One of the most common type of plug-ins we see for Photoshop is the filter plug-in. Their purpose is to supply Photoshop with a wide range of image effects. We could blur, sharpen, draw, paint, and have just a great time.

• Import/export plug-ins move data to and from other peripheral devices.
• Exotic image formats are managed by AP file format plug-ins.
• Photoshop also has a wide selection of automation plug-ins that could automate simple tasks, and greatly improve user’s workflow.

As said before, filter plug-ins are the most used in Photoshop. Users can quickly render lots of different graphics and effects without the use of filter plug-ins. Some of the most popular standalone features include: shadow, emboss, glow, blur, polarize, color, and sharpen. However, for some of the most advanced effects plug-ins are and necessity.

Photoshop plug-ins for innovation and automation are some of the most popular and lucrative for third-party developers. A quick Google search can lead you into plug-ins costing well over $1000 each. Sometimes a third-party developer will offer a shareware version of their plug-in to try out. These plug-ins usually have some sort of limitation on their use. However, purchasing a $1000 plug-ins without having tried it first, is one heck of a risk

Free Photoshop plug-ins are not difficult to find. Hundreds of plug-ins are available for free off of many websites. A quick Google search will run you into thousands of pages just begging to give away free Photoshop plug-ins. Premium plug-ins can also be found, but of course, for a premium price.

Take a look at the Adobe Photoshop website if you are in need of a certain plug-in. Although many of these plug-ins come from third-party vendors, Adobe does a very good job in monitoring these plug-ins, and making sure they are not infected with any type of system harming the viruses. You could easily find a plug-in sorted by category or by their developer.

The post All about Photoshop Plug-ins appeared first on Photoshop Tutors.

Minnie asked:

Can i get the exact instructions to do this? im a beginner at Photoshop and i dont know how to do these things. Can you give the exact instructions to make the photo all black and white and make some parts colored?
does anyone know what im talking bout?

Photoshop Tutors answered:

It’s amazing how often this question comes up! But in Photoshop it’s very easy to do.

First you take the lasso tool and draw around the part you want to stay in color. You don’t have to get the exact outline but draw -around- it, making sure you get all of it. If you want several things to be in color, draw around all of them (they can be separate or together).

Now do a ‘copy’ and ‘paste’ from the edit menu. The ’selection’ will not be copied into its own layer.

Now make the ‘background’ layer active. Convert it to black and white. Maybe take a minute to readjust its brightness/contrast and levels.

Now go back to the ‘foreground’ layer. Use the eraser tool to trim the area you want. This is a little fussy, to get the exact outline, but you can zoom way in and make the eraser really small and get right down to the exact pixels you want.

Now ‘flatten’ the image by merging the layers and -voila-! You have it.

The post Q&A: How do I Make a Picture Black and White but Some Certain Things are Colored? appeared first on Photoshop Tutors.