A while ago, someone told me about a program you could use to enhance your photography.
They mentioned that it was free, which of course piqued my interest, because I’m frugal (cheap, miserly, whatever). 😛
It’s called Perfect Effects Free 9 (or my copy is, at least) and you can get it for free here.
The program contains over 50 free filters/effects that you can use to spice up your photography.
You do have to crop your picture in another program first, but then you can play around.
The program feels a bit like a stripped down Photoshop, which isn’t a bad thing.
You can still have layers, change blend modes, opacity, and you can adjust various features of the pre-built filters.
I thought I’d take a previous LOTD photo and show you what you can do with just a few minutes of playing around.
This is my original photo, just for comparison’s sake.
I just picked a few different filters at random to see what I could do.
The filters are organized by category, so it’s pretty simple to just dive in.
Be sure you know where the files are getting saved, I had to go searching for mine!
Here are 3 different filters, applied ‘as is’ using Perfect Effects.
I didn’t do anything to the photo other than apply the filters. The first photo uses a black border filter, the second a ‘grunge’ filter, and the third a ‘surreal’ filter.
Using free tools like Perfect Effects, it’s easy to add some new filters/effects to your photography.
If you happen to use Photoshop, you can apply the filter, then save the photo as a .psd file, and the filter will be on its own layer when you open it in Photoshop.
The best part is that it’s free, so if you find that you don’t use it much, it hasn’t cost you anything!
On the other hand, you might just find yourself using it a lot, just because it’s fun. 😀
Now go play!
A Kat and A Mouse 
Reblogged this on Windlight Magazine and commented:
Great new photography tool is discovered by Kat Feldragonne! Read her review of the tool:
I started with the free Perfect Effects vers4 quite a while ago and at one point I was offered a deal and bought the whole Perfect Photo Suite for $49 which gave me the full version of Effects. I have to admit I use Perfect Effects the most but I do use other parts of it too. It works seamlessly with Photoshop Elements and Photoshop which makes it so easy to incorporate with other editing things I do. It’s easy to add your own textures and they occasionally send you extra effects you can add to the program.
I’ve picked up some free actions/filters/effects here and there, but I forget to use them, lol. I spend time fiddling around in Photoshop instead.