Attention all users of Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, and other

[ET Awful]

programs that can use Photoshop compatible plug-ins.

I (and I very rarely do this), have found a product I very highly recommend.

If you can get yourself a copy of Nik Color Efex Pro 2.0, I urge you to do so. It has some incredible functional tools for post-processing of photos and works extremely well.

It has a VERY good tool for black and white conversions that gives extremely contrasty results that are extremely hard to achieve through manual tweaking, etc. It also has some very good tools for removing color cast and improving contrast, etc.

The base product has the tools for color (but lacks the B&W conversion stuff) and sells for about $85. The middle version adds the black and white and several other tools (I'm not sure of the price on this), and the "Complete Edition" adds a dozen more tools (and costs over $300 unfortunately).

You can get a limited version included with most Wacom tablets as well. Or, if you want to invest in a good monitor calibration tool, the basic version is included with Colorvisions Spyder 2 Pro Studio calibration tools.

http://www.nikmultimedia.com/colorefexpro/usa/entry.php

For samples of each included filter go here (this also lists which filters come with which edition of the software):

http://www.nikmultimedia.com/colorefexpro/usa/entry.php?view=samples