If you regularly work with photos of faces in your projects, you’ll appreciate these two $50 plug-ins from Image Trends for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements (and any other application that accepts Photoshop plug-ins).

PearlyWhites does one simple thing: it whitens teeth. To use it, you just select PearlyWhites from Photoshop’s Filter menu and it automatically does its magic. As a side benefit, it also whitens the sclera of the eyes and any other area of off-white surrounded by flesh tones. Set it up as an Action in Photoshop to apply PearlyWhites to all your portraits while you take a break.

ShineOff automatically removes shine from skin, restoring faces and other skin areas to a soft and natural looking appearance — kind of like a digital face powder. It’s so simple that it has only one control: a slider to control the amount of correction. You just select ShineOff from Photoshop’s Filter menu and it removes glare from your subject’s face, forehead, hair, and other areas. In our tests it was shockingly effective. Just like PearlyWhites, you can set it up as an Action in Photoshop.

Jay Nelson

Jay Nelson is the editorial director of PlanetQuark.com, and the editor and publisher of Design Tools Monthly. He’s also the author of the QuarkXPress 8 and QuarkXPress 7 training titles at Lynda.com, as well as the training videos Quark includes in the box with QuarkXPress 7 . In addition, Jay writes regularly for Macworld and Photoshop User magazines and speaks at industry events.