When you’ve got Photoshop do you really need plug-ins as well? We installed OnOne Plug-in Suite 4.5 to find out...OnOne Plug-in Suite 4.5 is a compilation of six plug-ins designed to solve common problems in Photoshop. At £329 it may appear expensive, but considering the plug-ins sell individually for between £100-£125, the whole suite offers a saving of around £400 – boxed versions can be purchased online and there’s a download only option via the manufacturer’s website.
HOW IT WORKSMost of OnOne Plug-in Suite 4.5 is compatible with Photoshop CS2, CS3 & CS4, Lightroom 2 and Apple’s Aperture 2.1, and there’s a potential Elements release in the future. The only caveat to this is that two out of the six – Mask Pro 4.1 and PhotoTune 2.2 – only work in the full Photoshop.
Once installed, launch your chosen application and, with an image open, click on the OnOne menu that appears in the Toolbar, selecting the plug-in you want. Once the interface has launched, you’ll discover that the plug-ins are just as intuitive as any of the Photoshop palettes. Simply adjust the sliders and monitor your adjustments in the Preview window. But is Plug-in Suite 4.5 really the Holy Grail of Photoshopping? Or just a quicker, and rather costly way of achieving what you could do anyway...?
Genuine Fractals 6Designed for making enlargements without the loss of sharpness usually associated with interpolation, this plug-in’s controls are grouped into seven palettes. Using Pixel Dimensions you can resize by entering new dimensions or a percentage. Document Size lets you define a new Width and Height, set print resolution and there’s a Presets option for traditional print sizes. Texture Control offers presets to optimise for specific subjects, Tiling divides an image into printable sections and there are Gallery Wrap and Film Grain options, too. We upscaled a 2848x4288 pixel image by 500%, 750% and 1000% and compared it to a Photoshop Bicubic Smoother interpolation. While there was a slight improvement in the Genuine Fractals version, with edges more clearly defined, there was a degree of artificial sharpness to the prints and when viewed from a distance improvement was marginal.
Phototune 2.2This features two colour correction plug-ins in one. SkinTune 2 is designed to correct skin tones using skin type options, tone swatches and sliders to tweak Brightness, Contrast, Saturation and Equalize Color. The effect doesn’t just apply to skin tones though, and with the exception of some Highlight/Shadow controls a similar effect is possible using Photoshop’s Hue/Saturation. ColorTune 2 is for general colour correction use and sports a six-step wizard. At each step, simply adjust a slider and click on the Preview that looks best. Once completed there’s a basic palette to fine-tune colour balance, brightness, contrast and saturation and a Hue & Sat palette where it’s possible to control highlights and shadows separately. Similar adjustments are possible with Photoshop’s Curves but ColorTone 2 is a bit more intuitive.
Phototools 2This collection of nearly 300 digital filters reproduces effects like Polarizer, Infrared or Hand-tinting at the click of a button. All the effects are found under the Library panel which lets you search filters by Categories or Keywords and add commonly used effects to a Presets menu. The Detail panel gives a brief synopsis of the filters and options for each, such as Subtle or Strong, and there’s a Preview pane, too.
To apply a filter, add it to the Stack where there are controls similar to Photoshop’s Layers palette to adjust the Fade (Opacity) or Mask out areas to apply the filter selectively. Such effects are achievable within Photoshop but having them at a click of a button makes things much easier for novice users, and will speed up the workflow of the more advanced, too.
Photoframe 4Boasting 1200 frames including arty ones and actual picture frame replicas, once launched all the frames appear with your image dropped in so you can quickly evaluate how each one looks. In the Library panel, frames are grouped into types for easier navigation, and there’s also a star rating system so you can identify and filter for quick access to your favourites. With a frame selected there’s a series of adjustments, which can be applied to make many changes to its appearance and background as well as how the frame interacts with the image. After a bit of tweaking, if you’re not happy just hit the + symbol and chose another. Frames are a great way to present pics and while making your own can be fun, it is time-consuming and having a large array of customisable ones available makes PhotoFrame 4 a great plug-in.
Mask Pro 4.1this Is for making complex selections to isolate a subject and replace backgrounds. It works by using a selection of tools such as the Keep and Drop eyedroppers to identify colours you want to retain or mask out. Once identified using the Magic Wand you can quickly apply the mask. There are also Pen selection tools, similar to those in Photoshop, for when you want to define a specific path or highlight a contrast edge, as well as tools for refining the mask for a perfect finish.
If you’re working on images with some colour separation between background and foreground, Mask Pro 4 is a very quick and accurate way of making complex selections. With trickier subjects where the foreground and background are similar, more skill and a combination of tools are required, but it has the power to make tricky masks quicker and easier than in Photoshop.
Focal Point 1.0Selective focus effects like those possible with a tilt and shift lens and more conventional shallow depth-of-field styles can be achieved with this plug-in. The Aperture palette determines the Opacity and Feather of the area to be kept in sharp focus, called the ‘sweetspot’, while the Blur palette controls both the blur Amount and its Motion. Click on the image and the ‘Focusbug’ appears, which is an intuitive tool for controlling these effects. Using your mouse you can position the sweetspot and use the Focusbug’s legs to control how blur is applied. There are also palettes to apply vignettes (darker corners) or film grain effects.
Focal Point 1.0 and specifically the Focusbug are simple to use and allow you to apply focus effects a bit quicker and easier than you could in Photoshop using Layer Masks and Lens Blur.
VerdictThe performance and interface of Plug-in Suite 4.5 are both first class, featuring adjustment sliders and controls grouped into palettes that are intuitive to navigate, and Previews that refresh in real-time for a smooth user experience.
Its features are a bit of a mixed bag though, with the so-so Genuine Fractals and PhotoTune being offset by the excellent Mask Pro 4.1, PhotoFrame 4.0 and Phototools 2.0. The latter three offer quick and simple ways to apply fairly complex Photoshop effects. They don’t do anything that can’t be achieved in Photoshop, but if you’re a pro who needs to turn images around quickly, or a novice who wants to do it all now, having these creative effects at the touch of a button is a real advantage. Considering the filters cost between £100 and £125 each, £329 for the entire Suite is reasonable value, but only if you’re going to make good use of at least three filters. If you’re more of an occasional Photoshop user or happy to spend a bit longer seeking out these effects, then your money will be better spent elsewhere.
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