By Ryan Klos, Calumet Photographic

The term “plug-in” can make an application sound small and insignificant, but in the case of onOne’s Plug-in Suite for Photoshop CS2 and CS3, it might help if you focus more on the suite part. Or sweet, as I heard myself utter several times while using these tools. The suite is made up of four programs: Genuine Fractals 5 (for enlarging images); Intellihance Pro 4.2 (for enhancing images); Mask Pro 4.1 (for detailed masking); and PhotoFrame 3.1 (for adding creative frames to your images). Most of the programs in the suite are extremely intuitive, with Mask Pro requiring a little more time to grasp than the others. Not that Mask Pro is terribly difficult to use; you’ll just spend your time more wisely reviewing a tutorial or two first. Then—and this goes for all software applications—practice, practice, practice. The more you do it, the easier it all becomes. After you get familiar with all it can do, onOne’s Plug-in Suite could become one of the most used tools in your post processing workflow.

Genuine Fractals 5.0
When it comes to up-rezzing images, Genuine Fractals has the reputation of being the industry leader—they boast scaling up to 1000% without loss of detail. In my opinion, no matter what algorithm, process or means of enlarging your images, the end result will not be as sharp as the original. That’s just the nature of pixel-based images. However, all enlargement processes are not equal; quality depends on the enlargement algorithm employed by the software. Genuine Fractals uses an algorithm based on fractals that examines actual pixel edges and adds pixels to the appropriate colors for the highest amount of detail. I first tested Genuine Fractals on two different images, a portrait with smoother tones like sky and skin and a landscape shot with lots of texture in the trees and mountains. Results for both images looked pretty good after enlarging to 800%, but the image with smoother tones retained the most detail and integrity.

A word of warning: if you're starting out with a high-res image and enlarging it to 800 or more percent, make sure you've got some time on your hands—I waited more than a half-hour. I didn't have as much luck enlarging a cropped section of an image. It would probably be suitable as a billboard or trade show graphic, but the cropped image took on a painterly look as if I'd applied an artistic paint daubs filter.

Enlarging it to a more standard size like 5x7 worked better. The painterly feel was still apparent, but not nearly as pronounced. Still, compared to Photoshop’s bicubic interpolation, Genuine Fractals does as it says: “increases image size without the loss of sharpness or detail that you would normally expect.” Those last two words bear the weight of the claim. OnOne doesn’t claim your images will be perfect or won’t lose sharpness or detail, they’re saying that the results will be better than what you’d normally expect from standard methods of enlarging. And I agree.

The interface mimics the professional look and feel of Adobe Lightroom with the navigator and tool sliders in one column on the right, all dressed in dark grays and black. The tools are fairly intuitive; there are so few of them that you can test them by maxing out the sliders on the high and low ends and watching what kinds of adjustments happen to your image. Of course, documentation is also included, as are video tutorials (available with the software and more online at www.ononesoftware.com). Of the entire suite, Genuine Fractals is probably the simplest plug-in to use—it’s meant for one thing, and it does it well. OnOne didn’t clutter up the tool by adding unnecessary enhancements. Instead you get only what you need to preserve your image as much as possible during the enlargement process. However, as a tip (and this is direct from onOne), if you plan on editing or sharpening your image after it’s enlarged, don’t use the sharpening option. Make that your last step using whichever method of sharpening you’re most comfortable with (Photoshop or any other third party tool).

Intellihance Pro 4.2
I’ve never been a fan of auto-correction tools. Having used Photoshop for more than a decade, I’ve always felt I could correct my images using curves and adjustment layers far more accurately than any algorithm in an enhancement program. Intellihance Pro has changed my perception of such tools.

Intellihance Pro 4.2 combines eight image adjustments into one straightforward interface:

1. Descreen
2. Dust & Scratches
3. Contrast
4. Brightness
5. Saturation
6. Cast
7. Sharpness
8. Noise Reduction

For the fastest enhancements, Intellihance Pro will perform Quick Enhance, an automatic analysis and adjustment based on your image’s color balance, contrast, brightness, saturation, etc. If Quick Enhance doesn’t suit your tastes, you can easily make enhancements by using the intelligent adjustment mode, fine tuning or power variations.

As for the power variations mode, I found this tool less useful than the other two—but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t perform well. If working with variations is the way you prefer to make adjustments, this is the tool to use. It functions similarly to the variations tool native in Photoshop, only with more options and control over contrast, brightness, saturation, color casts, sharpness and color balance. By using the slider you can define the percentage increments by which each adjustment changes.

Intellihance Pro is great for those who aren’t comfortable using curves and levels, or for those times you’re in a hurry. You can even save presets to use again and again without having to open the plug-in—they’ll be available from the main onOne menu right from Photoshop.

Mask Pro 4.1
Masking challenging elements such as hair, smoke, clouds and bubbles can make you crazy if you’re using Photoshop alone. Even using Photoshop’s extraction tool can be difficult when it comes to wispy, semi-transparent pixels. Mask Pro makes masking such tricky elements less difficult. Not exactly easy, but definitely less difficult.

Mask Pro includes several tools to help you achieve the most accurate mask. Each tool has its own specific function and you may only use a few tools depending on what you’re trying to achieve in your image. The power behind Mask Pro is in the selection of pixel colors, not hard edges. For instance, when it comes to masking hair, I chose a dark tone, mid tone and highlight color from my image, and Mask Pro worked to eliminate anything that didn’t fit within my specified range of colors with the magic brush tool. I could have added as many or as few sampled colors as necessary to get my selections as accurate as possible. And one of the biggest perks about this tool is seeing live previews of your mask in alpha mode, transparent mode (with Photoshop checkered background) or with your own chosen image behind it—all before committing the final mask (this feature is new in version 4.1).

This image took nearly 45 minutes to get right, but it was the first time I’d ever used Mask Pro so it took some getting used to. I spent a lot of time reverting back to the original and starting over as I learned the sensitivity of the pixel selections and got familiar with the tools. (That 45 minutes doesn’t include watching the tutorials.) I’m certain that if I masked this image a second time the results would be even better. Although there’s hardly room for complaint on my first attempt.

While it’s not the easiest to use in the suite, the Mask Pro plug-in, like many applications, does get easier the more you use it and understand how it works. I definitely recommend watching the tutorials provided with the software and available on onOne’s site for this one. I’ve tried masking hair with other tools in the past and the results have never been as good those I achieved with Mask Pro. I was impressed with the results and options available for increasing or decreasing sensitivity of selections and options for correcting mistakes when you inadvertently mask out too much.

Mask Pro 4.1 Select
Mask Pro 4.1 Select is basically an add-on to Mask Pro. For the most part it’s the same tool minus the semi-transparent selection capabilities. It’s great for outlining, for very accurate clipping paths or simple alpha channels. While it works similarly to Mask Pro, this is your tool when you only need precise outlines.

PhotoFrame Pro 3.1
For those who use creative frames on their digital images, PhotoFrame Pro 3.1 offers more options than you’ll know what to do with. Going beyond merely slapping a frame over your image, PhotoFrame Pro 3.1 lets you choose from more than 4,000 frames. Add to that the option to change the color of each frame and layer up to 32 frames, and the possibilities are endless. If you don’t like choices, let the randomizer choose for you and tweak its results.

The PhotoFrame interface is intuitive and straightforward, but to unlock the real potential of this plug-in, again I suggest watching the video tutorials. When I first opened the plug-in and started playing around without any instructions, I thought it was all very useful and cool, but after watching the tutorials I discovered just how deep this iceberg went.

I was able to apply frames to new layers, as layer masks or directly on the images I was working on. The obvious reason for applying frames on layer masks is that it gave me the option to fully customize each frame with brushes in Photoshop. If the frame I chose wasn’t exactly what I wanted or masked a bit too much of my image, I simply painted it back in using the brush tool. And not only does that mean I can make any mask work for any image, it would also be a one-of-a-kind. To further customize frames, you have the option to layer as many as 32 frames over the same image, all the while changing the properties of each frame like opacity, blur, noise, orientation, size, border, glow and shadow. As I played with these settings, it became obvious how stacking two or more frames together and adjusting their settings could produce serendipitous results. This is one instance where the options truly are limitless.

Creative frames may not be for everyone, but for those who use them or have thought about using them, this plug-in will not disappoint. And if you’re looking for a more traditional framed look like wood or brass, PhotoFrame 3.1 has plenty to choose from, and you can even add a realistic looking matte. Many of the frames are ideal for wedding albums, scrapbooking, yearbooks and websites. Once you see all the options, I’m sure you’ll discover additional creative uses.

Summary
The onOne Plug-in Suite 3 is an excellent addition to any creative imagemaker’s toolbox, unless you never find yourself wanting to enlarge images, correct color, mask your subjects or add frames. And if that’s the case, this suite may be just the thing to get you to broaden your creative thinking. In my experience, using the plug-ins was relatively easy, but I definitely suggest watching the video tutorials before starting. They’ll give you a basic knowledge of each plug-in and straighten a large portion of the learning curve. You’ll learn the various tools’ behaviors and know exactly where to start once you open your images. Mask Pro may take the longest to get a handle on, but the more time you spend with it and the more you understand what its looking for, the easier it gets.

Lastly, and this has little bearing on the suite’s functionality, I couldn’t shake the feeling that each plug-in came from a different technological era. Genuine Fractals seems to be the most up-to-date, sporting a look not unlike Adobe’s Lightroom. Intellihance pro looks a bit clunky with outdated scrubber bars; Mask Pro wears the look of a technological toddler, only a year or two old; and PhotoFrame feels fairly recent, bearing a resemblance to Adobe’s Creative Suite 2. Sure, it may be nitpicky, but I’d like to see a more cohesive look and feel to the entire suite, a look that makes each plug-in appear to have come from the same company. That said, none of the “look” of the plug-ins has much to do with how they perform. Performance on all plug-ins surprised me and surpassed my expectations.

On a final note, for those using the latest Mac OSX Leopard, updates are available for download at onOne's website.