Alien Skin plug ins for Photoshop

[Blade Canyon]

I keep seeing ads for Alien Skin, and the recent ad showing a black-and-white photo looked great. Does anyone here use these plug ins? Are they automatic, like Look Up Tables? Or do you have to adjust a myriad of settings, which you can already do in Photoshop?

At the Alien Skin website, it says you can buy all of their software for $199, but Exposure seems to be the main plug in. The video makes it look just like a combination of ACR, Lightroom, and PS.

BTW, this section of the forum has 14 stickies, which pop up on each page as you scroll through.

 

[Horoscope Fish]

I don't use the software but I've watched some of the tutorials and I think watching some of them would probably answer your questions. The interface appears (to me anyway) to be rather adobe-like in configuration. Not that that's a good thing or bad thing just that it reminds me a little of LR and little of Camera RAW 8.

It looks like it's good software but I've got a full plate just learning ACR, Photoshop and NIK Tools... I have to draw the line somewhere.

....

 

[wornish]

I have tried Exposuere and it has good sharpening tools in the focus section.
Beyond that it's not much better than other offerings. Lightroom can do everything it can.

 

[J-see]

I only know Alien Skin from back in the day when they had some great plugins for PS. I assume they still make great stuff.

I don't use anything but Perfect Effects (the free version) for the borders. Everything else, besides cutting and pasting, I do in LR.