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Of all the many plug-ins available for Photoshop to instantly enhance photos, one of the best is Nik Software’s Color Efex Pro. Now it’s available for Adobe’s Lightroom too, a great time-saver for Lightroom fans.
Color Efex (prices start at $99.95) is a series of over 50 filters that do things such as soften skin (wipe those wrinkles away), add rich colors selectively to sunset shots (see the examples here), and boost contrast. From Nik’s application window, you can see the effect before it’s applied to the photo, and adjust the colors and effects accordingly.
Lightroom is the Adobe program for organizing your shoots, and quickly applying quick editing tools such as lightening, darkening and cropping. To add an Nik effect before, you can had to click the “Edit in Photoshop,” tab in Lightroom and wait for the big photo editing program to open. Now, it all happens within Lightroom, which is much more efficient.
The update is free for Color Efex Pro users. Once it’s downloaded, you apply the filters by right-clicking the photo and choosing the “Edit in Color Efex” tab.
Nik says that all its programs will now be made available for Lightroom in 2009 as well, with Silver Efex Pro (a black and white converter) next-in line.
Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 Complete is available at an academic discount price of $169.
Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 Select is available at an academic discount price of $85.
Photoshop Lightroom 2 is available at an academic discount price of $98.
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