So I am not a real big Photoshop filter user. Being that a lot of my work is editorial in nature, which makes it all about showing what is really there and not changing things (no cloning, erasing, etc.) there aren't a lot of filters that I use, and even fewer that I'd spend much money buying, since I rarely need or use them. The other part of this is that I am committed to making correct exposures in camera so that I don't have to spend a bunch of time "fixing" things in Photoshop. The only filters I use frequently are Nik's Dfine 2.0 and NoiseNinja which are both great at reducing digital noise of high ISO images, but even is hasn't seen that much use now that I am shooting with Canon's Mk III cameras.
So after processing my images in RAW, and I am working in Photoshop, most of my time is spend using curves, levels, selective color occasionally, and burning and dodging.
But then I came across Viveza... and it is a filter that makes burning and dodging and ranging color corrections really easy and it is one of the most effective filters that I think I've ever used. It ranks right up there with Noise Ninja in its ability to save time by cutting out many steps in the burning and dodging process.
In the few weeks I've been using it, I am also impressed with how well it keeps shadow and highlight detail and color accurate. It does a much better job of lightening shadows and darkening highlights than CS3's Shadow/Highlight adjustments. What I mean is that it doesn't add noise or mess with the saturation and contrast the way that the Shadow/Highlights adjustments seem to.
Nik, the maker of Viveza, also allows potential purchasers to download a 15 day unrestricted trial version. It is not cheap ($200+) but if you spend a lot of time burning and dodging, it can definitely be a time saver... happy computing!
