I'm a real "Filter Freak". Just LOVE em!!!

I know alot of people hate em, but to me? Whatever makes the Image look "Cool", to My point of view,....I love it. :-)

Saw a Filter at a friends last week called "Curvemeister". WOW!!
Depending on the picture....It made some SERIOUS Color difference!!
Not really that expensive either. And the 3-4 click "quick" fix wizard is Truly amazing. Check it out here. http://www.curvemeister.com/

Got to lookin around and found this Free Filter, that is along the same lines. Pretty darn cool too. A little more work, but with the same results.
http://www.cybia.co.uk/vivida.htm

How about sharin some of the filters you use, and what are some of YOUR Favorites?! :-)

I'm a big Fan of "Eye Candy", "Alien Skin", and "Flaming Pear".
Flaming Pears "Flood" Filter is truly amazing.

Any Other "Filter Freaks" out there?? :-) Whatcha got?? :-)

I'll have to try out the Vivida. :-) I like Flaming Pear myself -- one of my favourites by them is Polymerge, though sometimes it takes a bit of trial and error before you get something you like.

I have a flood plugin (attached to my Paintshop Pro) which isn't Flaming Pear and has some very nice effects... Try it on a simple black line. :-) It's Redfield Water Ripples.

I use Fractalius a lot and really enjoy it!! Along with some of the other Redfield plug-ins (and some are FREE)!!

XERO has a lotta neat free ones too!! ***windows only***

OptikVerve Labs is really nice as well, and yup...it's FREE!! ***windows only again, sorry Mac people***

MEHDI has some funky stuff!!

Freaky fun foto filters are funtabulous!! Enjoy!!

Not many "Filter Freaks" huh"? :-) Interesting. I thought this would have been a much more imformative thread, with alot of input.

Oh well....

They're either on holiday or playing with the ones they've got. :-)
I have been trying out the plugins mentioned here... there are more than a few! The eraser plugins from the Mehdi site linked to by Hottrockin above are interesting.

I always used to shy away from filtering as they were often pretty garish and ruined the natural appeal of an image. They tend to be much better these days and creatively I use Tiffen DFX most of the time.

They have just released DFX2 with a lot of upgrades including masking and layering within the filters. They can replicate the use of physical camera filters very well. Down side is that the full collection software is very pricey.

Also playing around with Apple’s Aperture 2 at the moment enhanced with filters such as Color Efex Pro 3 and Viveza both from NIK Software and Ozone 2.5 from Digital Film Tools. All of these seem to create very nice natural enhancements. Ozone in particular is very good.

I have a few other filters from Fred Miranda which tend to be good from a price point of view and that you can buy them as single units tailored to the type of camera you have.

Other than that it’s just PictureCodes Noise Ninja and for work, the Kodak plug ins Digital ROC and Digital SHO – both of which simulate some of the aspects of scanning with Digital ICE when you are repairing film scans.

Floods always been a nice tool used subtly, I'm less convinced about Curvemeister. As is common with many 3rd part Photoshop filters, it's basically just existing Photoshop functionality bunched together in a user friendly interface. This doesn't really apply to Elements but in CS3 at least - you can perform all of the advertised functions easily yourself with a little scouting around the presets and options within the Curves dialogue. it's fine to bunch it together into a package like this but i wouldn't fancy paying 90 bucks for it. You could basically do it all as recordable actions yourself and run them in button mode.

Wow Phil!
Now those are some filters! Thanks for the links. If nothing else, you've given me alot to read! :-)
I hear what you're sayin about Curvemeister. I saw it at my friends and thought it was pretty cool for amatures and a relitavely easy fix. But, I don't think I'd pay 90 for it either. I think that Vivida was sorta interesting....and it's free.

Thanks for the info, most appreciated.

I love plugins too. Here are some from my bookmarks. These are mostly freeware plugins.

The Plugin Site

PC Download World - Photo Editors Freeware/Shareware

45 Best Freeware Design Programs

Obsidian Dawn - Photoshop Brushes

Visman Filters

All Graphic Design

Steve's Desktop Photography - Plugins (freeware)

Free Photoshop - Plugins

Richard Rosenman - Free Filters/Plugins

Cybia - Freeware Plugins

I do hope you find something of interest :)

Now THAT is a Super post Lori!!! A True "Filter Freak" you are!! Great Stuff!
Thanks much for the New Info. Lookin forward to checkin em all out!!

Glad to see I ain't the only "Filter Freak"!! :-)

"Is that all you got Lori?", said noahnott.

/\ Yes, it's a joke. Perhaps bit of an inside one, still ... just kidding here. :oD

ok - so breaking the cardinal rule of reviving flat lined threads - I must recommend the Power Retouche filter set for photographers. they are a bit pricey but subtlety seems to be their byword and the results are great without looking the slightest bit processed. the black and white studio in particular is fantastic at replicating conventional film styles and the histogram repair function works very well also.