Posted by Jack Garrett on March 2, 2011 at 5:07 PM
I've had this image for about a year and a half now, collecting dust in my hard drive. I got my hands on Niks complete package and started playing around with some of the filters and I couldn't believe how it saved this image. Here is the finished image which I think looks pretty decent now. In the reply is the original shot so you can see just how powerful this software is...I'm amazed.
Posted by Jack Garrett on March 2, 2011 at 8:21 PM
OK, I don't remember the exact settings but I used most of the NIK products in the suite:
Started with Viveza...brought up the structure, that makes things look much sharper already, then adjusted the brightness, contrast and saturation sliders. This is the best application for increasing saturation and you can use multiple set points.
Next I went into Color Effects Pro and used the following filters in this order:
1.Brilliance/warmth...played with the sliders..you can see results immediately.
2. Darken/lighten...you can set the point where you want the light to direct the viewer and use sliders to adjust.
3. You can also try pro contrast but I didn't like the results so canceled it. Pro contrast lets you do some colorcast corrections as well as contrast, etc.
Next, I went to D-fine and let it reduce noise automatically. The nice thing is you can use selective parts of the image without effecting other parts....awesome!
Finally, I used Sharpener Pro. You tell it the output and it sharpens for you..I let it go auto but you can make some adjustments also.
Posted by Jack Garrett on March 3, 2011 at 9:36 AM
Thanks for the comments on this. I have to give all the credit to the folks at NIK...it was so easy to use these plugins! This was an image I kept in my files hoping that someday I could do something with it and now I'm glad I did.
I also use the full Nik package...great filters. They really speed up your workflow.
Check out their webinars...great info...each presenter gives a different insight as to do each "how to".
Enjoy!
Posted by Pam Colander on March 3, 2011 at 1:00 PM
Jack, this excellent save only further complicates my decision of when to hit the delete button on an image. I suffer from that BADLY and have been burned in the past so my tendency is to keep everything...something that really clutters up my storage capacity
Great color in the foreground and I really like those clouds.
Posted by Jeff Hackett on March 4, 2011 at 9:51 PM
Wow, what a difference! Nice save.
Posted by Kurt Bowman on March 7, 2011 at 10:06 AM
Jack, I have been using the NIK suite for over a year now and couldn't agree more. I LOVE it! It has also cut my processing time at least in half. I also think their noise reduction (Dfine) and Sharpener are some of the best on the market.
Discussion
18 repliesC&C welcome please.
You can see a larger version here: http://www.naturephotographers.net/imagecritique/largephoto.cgi?ref=168024
Joe Rogers
Started with Viveza...brought up the structure, that makes things look much sharper already, then adjusted the brightness, contrast and saturation sliders. This is the best application for increasing saturation and you can use multiple set points.
Next I went into Color Effects Pro and used the following filters in this order:
1.Brilliance/warmth...played with the sliders..you can see results immediately.
2. Darken/lighten...you can set the point where you want the light to direct the viewer and use sliders to adjust.
3. You can also try pro contrast but I didn't like the results so canceled it. Pro contrast lets you do some colorcast corrections as well as contrast, etc.
Next, I went to D-fine and let it reduce noise automatically. The nice thing is you can use selective parts of the image without effecting other parts....awesome!
Finally, I used Sharpener Pro. You tell it the output and it sharpens for you..I let it go auto but you can make some adjustments also.
The whole process took less than 10 minutes.
Check out their webinars...great info...each presenter gives a different insight as to do each "how to".
Enjoy!