Unbelievable Madagascar September 14–October 1, 2007
				India Wildlife: On the Trail of the Tiger November 7–24, 2007
				Angkor Wat & Bagan—Temples of Cambodia and Myanmar January 17–31, 2008

Photoshop is a tremendously powerful program, but its complexity can be daunting. I'm always looking for shortcuts to produce the effects I want. I record the steps for frequently performed task as macros, which are called "actions" in Photoshop. For example, I use an action to change the image size of files and file type to meet the needs of a stock agency. The same action simultaneously produces a JPEG version. Plug-ins are actions written and marketed by by third-party vendors. Among these, Color Efex Pro 2.0 from Nik Multimedia (www.nikmultimedia.com) has become a staple in my arsenal of quick fixes and magical transformations.

Color Efex 2.0 is a set of filters that can be used for color correction, to mimic special effects such as cross processing or infrared, or to create otherworldly images. Nik offers three versions: Standard (19 filters for $99.95), Select (45 filters for $159.95) and Complete (75 filters for $299.95). When installed, the filters are found in the Filter pulldown menu divided into Traditional and Stylized.

The Color Efex filters are located in the Filter pulldown menu.

Each filter offers a range of adjustments.

Let's look at several filters.

I’ve always loved the look of black-and-white infrared images. You can approximate the look of black-and-white infrared in Photoshop by either converting a color image to grayscale or using Channels to make a black-and-white version, increasing contrast and adding appropriate blur. Color Efex’s black-and-white infrared filter does the same thing at the click of a mouse. I'll illustrate with a photo of Tres Cima in the Italian Dolomites.

This is the original shot of Tres Cima in the Italian Dolomites, before the black-and-white infrared filter was applied.

With the plug-in, simply create a duplicate layer over the original color image, click on the infrared filter found under Color Efex Traditional in the Filter pulldown menu in Photoshop. The preview pane shows you how the image will look if you use the filter at full strength. Apply the filter and voilá, instant infrared.

Here's the same shot of Tres Cima after I applied the black-and-white infrared filter.

The trick to controlling any filter is the Fade command. After applying the filter, open the Edit pulldown menu and click on Fade. A slider menu appears that allows you to fade the opacity of the filtered image to let the underlying color appear to a greater or lesser extent. In the case of the IR filter you end up with a desaturated, slightly grainy image. If you want a simple black-and-white infrared void of color, don't bother with the fade command. Once you are satisfied with the results, flatten the image. (The command is at the bottom of the Layers pulldown menu.)

Using the Fade command, I adjusted the opacity of the top layer, allowing some color from the original layer to show through.

Sometimes I return home with images that would have benefited from the use of a graduated neutral density filter. I can see by my histogram that there is information in the bright areas, but the skies look blown out. There are a number of ways to control the excess of contrast in Photoshop, but the Color Efex graduated neutral density filter performs a serviceable job. Again, open a duplicate layer, click on graduated neutral density in the Traditional menu, and adjust the image in the preview pane to modulate brightness in the light and dark areas before applying the filter to the image. The Fade command allows you to further adjust the strength of the filter before flattening and saving.

The original shot (left) of the Torres del Paine in Patagonia suffers from too much contrast, as seen in the blown out sky. Applying the Color Efex graduate neutral density filter and adjusting upper and lower tonality results in a more balanced photograph (right).

Some days the light refuses to cooperate. Every shot looks drab. The Sunshine filter can rescue these images with a single click. By following the same procedure as before, i.e. creating a duplicate layer and applying the filter, the Sunshine filter floods the image with light and warm color. Sometimes the filter looks unnaturally warm. Fade judiciously for best results.

The backlit shot of two bison on a hazy day (left) lacks saturation and punch. The Sunshine filter endows the shot with warmth and saturation (right), albeit at a cost of color accuracy. Further work in Photoshop can restore the correct color while retaining the snap created by the filter. In this case, I faded the filter on the top layer to 60% of maximum strength.

Many of the filters step beyond the bounds of the possible into the realm of abstraction. The Monday morning filters, midnight filters and cross-processing filters provide simple ways to achieve the colors and atmospheres found in fashion and fine arts photography. Most of these filters reside in the Stylized menu. It's fun to play with the surreal, but the results are not to everyone's taste.

Despite their power, these filters don't replace traditional glass and resin filters in the photographer’s bag of tricks. For example, the digital version of a polarizing filter can't see through glare on a wet leaf to reveal the underlying green. I usually prefer the results I get from a glass filter over the computer version of a graduated neutral density, but when I need GND after the shoot, the Color Efex version is a lifesaver.

The Standard version lacks important filters. Check out the Select and Complete sets to see which filters will enhance your photography.