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By dlscape, March 18, 2010 14:16

There was once a time when anything other than exposure, white balance and minor tweaks had to be done in Photoshop. Then programs like Lightroom and Aperture added the option of doing spot editing using brushes similar to those in Photoshop but still in a non-destructive format. Then to top all that Nik released Nik Color Efex Pro with u-point control, and it rocks

Lightroom masks are great, I’m not contesting that, but Color Efex Pro (especially when used  in conjuction with Capture NX 2) takes non-destructive editing to the next level. Every filter can be layered and individually masked. Localised edits can be made using the intelligent, auto selecting u-point tool, brush or lasso/marquis select options. Each layer can have it’s own opacity and most tools have shadow and highlight protection tools.

I spotted a scene with some potential but didn't have time to do anything other than point and shoot.

The great thing when using Efex Pro with Capture NX 2 is that all the edits are saved into the NEF file where they can be recalled and edited at a later date. You can even save multiple versions of edits into the one NEF or delete all edits to revert back to the original file. And did I mention all of this is non-destructive?

No more making flattened TIFFs of all your photos then editing those in Photoshop.

In this example I was trying to get arty shots of the Bridal party in their motel room. When you don’t have time to set up lights and you want to just catch candid moments, arty can be difficult to pull off. If I set the camera to tungsten WB the shadows looked ok but the highlights looked blue. If I set it to daylight then the highlights looked ok but the shadows came out browny/orange. In the past this would have bothered me a lot. Now? Not so much…

I used to try to get the perfect shot and then do a few minor tweaks later. Using tools like Color Efex Pro I now aim to capture a decent base shot knowing that I can work on it later to get the perfect look. This means I no longer have to wait or plan for the perfect shot (I still do when I can) and so have captured moments I’d have missed  before.

Some extra contrast and brightness using the u-point colour tool, a bit of added noise, a selective B&W converstion, a few selective tweaks of the saturation, and a bit of masked levels and curves and... Voila!

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By dlscape, February 17, 2010 07:24

I’ve read some mixed reviews of Nikon’s Active D-Lighting. Some like it, some hate it. From what I can see most of those who love it do so because they process with Capture NX2. Those who hate it use something else (Lightroom, Aperture, something non Nikon) and so don’t see any benefit.

For those of you not familiar with the technology here is a quick catchup;

Active D-Lighting (ADL) analyses a photo as it’s metered and automatically adjusts the highlights and shadows to obtain the widest dynamic range. You set ADL in the ‘Shooting’ menu of your Nikon to one of the following; Auto, High, Medium, Low or Off. You will only receive the benefit ADL if you are processing with Capture NX2, in anything else the adjustments will be lost and the file will just come out looking slightly overexposed.

The end result of all this is that if you shoot with ADL turned on, and you process with Capture NX2 (not the most user friendly of programs but a must if you want the best quality out of your NEF files) you’ll get an image that has a much better dynamic range (almost HDR like in some cases) than shooting without it. The nice thing is that you can always turn the adjustments off in CNX2 if you don’t like what’s been done to the file.

In the past using a HDR technique was great so long as nothing moved between the bracketed exposures. Now you can get almost the same effect with just one shot, no more blurry ghosts as people move between frames…

Which brings me to my example of how ADL can come to the rescue. There are times when you are shooting a dark subject against a bright background (or vis versa if it’s penguins in the Antarctic) when you either don’t have time to set up a flash, the subject is too far away for your flash, it’s not convenient to use one etc. Rather than having to spend hours in post processing blending multiple exposures of each shot for a faux HDR image, or working the contrast / exposure / fill light levels for each shot, switch on ADL. Here’s a ‘with and without’ example (remember you can turn the ADL adjustments off after the fact in CNX2, which is how I got the ‘without ADL’ image).