Blog - Best Plugins for Photoshop and Lightroom

In this article, I share the six best plugins for Photoshop and Lightroom. They can help you take your photo editing to the next level by providing better sharpening, selections, focus stacking, and other creative ways to enhance your images.

I've been using some of these plugins for close to 10 years, and they are an integral part of my photo editing workflow. I'll start the overview with two free extensions before diving into the premium plugins you have to pay for to use. Here's what I cover:

• Web Sharpener by Andreas Resch
• Nik Collection
• Lumenzia by Greg Benz
• Helicon Focus
• DxO PureRAW 4
• Luminar NEO

You likely won't need all of those plugins for your editing workflow. But even the ones that are not free include a trial version. So the least you should do is test those tools and see if they can help you edit your photos.

Web Sharpener Extension for Photoshop

It's not enough to resize you images in Photoshop or Lightroom to make your photos look perfect on the web. You should apply a resize and sharpening method tuned to provide the best possible results. When I learned about it more than ten years ago, there wasn't a plugin that did all the work with a click of a button. Back then, I created Photoshop actions to perform the multi-step resizing, the separation of the sharpening into dark and light edges, and other little tweaks. Tuning those actions involved rerecording them, which wasn't very flexible.

Thankfully, Andreas Resch bundled all the knowledge about preparing photos for the web in his Web Sharpener extension. It's free to install via his homepage or directly from Adobe.

The extension is easy to use. You can either select Quick Sharpening or Standard Sharpening, which allows you more control over the results. Once you made your main settings, including the Final Size, you can save presets for your different outlets. Instagram is already included.

Nik Collection

The Nik Collection has always been my favorite plugin collection. After Google purchased it several years ago, they made it freely available. They have since sold it to DXO, who continue to develop and improve the Nik Collection *. They also ensure it works on the latest systems. I've recently switched to the latest version of DXO's Nik Collection and tested it.

The tools I've used for more than 10 years are still there, but have been improved and extended. I've also noticed a performance boost, especially when working with the various masks. Those masks alone would be reason enough to give the Nik Collection a try. They are superior to every masking panel you'll find out there.

If you decide to purchase the Nik Collection by DXO *, you can use the code "mibreit-photo" for a 15% discount.

The free version by Google is also still available on some sites. But there are a few limitations. The old version no longer works on a new MacOS. It works fine under Windows with some limitations, though. One of which is the size of the panels and sliders. If you have a 4k display, those might be too tiny to use properly. Best test the collection and decide for yourself if you can use it. If not, make sure to check the DXO version as they also offer a free trial *.

Lumenzia Addon for Photoshop

Greg Benz has been developing Lumenzia to become a powerful Photoshop add-on. In the beginning, its focus was simplifying the creation of Luminosity Masks. The number of ways you can tune your selections and target edits in Photoshop has grown ever since. I only know the tip of the iceberg, which is Lumenzia. If you want to harvest its full potential, follow Greg Benz's YouTube channel, where he regularly shares new workflows that Lumenzia supports.

Lumenzia is available for only 40$*. With the purchase, you get all updates, which is remarkable considering all the work that goes into the continuous improvement of the software. If I could pick only one extension I can't live without from the ones I show in this article, it's this one.

Helicon Focus for Lightroom

I've been focus-stacking my landscape and architecture images for over ten years. Because I never liked the results I got from Photoshop's automatic stacking, I always did it manually using masks. It worked well until I visited Costa Rica and started to delve more into woodland photography. Stacking those images manually was impossible, and I needed help.

Back then, I found Helicon Focus and never looked back. It provides superior algorithms to Photoshop and can even handle detailed forest images. If there is movement, the results won't be perfect out of the box. But Helicon also provides an intuitive retouching workflow, which helps to clean imperfections quickly.

Helicon is not available as an extension for Photoshop. You will find it in Lightroom under "Export - Helicon Focus". I prefer using the DNG option, which allows me to make RAW adjustments even after the stacking.

DxO PureRAW

The most recent Lightroom plugin I've started using is DxO PureRAW 4. It has since been upgraded to version 6, making it even more powerful.

When Lightroom released their AI noise reduction, it was a game changer. Suddenly, I could shoot woodland photos at ISO 800 as if it was ISO 100. Night photos captured at ISO 6400 also became possible.

With DxO PureRAW, you can increase the image quality of your photos even more. The images look cleaner and more detailed than the results I can achieve with Lightroom or any other software I have tested. I show a comparison in the video below. You can download a free 14-day trial here *.

I've now used DXO PureRAW for two years and applied it to every photo I edited. And I can say that, without a doubt, the quality of my images has improved to a point, where I no longer have to think about buying a new camera in a few years. The times when you had to upgrade your gear to achieve higher image quality are over. Now, you just need the right software to give you that extra quality.

Luminar Neo Photo Editor

Another recent addition to my editing suite is Luminar NEO *. It can be used as stand-alone photo editing software or as an add-on for Photoshop and Lightroom. If used as stand-alone software, you can develop your RAW photos with it before delving into the various creative editing tools Luminar contains.

But that's not even the end of it. Skylum, the company behind Luminar NEO, continuously develops new functionality, which they provide as plugins. You can purchase those separately. They include AI sharpening, Noise Reduction, and HDR, among other tools.

I'm still exploring the various adjustments this software allows me to make to my image, but with every minute I spend using this software, I find new creative ways to elevate my photo editing.

Conclusion

Lightroom and Photoshop are themselves powerful photo editing programs. There's nearly nothing you can't do with the tools they provide. But there are certain things you can do faster and better if you use more specialized software. The extensions I shared in this article are examples of it.

* Those are Affiliate Links. I get a commission if you buy or book something after clicking on those.