Photoshop Panels

Panels are another handy little thing that can help speed up your workflow in Photoshop. They’re like a tool palette just for Alien Skin Plug-ins. To use them they need to be made visible from the Workspace>Extensions menu in Photoshop.  Let’s take a short stroll through the different options you can have at your fingertips.

Most of these panels are created during installation of the plug-in. But the panels for Snap Art are separate from the installer itself, you’ll have to download and install them separately. Here is a link to the Snap Art panels.

Eye Candy Startup

Eye Candy’s panel let’s you start each filter with a single click rather than navigating the Filter menu. It’s a real time-saver. Especially for those unfamiliar with all of the filter names, the icons displayed give you a visual reminder which tool does what.

Blow Up Startup

The Blow Up panels are integrated into the installer. When you install Blow Up you will be asked if you want to install the panels. Blow Up’s panel gives you one-click access to many of the standard print sizes; from 4×6 to an A4. You can also choose the level of sharpness compensation for basic paper types.

Gallery Wrap

The Gallery Wrap panel assists you in creating wrapped prints. A gallery wrap is a canvas print stretched around the outside of a wood frame. Here’s an example:

We have created an advice page just for this topic. If you haven’t printed a canvas wrap before, this would be a great place to start. Also on the page there is a discount code for the printing canvases through artisticphotocanvas.com. We’re not affiliated with them, they just do great work.

You can use the panel to automatically extend the edges of your image for a gallery wrap print. It will keep your original composition. The extended border can be filled in a variety of ways from this panel. Check out the Gallery Wrap panel page for more info.

Snap Art Launch and Preview Gallery

The Snap Art panel gives you instant access to the filters as well as the ability to preview a gallery of all of the different filters for your image. Here’s an example of a gallery:

If you’re looking for the Snap Art launch panel, you’ll need to download it. Here’s a link.

Snap Art Sketch Panel

The Sketch panel was designed to work with portraits. You have options for B&W and color pencil sketch with either the default or abstract settings. You can adjust the color contrast and saturation from this panel which dramatically alters the effect of the filter.

If you’re looking for either of the Snap Art panels, you’ll need to download them separately. Here’s a link.