Software To Check Out

[Ron Kruger]

A friend turned me on to this site: http://www.niksoftware.com
I was especially interested in their GND filter. Here is a before and after with very little additional tweaking.

[spyglass]

T-man,

I am assuming that this particular effect is suppose to mimic a blue graduated filter? I know in real life they make several severity of filters when it comes to graduated filters, as well as hard and soft (transitions). The one area where software tends to fall short in Software filters is that it can not create the EV shift that a real filter would offer when capturing the shot. When I look at your original shot I get the feeling that if the sky region were stopped down, more cloud detail might be reveled. A real graduated filter would offer this EV shift of the sky and capture the detail. Software can not create detail that which was not captured.

The blue does seem to be quite strong. Does the software allow you to adjust the level / severity & transition of the filter? When I want to add a light colouring to a sky in Photoshop I use the Gradient tool. It lets you define the area to be affected, severity, amount etc. Your software might be a more packaged and advanced tool. I will check it out.



Thanks for sharing,

Spyglass

[Ron Kruger]

This software has all kinds of adjustments. You can move the GND effect horizontally or vertically, adjust color and gradient and even confine it to portions of the image. Like I said, this is my first, one-click use of it without tweaking. I just downloaded a trial version of it and haven't had time to check it out, but thought I would share, because it looks promising. This, by the way, is a Photoshop/Lightroom plug-in, not a stand-alone software.
The sky in this shot was a uniform grey.

[Ron Kruger]

Okay, here's a before and after of a shot I took today with a little more tweaking, but not much really. Program is very easy to use.

[mikro]

Nice, I love Nik software!  and if you have time check out the webinars.  Lots of cool stuff to learn and try...

http://www.niksoftware.co...dex.php/webinars/archives

[tcom]

Yesterday I was at the "Professional Imaging" in Zürich, it is a photo fair targeting professional photographers. It is held every two years. I stopped at a booth where an employee of Nik Software demonstrated some software. I already knew Silver Efex Pro 2 to convert photos to B&W, but I was really surprised to see him using it to actually enhance the contrast and rendition of color photos.

He opens a landscape which looks pretty much out of the camera, lacking a bit of contrast. Normally, I would have tweaked the contrast and lighting until I do get a good photo out of it. He called the Silver Efex Pro 2 plugin which creates a new layer containing the B&W result. He tweeks the B&W photo until it pleases him, with local adjustment where needed and once back in photoshop, he changes the layer type to "luminosity". The end result was not a good photo, but an exceptional photo one could see at photo exhibitions or travel catalogues! I will have to give it a try.

[mikro]

Yesterday I was at the "Professional Imaging" in Zürich, it is a photo fair targeting professional photographers. It is held every two years. I stopped at a booth where an employee of Nik Software demonstrated some software. I already knew Silver Efex Pro 2 to convert photos to B&W, but I was really surprised to see him using it to actually enhance the contrast and rendition of color photos.

He opens a landscape which looks pretty much out of the camera, lacking a bit of contrast. Normally, I would have tweaked the contrast and lighting until I do get a good photo out of it. He called the Silver Efex Pro 2 plugin which creates a new layer containing the B&W result. He tweeks the B&W photo until it pleases him, with local adjustment where needed and once back in photoshop, he changes the layer type to "luminosity". The end result was not a good photo, but an exceptional photo one could see at photo exhibitions or travel catalogues! I will have to give it a try.

Sweet!  I'm going to try that today myself!

[tcom]

Give it a try, works like magic but needs some practice in order to avoid over contrasty photos...