Ivan Muller Posted January 6, 2011 Share #1 Posted January 6, 2011 Advertisement (gone after registration) I am allways looking for software to make my post processing life a bit easier and hopefully speed things up a bit. So when I saw that one of the benifits of the L Forum Premium Membership was a Color Efex Pro download, I signed up immediatly! For my personal photography I prefer B&W and if it has to be colour, preferably more desaturated colours. But every now and again I need to brighten things up a bit and I find that Color Efex Pro does that. Enclosed a stock standard 'neutral' image of green grass growing out of a charcoal tree stump, and below that a few variations. The third row shows how these filters can increase colour and warmth etc and the last row has a solarization effect and the last photo is just plain silly but reminds me of polaroid transfers. Of course these filters are not to everyones taste, including mine, but sometimes a bit of warm sunlight and polarising effex does help.... All images are made with my X1, which I Leica a lot! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted January 6, 2011 Posted January 6, 2011 Hi Ivan Muller, Take a look here X1 & COLOR EFEX PRO. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
mrdawkins Posted January 6, 2011 Share #2 Posted January 6, 2011 Alien Skin Exposure is also a nice product, particularly when trying to achieve film simulations, although more and more I tend to revert back to manually adjusting curves to achieve the desired tones. Have you found that in your experience? Have you tried any experiments in Lab mode? I find It produces wonderful saturations/desaturation effects and appears to maintain more integrirty of the file (although I'm not technically knowledgeabe to state the absolute truth in that). I have contemplated the Nik software as well as it seems to be well respected. Do you find that greens are notoriously difficult to saturate or warm? If so, are you aware that it's largely because they consist of yellow. This is what I have found with Alien Skin Exposure: you still have to go in and tweak the channels. Regards Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan Muller Posted January 6, 2011 Author Share #3 Posted January 6, 2011 You mean the Lab mode of alien skin? Dont know because I dont have it. Yes I agree with you regarding normal levels etc, but sometime software can give me a look that I dont know how to get in photoshop or am just tooo lazy to figure out. Also I am a bit dumb when it comes to Photoshop... Only reason I got nik color efex is because it came with the premium membership, but I can see that it will have its place. Also I dont have the funds to go out and buy every piece of software that is released... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrdawkins Posted January 6, 2011 Share #4 Posted January 6, 2011 Hi Sorry, I should have elaborated. Yes the Lab mode in photoshop which whilst a steep learning curve can bring about lovely results. Some photgraphers swear by it, but I use it on and off and don't take if for its merit whenever I fancy. Photoshop is a wonderful tool if you have the desire or need to learn it. But that said, nowadays I feel that these plugins such as Alienskin or Nik have pretty much been great for everyone because they work really well. To be honest if the automation gives you the result then why bother unless you enjoy tinkering with channels, masks and curves. I really like doing this but it doesn't always make me happy - sometimes it frustrates. But one of the great benefits that I felt was that in really getting into color tweaks I learned a lot about the colour spectrum in general and I can now both correct or cast images at will and know which curve to adjust and to what amount. A theoretical concept regarding digital processing is one of variablity and I often wonder if constant tweaking of images clouds the intent. I have spent far too many hours tweaking and wondered why :-) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan Muller Posted January 6, 2011 Author Share #5 Posted January 6, 2011 Yes, I agree with everything you have said. As I said, I am not really that clued up with regards to PS so the Lab mode still eludes me! Where do I find it? I suppose the plug- ins are really meant for people like me.... I must confess that I have learnt most of my PS skills over the last few years from my son who just turned 18! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrdawkins Posted January 6, 2011 Share #6 Posted January 6, 2011 Hi Have a look at this on youtube: You tube has tons of video tutorials for free, a bit hit and miss with the educational quality, but they are there and after a bit of searching around can be very insightful. Adobe TV is getting good as well - have you got a free Adobe account? I agree that Photoshop is hard; I know its frustrating because I went through the pain with it for a long time. But again don't dismiss the plugins; I believe that nowadays emphasis has rightly been put back into the notion that capturing a great image in camera is paramount. Of course one school of thought suggests that far to often photoshop is used to make a poor image look great. I'm not entirely sure about this idea, but I have over the years photoshoped images to death, and now I try to achieve great results for less work - this includes using plugins the same as you because they are great. A very good skill to learn is sharpening, masking and blend modes. Once you understand how these functions perform a kind of fear raises and the learning curve is somewhat easier. And if you can ever afford to pay for anything then I would really recommend Lynda.com. It's not cheap, but I have found it highly effective and you learn really quickly. Most professional creatives use this or a similar product. Also, there are great teachers like Scott Kelby and co who have inexpensive tutorial movies. Good Luck Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
grohde Posted January 9, 2011 Share #7 Posted January 9, 2011 Advertisement (gone after registration) And if you can ever afford to pay for anything then I would really recommend Lynda.com. It's not cheap, but I have found it highly effective and you learn really quickly. Most professional creatives use this or a similar product. Also, there are great teachers like Scott Kelby and co who have inexpensive tutorial movies. Unquote Forgive me if I am deviating the orig thread a bit, however i am really curios as to your recommendation of TUTORIALs: The Kelby "HOW TO..books" are known to me and I like them - straight forward and short to the point. Not sure how his tutorials are, though? LYnda's existance is known to me, but not their approach and effectivenesss as a learning tool. Adobe tutorials, also not known, just started reading their books to the various products I want to dig deeper into: ACR6/PS5/LR3. Important to me is quality and effectiveness, quick and easy to understand and meant complementary to the learning curve/experience out of the books. Cost factor is secondary. And: Is there perhaps another provider which you would include and recommend? Anticipated thanks, guenter Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan Muller Posted January 10, 2011 Author Share #8 Posted January 10, 2011 hi MrDawkins, Thanks for all the links! I eventually found the 'lab' colour space. Looks quite interesting and I will give it a try sometime..... The color sliders in LR, specifically 'saturation' will also help and I have used it before. I find that green sometimes is not quite accurate out of the camera and these sliders(hue) have helped in taming this problem. I photograph a lot of bottles for advertising sometimes and I have to match up the colours with the colours of the labels.... I have even tried polarizing filters of which to my surprise the Marumi DHG is the 'best' even better apparantly than B&W...... although I havent personally tested them. I bought a whole set of polarizing filters to fit my lenses,( I havent got the patience for step down rings!) and found that the sliders work better! Regards Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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