Do people use Nik Efex plug ins?

bbg404

bbg404

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morning all been speaking to a mate of mine who can't speak highly enough of the Nik Efex package and that I should get it as it would really help clean up some of my work!

I'm just wondering do many people use it or is photoshop powerful enough?

Thanks
 
bbg404 said:
morning all been speaking to a mate of mine who can't speak highly enough of the Nik Efex package and that I should get it as it would really help clean up some of my work!

I'm just wondering do many people use it or is photoshop powerful enough?

Thanks
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I use them, they're fantastic :)
 
They're great. But beware - it's incredibly easy to make a horrific mess of your pictures with them.

A light touch yields the best results.

ETA: What do you mean by "clean up" some of your work? What problem are you wanting to solve?
 
pwhysall said:
They're great. But beware - it's incredibly easy to make a horrific mess of your pictures with them.

A light touch yields the best results.

ETA: What do you mean by "clean up" some of your work? What problem are you wanting to solve?
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Much the same as any other processing program, including lightroom.
 
I find noise reduction and sharpening to be both excellent in Nik, but I use Fuji and LR doesn't do the best job with these due to the strange Fuji sensors. Silver Efex pro 2 is arguably the best plugin there is for B&W. Color Efex Pro is great for manipulating your shots but I always make a pig's ear of doing this by being heavy handed so tend to avoid it now. I don't like the Nik HDR program much though.
 
NR and Sharpening are both great, sharpening I use on all my photos with the brush option. Beats high pass sharpening and the like for me.
Colour Efex is superb, but you have to be really gentle with it to stop it looking like a garish mess. This has had gentle Colour Efex polarisation and cooling to try and replicate how it really was when I took it. https://www.flickr.com/photos/jaketurner92/15174721667/
This one was done in Silver Efex, arguably the best software for mono conversions. Also been sharpening in the Efex post sharpener. https://www.flickr.com/photos/jaketurner92/15319749926/in/photostream/
It's much like all editing software, take it off of 'auto' mode and make the adjustments yourself and you'll be able to really fine tune your editing processes.
 
Love colour efx and silver efx. Its easy to go wild with them. You can do as little or as much depending on your style but I find these suites just help give that little bit more punch to a scene.
Look at my site and see if you like my style, a lot have been the Colour fx for sure
 
ST4 said:
Love colour efx and silver efx. Its easy to go wild with them. You can do as little or as much depending on your style but I find these suites just help give that little bit more punch to a scene.
Look at my site and see if you like my style, a lot have been the Colour fx for sure
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Some before and after shots would be particularly appreciated Steve as your work doesn't scream post-production yet has the kind of punch I am sure many of us don't get from our SOOC shots
 
ianmarsh said:
Some before and after shots would be particularly appreciated Steve as your work doesn't scream post-production yet has the kind of punch I am sure many of us don't get from our SOOC shots
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My own style is a light touch for sure. I do as little as possible PP, but as much as necessary.

A good example is this. A recent shot in Athens.

Before

_DSC1212 by SFTPhotography, on Flickr

After - 25% grad added to the sky, pro contrast, lifted some foreground with a grad, polarising effect added to darken the sky

_DSC1212 (1) by SFTPhotography, on Flickr

Before
_DSC1541 by SFTPhotography, on Flickr

after - 5% faux sky light, diagonal grad applied to lift a bit more off the shrubs in the side.

_DSC1541 (1) by SFTPhotography, on Flickr

before

_DSC0184 by SFTPhotography, on Flickr

after

_DSC0184 by SFTPhotography, on Flickr

I am maybe not the best example as I use it sparingly. You can do so much more with it if you want, but I just want my image to pop, to look nice, natural, bright and colourful. Quite often in basic PP with some basic adjustments I get the result I want, I only use it if I think I need to give it a bit more.
 
Very nice work. It looks like there are two basic differences between your landscape work and mine:
1. Your PP enhances your image whereas mine makes any picture look like it has been exposed to significant radiation and
2. Your pictures look great SOOC whereas mine really should be binned!
Seriously, though, thanks for these - very helpful
 
PP can do a lot for an image for sure, but rubbish in rubbish out. Understand the light, the subject matter, exposure (I use ETTR but not always and you do not have to) and it will become easy for you. I rarely spend a lot of time on PP. I'd rather be out shooting, travelling than working on a computer. Learn about histograms etc and you are laughing.
 
ianmarsh said:
Silver Efex pro 2 is arguably the best plugin there is for B&W. .
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I disagree strongly. Understanding what you're doing and using the plethora of control available in LR and Photoshop yield MUCH better results.
 
ianmarsh said:
Agreed. That's why I said plugin.
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Why plug anything into Photoshop, when Photoshop can do so much more, and with so much more finesse? Plug in or stand alone... makes no difference.

Plug-ins just try to circumvent a learning curve, which is why they are popular.

Just my opinion.
 
perhaps because plugins can be cheaper, faster, easier, and different. Photoshop can more or less do it all but I don't think there is any need for everybody to use it. Steve's examples above look very nice to me. They could no doubt have been done in Photoshop but they could also be done in a plugin from Lightroom.
 
I used Silver efex and is the only plugin suite that I've ever paid for as it's worth every penny in my opinion. I've tried to create similar effects manually and can't get to it with the same level of tweaking without spending a long long time on it.
 
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