If you like tweaking photos on your Mac and need more than iPhoto, you probably use Photoshop Elements. However, if you want a plethora of special effects from which to choose, FX Photo Studio for Mac (http://www.fxphotostudioapp.com) is your baby.

It offers access to over 150 photography effects. You can use it to blend filters and experiment with styles of photography art such as lomography, analog effects, vignettes, tilt-shift, sketches, textures and many more. Plus, there are sport photo editing tools including sharpening, shadowing and color adjusters.

Categories of effects include: Lo-Fi, Grunge, Art, Vintage, Tilt-Shift, Sketches, Hollywood FX, Color Splash, Blurs and more. Some of the effects are really great; among my favorites are Charcoal Sketch, Ancient Canvas, Aged, Sepia. Then there are some effects that are silly but fun, such as the False Mirror effects, the Symmetry Effects, Pencil Paints and Old TV. Others such as Altamonte, Bilbao and Daytona are, well, interesting, though I'm not sure what you'd use 'em for. puzzle me as to what you'd use 'em for.

Even after you select an effect you like you can adjust its settings, such as the radius. FX Photo Studio's Compare feature is very handy as you can compare two different versions of the same photo. You can also rotate and crop photos.

What's more, the software's interface is customizable so you can label favorites and even save combinations of effects as presets. Masking and color splash tools allow you to apply effects and colors to a part of the image only. Once you've tweaked your image to your liking, you can share it via Facebook, Tumblr, flickr, Twitter or email.

FX Photo Studio has some features that are practical, some that are just fun, and others that are plain weird. But if you like playing around with your photos, the software can keep you occupied for hours at a time.

FX Photo Studio for Mac is available in standard and pro editions. They support image resolution up to 16 and 32 mega-pixels, respectively. FX Photo Studio for Mac requires Mac OS X 10.6 or later and is available at the Mac App Store in the Photography category. FX Photo Studio Standard is US$14.99, and FX Photo Studio Pro is $29.99.

Rating: 8 out of 10

-- Dennis Sellers