Face to Face: Rick Sammon's Complete Guide to Photographing People

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In the previous Photoshop lessons, you had to

click your mouse (or tap your stylus) a few times

to create a desired effect. In this lesson, you will

see that with a single click or tap, you’ll be able to

create an artistic effect—if you have the appropri-

ate Photoshop plug-in.

A Photoshop plug-in (available via download or

CD) expands the creative potential of Photoshop

by combining a series of effects and/or enhance-

ments into a single effect. Therefore, the plug-in

does all the work for you!

This screen grab of Photoshop’s Action Palette

shows the various effects that, when combined,

created Photoshop’s Aged Photo Action. Even if

you (or I) knew how to create the Aged Photo

effect, it would take awhile to create it—step by

step—in Photoshop.

Photoshop’s built-in Actions (WindowActions)

work like plug-ins, again doing all the work for

you by combining several effects and/or enhance-

ments.

To illustrate the effects of a plug-in and Photo-

shop’s Actions, I’ll use the picture below (a picture

you saw earlier in this book of a young woman on

a motorcycle), as my example.

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Tech talk: some plug-ins are automatically placed

in Photoshop’s Plug-in folder, whereas others you

need to drag and drop into the Photoshop Plug-

in folder. Also, most plug-ins you can access at

the bottom of Photoshop’s Filter menu (including

Color Efex Pro). Others show up in the Automate

(FileAutomate) menu (as is the case with Pho-

toTools).

Here you see how I transformed my photograph

into a more creative image with the Aged Photo

Action, which, by the way, is one of dozens of

Photoshop Actions.

OK, let’s take a look at two of my favorite plug-

ins: PhotoTools from onOne Software (http://

www.ononesoftware.com) and Color Efex Pro 3

from Nik Software (http://www.niksoftware.com).

Check out those web sites for demos and trial ver-

sions. You’re in for some real photo fun!

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Here’s a look at the PhotoTools window after

launch. Selecting an effect is fast and easy. What’s

more, you have creative options, including Fade,

for customized effects.

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From the dozens of onOne effects

and endless custom options, here

are just three of my favorites.

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