Ian, you really are getting quite good with these BIF images! My goodness but this is lovely! I'll tell you one thing - if you keep photographing these all white birds you might want to look into getting a copy of Nik Software's Viveza. It's amazing at lightening up the offwhites without disturbing anything else around it. At the very least download the 15 day trial and have a go at lightening up that eye and head area. I think you'll be highly pleased with the results.
Super wing span on this one...I don't think we could ask for anything better. DOF and SS are both spot on. If this were mine I might soften the blue away from the neon tone a bit even though I bet this was what it looked like. When skies are this blue it almost feels manufactured so sometimes I soften it up a little - but that's totally your call. Lovely image!!!
Thank you, Jules. I'm going to have to try the Viveza and see what it does. Does it do stuff I can't do in CS5? Yes, sometimes our crisp blue skies are too crisp and too blue. I'll go in and see if I can soften it and see how it looks.
Where do you put Viveza in your workflow? Do you use it in Lightroom, Photoshop, or Aperture? My workflow is generally downloading and cataloging in LR3 and I do most of my editing in CS5. I'm not sure where to fit Viveza into the flow.
Last edited by Ian Cassell; 03-21-2011 at 08:50 PM.
Ian, it's not that it does things you can't do in Photoshop - it's that you can do them without all the masking and selecting. You would be able to put a "point" on the dark area of the face, adjust a circle width to tell the program what area to work in, and then adjust brightness, contrast, shadows, etc. in that one area in that one shade. It's really quite amazing and very fast to make those changes where only one color or one section of your image needs to be changed. No selecting...no leftover selection marks...it's very gradual and extremely fast. If you can afford the program it's definitely worth the money. I hate spending all that time selecting and masking when I can open Viveza right inside PS and with a few clicks be done with what I need to change. Amazing stuff...
I don't use Lightroom...I open my files in ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) for the main tweaks and then go to Photoshop for the minor stuff. This is where I'd use Viveza to change anything that needed contrast or lighting adjustments where I didn't want to spend all day making the selection. They have videos on their website that shows how it all works...it's quick to learn and amazing to use. (And no...I don't get paid to say that! I just love their products!)
Last edited by Julie Kenward; 03-21-2011 at 08:58 PM.
Thanks for the info, Jules. While I'm looking at Viveza, should I be looking at any other Nik products? I know you can buy a bundled suite of them for a lot cheaper than the sum of the parts. Are any of the others worth getting?
I've really enjoyed by filter package by them called Color Efex. I just ordered Silver Efex (which was on sale at B&H Photo for $129 with a free upgrade to their new version that's just now coming out) and I've seen great things from that program as well. They are all very good products though and they all come with free trials so dig in!
Thanks again, Jules. I got a copy of Color Efex Light when I bought my Wacom tablet a couple of years ago, but never used it that much (and, since I bought my new computer, found that it was not compatible with the 64 bit machine). I'll have to give the other stuff a try. I do my B/W conversions in CS5 -- is Silver Efex that much better or easier?
Don't know Ian...just bought it and waiting for it to arrive...but I've seen some amazing black and white images come from it so I'm very much looking forward to using it.
I really like this image Ian - it makes me want to head down to Gilbert this morning! Nice focus which is beautifully enhanced by the backlighting.
Jules brings up an interesting subject which I can relate to... I recently had a visitor who commented on my fake, blue skies - despite them being natural. My question is: how would you go about softening the blues? I have tried to adjust mine, but always end up with an obviously inferior image.
Thanks, Alex! Yes, our skies out here sometimes seem so fake in images to someone who has not experienced them. It sometimes makes me want to paint in little clouds. I'm no expert with softening those blues. Like you, I try sometimes and make things worse. Maybe one of our PS experts can pipe in and give some guidance.
Snowy In-Flight
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