Photoshop CS5: The Missing Manual

Color Correction and Enhancement

The plug-ins in this category can spruce up or fix the color in your images and produce a startling array of special effects while they're at it. Read on for the scoop!

Viveza

As you've learned in previous chapters, before you adjust the color of a specific part of your image, you need to select it. Not so with Viveza. Since this plug-in made its debut in early 2008, it has revolutionized selective color and light adjustments. If you mark the areas you want to change with control points (the small gray circles shown in Figure 19-5), you can adjust the saturation, brightness, and contrast of those areas at warp speed. And Viveza performs its magic on a duplicate layer, so you don't have to worry about it destroying your original image. It's available from www.niksoftware.com and costs around $200.

Color Efex Pro

If you could buy just one plug-in, Color Efex Pro would be a darn good choice. Using the same control points as other Nik Software plug-ins, this one lets you selectively apply 52 enhancement filters and over 250 effects to your images—all nondestructively. You can use them to enhance images in creative ways, as well as to fix color casts, smooth skin, and so on (see Figure 19-6). Drop as many control points as you want and use them to set the effect's opacity in certain areas of your image or click the Brush button to paint the effect where you want it. The price ranges from $100 for 15 filters to $300 for all 52, and it's available from www.niksoftware.com ...