Table of Contents
The best Photoshop plugins can help you work faster and better with what is still the best image-editing software on the market. Photoshop, one of the apps in Adobe’s Creative Cloud suite, is a must-have for creative people in many fields, from graphic designers to photographers. The software gives you a lot of ways to be creative, and new features are added all the time.
Photoshop plugins are the answer. Photographers in many different fields use them to change and improve photos. They can make things work better, give you more tools, speed up your work, and make you more creative. In this post, we’ve put together a list of our favourite Photoshop plugins. In the list below, you’ll find both free and paid plugins.
Best Photoshop plugins
Adobe Camera Raw
Adobe Camera Raw is the best and most important Photoshop plugin for photographers. Photoshop is often thought of as a tool for editing photos, but it doesn’t actually support editing Raw images. Adobe has a programme called Lightroom for this, but you might not always want to use two different programmes.
You don’t have to do that because the free Adobe Camera Raw plugin adds Raw editing to Lightroom. You can use it to edit and import Raw images to Photoshop for retouching or other more detailed edits. You might also want to use the Camera Raw filter to change the light and colour of non-Raw images you already have open in Photoshop.
Features
Pros
- Free for Windows and Mac
- Support for many lenses and cameras
Cons
- The interface isn’t as user-friendly as Lightroom’s
CSS3Ps
The CSS3P Photoshop plugin is perfect for web developers because it turns Photoshop layers into CSS3. To turn your layers into CSS3, all you have to do is click the CSS3P button. It couldn’t be easier. It is one of the best Photoshop plugins that you can download from here.
It’s in the cloud, so you don’t have to worry about updates, and it’s easy to look at your work. The plugin has a lot of useful features, such as the ability to select more than one layer, vendor prefixes, stroke, size, and inner shadow.
Features
Pros
- Cloud-based
- Supports a bunch of features
Cons
- Slow to respond
Luminar Neo
Luminar Neo is a powerful add-on for Photoshop and Lightroom that lets you edit photos. It can also run on its own as a computer programme. Many of the plugin’s best features, like FaceAI and SkinAI, use artificial intelligence (AI) to do their jobs.
You can fix portrait photos with these tools by making changes to the face, eyes, lips, skin tone, and skin texture of your subject. With the Portrait BokehAI tool, the background behind your subject becomes a blurry bokeh effect.
Features
Pros
- Affordable one-time price
- Easy and fun to use
- Effective one-click presets
- Impressive AI tools
Cons
- Slow to respond (initially)
- Limited photo management features
ON1 Effects
ON1 Effects is a plug-in for Lightroom and Photoshop, but it can also be used as a desktop app on its own. Basically, the plugin is a set of image effects, filters, LUTs, and presets. Some of its effects are called Sun Glow, Golden Autumn, B&W Modern, Vivid Landscape, Color Twist, Hot Desert, Deep Forest, Street, Color Grade, and Instant Film.
Every item in the collection can be changed to fit your needs. You can also stack effects, filters, presets, borders, and textures to make your own designs. The plugin even lets you apply effects to only certain parts of your image.
Features
Pros
- Huge, varied and inspiring range of presets
- In-depth control of each filter
- Powerful masking tools both at a filter level and overall
- You get ON1’s excellent effects but in your existing workflow
Cons
- The layers feature is terrific and unexpected, but lacks blend modes
- The Effects plug-in used to be free with ON1 Photo RAW but not now
Tych Panel
Tych Panel is a free plugin for Photoshop that lets you make diptychs or triptychs from the images you choose. If you’ve ever tried to make a diptych or triptych, you know what a gap this free plugin fills in the market.
Yes, you can make them yourself in Photoshop. But it’s not made simple! Tych Panel gives you several layouts to choose from and lets you change them to fit your needs. This is one of the best Photoshop plugins that you can use it right now.
Features
Pros
- Easy-to-use interface
- Improved performance
Cons
- Fairly expensive
Imagenomic Portraiture 3
Portraiture 3 from Imagenomic is probably something you’ve heard of if you’ve looked for plugins in the past few years. Even though it is one of the oldest plugins on the list, it has not lost any of its value over time. This plugin is a lifesaver for people who want to fix up their portraits and smooth out their skin without losing fine, high-frequency detail.
You can’t look at social media these days without seeing the worst ways people try to make their photos look better. Everyone you know has easy access to unattractive face-tuning apps that can make their faces look like waxy, glowing alien faces with the flick of a thumb.
Features
Pros
- Easy to use
- Great results
- Natural-looking skin smoothing
- Customizable masking
Cons
- Applying edits and previewing large files can be slow
- Fairly expensive
FAQs
What is the best Photoshop plugin?
- Luminar
- Aurora HDR
- Boris FX Optics
- Infinite Color
- Fluid Mask 3
- Focus
Do you need plugins for Photoshop?
Paid and free Photoshop plugins can save you time by helping you do things faster or by keeping you from having to leave Photoshop to use another programme. They can also make it easier to use the tools that Photoshop already has.
Which Photoshop is best for editing?
Adobe Photoshop Express gives your phone or tablet the most important tools for improving photos and making collages. Crop, straighten, get rid of red eyes, add text, reduce colour noise, add borders, and more.
What Photoshop do most photographers use?
Adobe Lightroom is used to edit photos by 58% of photographers. The main reason photographers choose Lightroom is that it has all the editing tools they need. Ease of use is the second most common reason.