of photos at various ISO settings, adjusting them in NoiseControl, and then saving the result. (Investing a little time in this process will save tons of time later.) To batch process images, include NoiseControl in a Photoshop action; to apply NoiseControl nondestructively, just convert your image to a smart object first.

NoiseControl is very fast, both in previewing and in applying the result. You can zoom into the preview and resize the preview window as large as you need it. Helpfully, you can even preview just the noise to be removed. Unfortunately, in testing on my Mac, I ran into two interface problems: the Split View feature—helpful for seeing a before and after view—wouldn’t turn off, and I couldn’t resize the Preview Limit rectangle as described. The Plugin Site is working on these issues and may have fixed these problems by the time you read this.

Company: The Plugin Site
Price: $49.95
Web: http://thepluginsite.com
Rating: 4
Hot: Fast, effective, and automatic; advanced controls
Not: Interface glitches reduce efficiency

Snap Art 3 is Alien Skin’s latest version of their painting and drawing effects plug-in software for Photoshop, Lightroom, and Elements. And it’s exactly what the name implies—software for quickly transforming photographic images into stylized art. There’s a comprehensive collection of preset styles to get you started such as crayon, oil paint, pencil, comics, and watercolor that are further broken down into subgroups for landscapes, portraits, abstracts, etc. You can globally adjust the preset style using sliders to modify brushstroke, surface texture, color, light, etc., or locally use a layer mask to modify your image.

At any point in your exploration you can save and name your modifications. Snap Art processes large files relatively quickly and renders your image in a large preview window. The tools and controls are easy to use and the process is intuitive, but just in case, the interface has mouseover tooltips and there’s a collection of video tutorials on Alien Skin’s website.
For some, Snap Art’s quick results might be a legitimacy issue. Making art is supposed to be a difficult, time-consuming process. However, within minutes of opening one of my pictures in Snap Art 3, I was struck with the effects and couldn’t deny that I liked what I saw: complex brushstrokes, clean edges, delicate pointillism, and more. I made several prints on canvas paper that appeared natural without a manufactured look.

Snap Art is made to order for busy wedding photographers who need to deliver that special moment in a unique artistic manner. Snap Art lets us explore our images and expand our vision. It’s well worth trying out.

Company: Alien Skin Software, LLC
Price: $199
Web: www.alienskin.com
Rating: 4.5
Hot: Quality artistic effects
Not: No written manual

PhotoCopy is an interesting, one-trick wonder plug-in that is easy to use. Essentially, it adjusts an image’s brightness, color, tone, detail, grain, and texture to match either a built-in preset or another loaded image. Perhaps the most fun thing about the plug-in is the built-in presets: there are 94 based on famous movies, 72 based on famous painters, 40 based on famous photographers, and 30 based on historic photographic processes. (I found the last setting the most interesting to experiment with.) Of course, you can create custom settings and save them as presets, too. Regardless, if you’re using a built-in or custom preset, all the settings can be adjusted on the fly.

I have a couple of gripes, one minor, and one so-so. The minor issue is that the Help file should have more info on the photographers (such as their full names) and photographic processes. The movie titles and painter names are pretty self-explanatory, but more info would have been nice. The other issue is more important. When applying a preset, one opens the image (the target) in Photoshop and selects a preset (the source settings). Simple enough. However, when creating a custom preset, one must remember to open the source image first,
and then load the target. Although this is mentioned in the Help file and manual, it seems backward. It should match the rest of the workflow: open a target, and then load the desired source. Also, some of the built-in presets are close to one another—more range would be nice.

I think that more experienced Photoshop users will look at PhotoCopy and think, “I can mimic most of these effects myself,” while less-experienced users wouldn’t mind spending the cash for the quick results. Of course, most experienced users must take into account the amount of time it takes to re-create an effect. This plug-in makes it all very easy.

Company: Digital Film Tools

Price: $95

Web: www.digitalfilmtools.com

Rating: 3.5

Hot: Mimics photographic processes with click of mouse

Not: Some presets are too similar to each other

Topaz Labs recently released Lens Effects, a plug-in that offers the ability to add a wide variety of lens-type effects to your photos. This includes bokeh effects (shallow depth of field, blurry backgrounds); tilt-shift or creative blur (think Lensbaby); toy camera-like color and focus deficiencies; graduated neutral-density filters; or modifications like fixing geometric distortion, adding grain, or simple vignettes.

Lens Effects is available as a plug-in for Photoshop, as well as Lightroom and Aperture. The interface is very Lightroom-esque with effects and presets on the left, a center preview area, and specific controls for each effect on the right. There are several presets for many of the effects, or you can create you own presets.

For the Bokeh – SLR Lens and Bokeh – Selective effects, you can make a depth map to define what areas should be in focus. Overall, it does a good job at defining these areas and creating a mask of gray values from foreground (black) to background (white), though there are occasional inaccurate edges. The interface and procedure for creating and editing these masks is very promising, but on some images I found myself wishing that I could make fully manual edits to the depth map to address errors in the automated process (the edits you do make are user-directed, but the program computes the change, so the tools aren’t totally manual).

Lens Effects is a useful plug-in for those who want a wide variety of lens effects easily accessible in one place. It provides very good results for many of its offerings (the weakest in my opinion are the pinhole and toy camera effects). The focus and blur effects that don’t require a complex depth map all produce very good results. Creating selective blurring on images with more complex foreground to background relationships that do require precise depth maps is likely to still be a challenge.

Company: Topaz Labs, LLC

Price: $79.99

Web: www.topazlabs.com

Rating: 3.5

Hot: Multiple lens effects in one place

Not: Can’t access alpha channels