I am trying to learn more about retouching and restoring photos. I have CS2, but I was just wondering if "those in the know" recommend other programs geared specifically to restoration and retouching? Thanks for your input.

yes there are few more professional softwares which are not huge like Photoshop but they are best in what they are made of. like face retouching, BW to colourizing faces,extraction and even changing clothes

What exactly are the products your talking about? Who makes them? Do you recommend any of the adobe plugins?