Check out these best Photoshop plugins that can increase your efficiency. Automate tasks, enhance images, and scale up your design process in seconds.
Whether you’re retouching portraits, designing graphics, or compositing surreal art, Photoshop is a creative powerhouse. But its real magic? Plugins.
We combed through Reddit threads, photography forums, and real user workflows to find the most recommended Photoshop plugins in 2025 — from AI tools that retouch in one click to analog-style filters pros swear by.
Here’s our user-driven, experience-backed list of the best Photoshop plugins worth installing right now.
Join 5,000+ POD sellers who’ve eliminated manual mockup creation. Get unlimited mockups, install on 2 devices, and access our incredible support team.
Designers and POD sellers need to create bulk mockups to showcase their merchandise. Manually placing a design image onto a mockup template can be time-consuming. Consequently, creating hundreds of mockups can take hours of tedious work. Bulk Mockup is the best plugin for Photoshop to automate this entire process. It can:
Let me show how it works:
All you have to do is install this Bulk Mockup plugin in Adobe Photoshop and create three folders (like above). Each folder will signify:
That’s it. Select the correct resizing option and set an export setting.
Once done, hit the ‘Start Generating’ button. Complete mockup files will generate automatically and be exported to the designated folders.
For example, you have five designs of t-shirt mockups and five PSD templates. It means you can automate bulk mockup creation and prepare 25+ t-shirt mockups in seconds. You can create hundreds of mockups in a few minutes. Every step happens in an organized manner without your intervention. You can check our pricing and select your plan.
I can’t say enough good things about working with Vikash. He walked me through Photoshop with such patience and he never made me feel rushed or silly for asking questions. I scheduled a demo, and he walked me through the setup of the plugin and helped me setup my files in an organized way that made things flow just like in the YouTube videos. – Monique Cherice.
Retouch4Me consistently comes up in professional forums and Reddit threads as a must-have for high-volume portrait retouching. It’s loved for its AI-driven approach that eliminates repetitive tasks like skin smoothing, eye enhancement, and dodge & burn — all while keeping edits non-destructive.
Unlike traditional actions, this plugin uses neural networks to produce realistic, high-end results in just one click. If you’re a wedding or beauty photographer, this tool is a massive time-saver.
Users often compare it favorably to traditional retouching techniques used in plugins like Portraiture and ON1 Portrait AI — with many switching entirely to Retouch4Me for its “set it and forget it” efficiency.
“Saved me hours during wedding season. I trust it more than my own hand.” — Reddit user
The Nik Collection is a legend mockup plugin for photoshop, especially among photographers who want that filmic, moody, or analog look. Reddit threads often highlight Color Efex Pro for enhancing landscapes, Silver Efex Pro for stunning B&W conversions, and Viveza for localized tone and color adjustments.
The suite is praised for its depth and versatility, with photographers noting that “it brings back the magic of film”, a common sentiment among those who also use Exposure X or Luminar for similar aesthetics. DxO’s ongoing development means the suite stays compatible and modern while keeping its vintage soul.
The interface can feel cramped on my 4K monitor, sliders are tiny but zooming in helps. Also, while the one-time $159 fee stings a bit upfront, I’ve saved hours of editing time, making it worth the splurge for pros or serious hobbyists.
I use în since back then when it was just Nik collection, I think about 3-4 years. My workflow is so easy & fun, I can’t do my photography without it. I update it once yearly and it goes flawless. – ShoutOHgraphy.
Portraiture 4.5 has saved me countless hours on portrait edits. I’ve used it for everything from wedding gigs to studio headshots, and its AI-powered masking is awesome. Instead of manually selecting subjects, it nails the separation between skin, hair, and backgrounds.
The real standout is how it handles subtle retouching. I’ll often crank up the “Skin Smoothing” slider just halfway to avoid that airbrushed plastic look, while the “Tone Uniformity” tool balances redness or shadows under the eyes. The presets are a lifesaver for rushed deadlines, though I tweak the opacity to keep textures natural.
The interface feels a bit dated compared to newer plugins, and the $99.95/year subscription adds up if you’re not using it daily. That said, the one-time license (if you catch a sale) is worth it for pros who retouch portraits regularly.
I’ve used Luminar Neo for wildlife, portraits, and landscapes. Its “Noise Reduction” works well on high-ISO bird shots—feathers stay crisp, though I add slight sharpening in Photoshop afterward. Sky AI speeds up landscape edits. During a coastal shoot, it swapped dull skies quickly, but I lower the “glow” slider to avoid unnatural blends.
For portraits, the Skin Enhancer at 60% opacity fixes minor flaws without losing texture. I use the eye tool sparingly for client previews. AI Relighting saved a backlit bear photo—shadows lifted cleanly, unlike Photoshop’s dodge tool, which often creates halos.
The interface feels cluttered, but the results justify it. Its subscription starts at $69 billed annually. It has received the Red Dot Design Award and TIPA World Award in the best imaging software category.
Luminar works great, I’ve been using it since day one. It is quite easy to use and learn and you can get nice results very easily. It runs stable and fast on my Mac mini M2 so your M2 MacBook will be fine too. – ipeewest
As someone who dislikes FontLab’s complexity, this plugin simplifies turning hand-drawn sketches into functional fonts. Dragging vector letters into the panel and instantly testing them in Photoshop sold me: no coding or manual glyph mapping.
For a project, I designed a script font with alternates for repeated letters (like double “t” in “latte”) in under an hour. The kerning adjustments are intuitive; I tweaked spacing between “A” and “V” by dragging sliders while previewing text live. Ligature support worked smoothly, though creating more than 10 contextual alternates felt clunky compared to dedicated font software.
The one-time $39 fee is fair for designers needing occasional custom typefaces. It’s not for intricate multilingual fonts, but for branding, posters, or social media graphics, it saves hours.
The upside of Fontself Maker is the direct integration it provides with Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator and there comes no need to switch between applications while working on the custom fonts that perfectly fits my post production works. The best plug-in i have come across. – Ar. Nilanjan Paul
I rely on PureRAW for high-ISO concert photography and low-light cityscapes where noise often destroys critical details. After comparing it to Lightroom and Photoshop’s tools, DeepPRIME consistently outperforms. It rescued a dimly lit jazz club photo shot at ISO 6400, preserving skin textures in shadows without the plasticky artifacts.
The automatic lens corrections are underrated. My vintage 50mm lens produces heavy vignetting, but PureRAW fixed it seamlessly in a cityscape RAW file. It also tackled chromatic aberration on backlit foliage shots more precisely than Photoshop’s manual adjustments, saving me 10-15 minutes per image.
The interface is minimalistic—no sliders for fine-tuning results. I batch-process RAWs through PureRAW first, then refine in Photoshop. At $119 for a lifetime license, it’s a smart buy if you shoot in challenging light or use lenses prone to distortion. Casual photographers might not need it, but for night or event shooters, the free trial is worth testing.
I found it to be better than adobe’s AI denoise. I bought it for less on their BF sale. I use it for almost every iso image 2500 or higher. I think it was definitely worth it. You can use it pre-import or as a plug-in in LR after you import. It is very important to note that DXO PureRaw only works with raw files and has to be used first before additional changes. – Neither_Hand_792
ImageCreator is one of the best free Photoshop plugins for graphic designers for generative AI filling. Even though Adobe has a dedicated AI image-generation feature, this plugin is the cherry on top.
This professional Gen-AI plugin allows you to generate images from texts, enlarge images, fill images, and upscale. It also offers a model library to scale your generative requirements.
It produces four results in squared thumbnail formats. You can also find the previous outputs in the History panel. It is free to use.
The AI Empower plugin for Adobe Photoshop has been a game-changer in my creative journey. Its seamless integration with Photoshop and user-friendly interface make it accessible to both beginners and experienced users. – Alexandra Grant.
ON1’s plugin lineup, particularly Portrait AI, is a sleeper hit among portrait editors. Reddit users often mention how it balances automation and manual control, especially for facial features and skin texture.
Compared to Retouch4Me or Portraiture, ON1 is praised for letting users override the AI with sliders, making it a favorite for retouchers who want both speed and precision. O
N1 Effects also gets nods for its versatile filters, textures, and color grading — many users treat it as a final step for “punching up” their edits before export. Its 2025 version is available at $49.99 for two users.
I switched to On1 six years ago and no regrets. It’s a different workflow that will take some getting used to, but it’s easy to pick up. You get cataloging, layers, raw editing, filters, effects, masking everything. It’s really very good. – Createsean
This Shutterstock plugin for Photoshop is resourceful for graphic designing and digital photo illustrations. You can add 3D objects to a canvas in a customized way.
Its vast library comprises more than 356,000 3D objects to search and add to your design creations. You can pick and add objects like animals, flowers, vehicles, etc, to your Photoshop lightbox.
Add optional shadows, transparent PNGs, layered PSDs, and watermark-free objects. It offers a free starter plan, but objects cost $12.99 each. Its annual plan costs $199.
PixelSquid is a great asset for making photo comp images, using the models as drawing aids to be used as roughs to help you visualise an image, or as part of a paintover piece. Essentially, it’s awesome and it’s free. – David Cousens.
RNI All Films 5 allows you to capture the essence of various film styles and add them to your images. It offers more than 40 film presets to add to your images in one click.
This plugin helps you retouch your photos and transform colors to get a more aesthetic appearance. It can easily integrate and organize your digital workflow.
You can also tune down the strength of fil style adjustments and get custom outputs without altering the original photos. You can try some presets for free. Its one-time license fee is $192.
I have them and I like them! Regarding pro/lite: I find that I’m using more than anything else some presets that are pro only: Portra 400 v2, Kodak E200 v2, Fuji Velvia.The quality is super high, but the price is indeed a bit steep, especially since I have no use for 18 infrared presets. The separate set of profiles for Nikon & Sony to keep saturation under control is a super nice touch. – Aragost
This plugin uses AI to select the ideal optimization and color rendering requirements for you. Its automatic color correction features identify the requirements, reproduce colors and render your images.
This plugin can be used for true-to-life color production and rendering of your photos. Hence, it is an ideal tool for photographers.
There is no need to manually adjust every photo. It offers an intelligent slider to optimize images in seconds by adding radiant tones.
It offers a 30-day trial period. The plugin comes with a toolkit that costs $50/year. You can also buy selective photo looks from its marketplace. Radiant Photo 2 costs $159 as a one-time license fee.
The software is just getting its legs under it and the folks doing the coding work are really serious about helping out their customers – freebies, extras, direct conversations if you just can’t get something to work the way you want – it’s a very cool atmosphere – and it is a complete experience – forums, pros, newbs, before & afters for editing ideas and inspiration – all kinds of things.. – Bert-63
This plugin lets you edit texts, color, opacity, and font size of watermarks and signatures on your photos. You can also use a logo as a watermark.
Watermark 3 Pro allows you to add watermarks to your photos all at once. You can also save your settings for a one-click watermark addition.
The Watermark 3 is a free plugin for Photoshop 2022 and above but comes with limitations. The Pro version costs $34.90 as a lifetime fee where you can avail customizable features.
Photoshop’s brush engine is powerful but clunky to manage. MagicSquire is a game-changer for digital artists — allowing you to organize, tag, and switch brushes faster than ever. It’s a quiet favorite in concept art and comic book communities.
Topaz Labs’ suite, especially DeNoise AI and Sharpen AI, is nearly always brought up in Reddit photography threads — especially by those working with low-light or high-ISO shots.
Sharpen AI is known for rescuing slightly out-of-focus shots, while DeNoise AI preserves detail better than most Photoshop-native methods. Users frequently compare these plugins to ON1 NoNoise or DxO’s DeepPRIME, but many still prefer Topaz for its ease of use and minimal learning curve.
If you shoot events, wildlife, or handheld night photography, Topaz is probably already part of your toolkit — or should be. It also offers a generative AI platform where you can transform photos with text prompts. It offers a free trial for testing the features. Its lifetime license costs $99.
If your main job is to Upscale, then GigaPixel is the best cost effective tool for you (assuming you are not owning any Topaz Tool at the moment). – Akila33
The best Photoshop plugin isn’t just the most powerful — it’s the one that fits your workflow. Whether you’re a professional retoucher, landscape photographer, or graphic artist, these plugins help unlock Photoshop’s full potential.
If you want speed, look into Retouch4Me or Topaz. If it’s creativity, Luminar or Nik. And if you want control, TK8 or ON1 are your jam.
Luminar Neo can enhance your workflow if you’re into general photo editing. Plugins like Fontself also help with font creation, offering creative tools that save you time and effort in your projects.
One standout plugin to consider is Bulk Mockup. It simplifies the process of generating mockups, allowing you to create stunning presentations without all the hassle. This way, you can spend more time focusing on your sales rather than getting bogged down with mockup creation.
You can use Topaz Gigapixel AI to upscale photos without affecting the raw files. DXO PureRaw is another option to go with.
You can get templates for t-shirts, tumblers, mugs, wall art, etc, from Envato Elements and Creative Market. They offer PSD files to work on with the Bulk Mockup plugin for generating mockups in bulk.
Fontself lets you create custom fonts from scratch. You can create fonts even from hand-drawn letters and vector graphics.
Boris FX Optics is one of the most recommended Photoshop plugins to use for image masking.
Portraiture 4.5 is the best Photoshop plugin for skin retouching on portrait images.
Nik Collection 7 and Portraiture 4.5 are the best Photoshop plugins for portrait retouching and processing.
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop [version]\Plugins
