This effect was generated in Filter Forge, a Photoshop plugin that allows you to create your own filters.
This filter adjusts the darkness, gamma, and brightness levels on the luminance, red, green, and blue properties of an image..
This is very similar to the "Histogram Adjustment..." adjustment in Paint Shop Pro X. (I use this a lot, but with this FF filter, I can get all the sliders on one screen, so it's easier/faster to use.)
Note: the presets are probablty too extreme for most uses.
RGB histogram levels color adjustment
This filter has earned its author one of our rewards. They are given to the authors of popular filters and include a free copy of Filter Forge.