Photoshop_User_February_2017

HOW TO ››

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photoshop user

› february 2017

044

Dyna mic Range

create painted effects with particleshop

KIRK NELSON

This latest installment has upped the ante by not only

adding more particle effects, but also increasing the core

capabilities of the plug-in with Dynamic Speckles and F-X

Effects brushes. These latest brushes work directly with

the image pixels in a way that’s reminiscent of the Liquify

filter in Photoshop, but with a lot more options and

capabilities. This plug-in isn’t just for Photoshop, though;

it works with Photoshop Elements and Lightroom, too!

Plug-ins for Photoshop are a fascinating sub-industry to the larger photography/Photoshop arena. Plug-in

developers seek to find a capability that’s non-existent or not so strong in the base application and expand

on that. One of the most interesting plug-ins available is the ParticleShop plug-in from Corel. In January

of 2017, Corel released an updated version of this exciting technology. If you’re familiar with the first

installment of the plug-in, you probably already know how the plug-in allows you to “paint with particles”

and add vibrant, energetic effects to your images.

ParticleShop has a solid variety of brush packs available,

but the development team is constantly working to release

new brush packs. For this tutorial, the following brush packs

were used: Core Pack, Expressive, Blend, Wedding, Impression,

Grunge, and Creepers. (Keep in mind that the plug-in normally

costs $49.99 and comes with a pack of 11 brushes. Each addi-

tional brush pack runs $29.99. There are currently 24 different

brush packs available, each with 15 brushes.)