It's My Nature » Nik Dfine

iPhone Phollies – Chimes

Ed — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:04:30 +0000

It has been a very slow weekend from a photography perspective. I have been sick since Thursday and with the snowstorm on Saturday, I haven’t gotten out to shoot at all. So I may have to pull from the archives for something to post to the blog this week. But before I do that, let me indulge in a little bit of creative silliness. I did spend a few minutes out in the backyard yesterday and I happened to have my iPhone tucked away in my pocket. So in the few minutes that I was out there, I did end up making a few images.

When I got back into the house just a few minutes later, I dumped them on to the iMac and started to play around with processing using the Nik Complete suite of plug-ins for Photoshop. Here’s what I came up with.

This image is of three Maine Harbor Bell wind chimes that we have hanging from the corner of the garage. Processing was with Nik Dfine for noise reduction; Nik Viveza for brightness, contrast, structure; Nik Silver Efex Pro for the conversion to black and white and the antique sepia look; and finally just a touch of Sharpener Pro.

It’s not the Mona Lisa but it was fun to create.

The Apple of My Eye

Ed — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 21:17:49 +0000

Slam on brakes; swerve to the right. Every once in a while, I’ve got to try something different. I hadn’t touched a camera since last weekend so this morning before we headed out for a quick visit to Barnes & Noble, lunch at Panera’s and a trip to the Farm Market; I packed a small backpack with the unlikely arsenal of my 30D with the Lensbaby and accessories and my IR-converted Rebel XT with a 50mm f/1.8 lens. By the time we hit the Farm Market, I had yet to hold a camera or, obviously, take a picture.

But that was soon to end not with the 30D and Lensbaby nor with the IR-converted XT but rather with my iPhone camera. I made a series of fruit and veggie images with the iPhone and when I got home, processed them using Nik filters in Photoshop CS4. This particular image was processed with Nik Dfine for noise reduction and Viveza 2 for some global brightness, contrast, saturation and structure adjustments. I then moved into Color Efex Pro where I ran it through the Glamour Glow filter followed by the Vignette Blur filter. And I finished with just a touch of Sharpener Pro.

I kinda like the results. Your thoughts?

The Power of Nik (Razorbills and Puffin)

Ed — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 11:30:00 +0000

January 2010 Version Above/June 2009 Version Below

RAZORBILLS ABOVE/PUFFINS BELOW

January 2010 Version Above/June 2009 Version Below

Over the past several years I upgraded to Photoshop CS4, added then upgraded Lightroom, added plug-ins like Neat Image and the complete Topaz Suite, none of these has impressed me as much as the Nik Software Complete Collection. For those of you unfamiliar with Nik’s series of plug-ins for Photoshop, Lightroom, and Aperture, let me say this: they are pricey but oh so very impressive in what they allow you to do with an image.

Nik Dfine is the noise reduction plug-in and works almost automatically. Click on it, it opens, assesses the image, filters the noise and all that is left to do is to hit OK. And then it is off to Nik Viveza 2, the color, brightness, contrast, texture enhancing plug-in. A little more work than Dfine but the results are well worth. Color Efex Pro is a plug-in with over 50 different filters that allow you to create all kinds of wonderful effects. Silver Efex Pro may be the best black and white conversion software available. And Sharpener Pro is an excellent image sharpening plug-in.

I don’t work for Nik. I am not a Nik professional. I am not an expert with Nik. I bought Nik Complete out of my own pocket. I’ve only had it a month but it has wowed me. Many, probably all, of my posts from the past month have been touched, in one way or another, by Nik.

The images above were made back in June of 2009 on our trip to Machias Seal Island. In both cases (Razorbills and Puffins), the first image is the image reworked with Nik while the second is the image that I had posted back in June (processed in Lightroom and CS4). To my eye the differences are dramatic. I reworked both images using Dfine to reduce any noise; Viveza 2 with their control point technology to selective manipulate colors, tones, brightnesses and textures; and Sharpener Pro to… well, sharpen the image.

This has got me thinking about the possibility of adding another feature to my website – a “How do you do that?” page where I would select an image and take us through the process, often fairly simple but sometimes not, of getting from Point A (in camera) to Point B (ready for print). That may be coming in the not too distant future so if you are interested, keep an eye out.