You’ve become something of a Lightroom expert, and you’ve even made a dent in Photoshop, getting comfortable with compositing and retouching. Not only that but you love the edit as well as shooting. You can do everything you need done. Or can you?
The biggest fact in life about any subject, is that for a long time you don’t know what you don’t know. It’s only when you start to dig a lot deeper that you begin to see how much you still have to learn. Some of it is the Dunning-Kruger effect, and some of it is just knowing enough to get by.
This could be stopping you from trying out plugins for Lightroom Classic or Photoshop CC. Even if you usually stick to Lightroom Classic, it’s worth going to Photoshop for plugins as you can use Smart Objects to let you edit plugin settings.
What’s the biggest thing you spend, but can never get more of? Yes, it’s time, of course. Now, time doing things you enjoy is never wasted time, but making those things easier is definitely worth the time saving. Plugins can do a few things for you. Plugins that do a job faster, like the Retouch4Me plugins, can give you back precious time editing people and relieve the tedium of repetitive editing.
More importantly, plugins can make you more creative. Take Boris FX Optics or Corel Particleshop. Both allow you to add effects to your photo, taking you in directions that wouldn’t be able to do easily otherwise. Optics does both light effects and particle effects, while Particleshop does particles, but it in a very different way. The key element in both is fun.
So how can you extend that knowledge? Well, most plugin makers have free trials. Some allow you to see the effect without saving, others will create a watermarked output, while others again give full use but for a limited time. This is one place where spending a little time to save you more is worth it.
