I just purchased Nik Software plugins for Aperture. Why?
Witness…
A pretty spectacular photo SOOC of Frenchman Bay from the apex of Cadillac Mountain this past spring…
Now, this was the Photoshop processing I did last spring utilizing the Kelby method.
I love the way this looks…but it is super saturated and takes quite a bit of ka-noodle-ing (technical term there) to get this.
Now…in Aperture ONLY, I applied the Nik Software plug ins…and WOW!
This is what I have been dying to achieve. When I see, Joe McNally’s work there is a quality of color and light that I never could quite capture; not heavily processed just spectacularly real and awe inspiring. Now, I don’t claim to even come close to McNally’s work…but man, it is closer than I have been able to get. I haven’t opened Photoshop since downloading the free trials from Nik Software. I am sure I will still need Photoshop for cloning and dust spot removal…but for everyday processing it will be NIK software!
Better results in less time. WIN WIN!
I love the natural look of the blue sky in the last picture. That is so hard to achieve shooting toward the sun. Beautiful.
Comment by karma — October 31, 2009 @ 2:14 pm
The sharpness is fab too! Where did you first here if this NIK software, and is it by Nikon?
Comment by JenniferA — October 31, 2009 @ 8:53 pm
Jen, I linked to Nik Software…but here is their website http://www.niksoftware.com/index/usa/entry.php
I found these plugins from Joe McNally’s blog!
Comment by shrewspeaks — October 31, 2009 @ 10:04 pm
Joe’s Blog can be found here…http://www.joemcnally.com/blog/
Comment by shrewspeaks — October 31, 2009 @ 10:04 pm
Hey, you do know you can clone and repair (remove dust spots) in Aperture, right? Once I upgrade my Powerbook to a Macbook I’ll have to really give the Nik stuff a try. When I used Capture NX (which uses Nik U-Point technolgy), I was impressed with what you could do.
For a shot like this, it’s really nice to get all that detail. Also, you might want to look into using neutral density gradient filters to get closer SOOC to what your final image turned out to be.
Comment by Scott Thomas Photography — October 31, 2009 @ 11:39 pm
Thanks… I knew you must have mentioned where you got it somewhere but I couldn’t remember which post. Maybe one of these days when I invest in a better camera I will take a leap to some better software. I still don’t even use Photoshop Elements all that much because I find the free Google Picasa software easier to use. I only switch to Elements when Picasa can’t do something.
Comment by JenniferA — November 1, 2009 @ 2:35 pm
Pretty impressive stuff! Will have to check it out. I really love my Elements, but this looks cool.
Comment by kanniduba — November 1, 2009 @ 5:15 pm
KD…it is so simple. I was at a friends house over the weekend showed her how it works and she bought the plugins right then and there.
Comment by shrewspeaks — November 2, 2009 @ 2:58 pm
OH…and if you do buy…there are some discount codes out there so google them.
Comment by shrewspeaks — November 2, 2009 @ 2:59 pm