NIK software

[Shadowman]

I like the video tutorials, but I find it hard to replicate techniques unless I have open another video source besides my laptop used for editing. Did a quick search and found a guidebook (282 pages) and it makes it a bit easier to follow along and also the examples are more detailed.

NIK Software Captured: The Complete Guide to Using Nik Software's Photographic Tools, authors Tony L. Corbell and Joshua A. Haftel. $39.99 U.S./$49.. CAN.

The attached photo was edited with Lightroom and NIK software (Dfine2, Viveza, ColorEfex-dynamic skin softening). I normally wouldn't apply skin softening but did so to help alleviate some of the noise.
I took this particular shot as I was experimenting with capturing potential formal portraits culled from street photography shots.
f/6.7, ISO 1600, 1/320sec

No edit-except a bit of sharpening applied in LR-pre-NIK edit

Edited with LR as above and then with NIK


Comments welcome.

[Mike Buckley]

On my calibrated monitor, the skin tones look very natural in the first version and very unnatural in the second version (way too warm with a slight orange cast).

I see no noise when displayed at the size you uploaded to CiC. If it was my image, I wouldn't be concerned about noise until it is displayed in the planned output.

[John 2]

Same here John. I much prefer the rendition of the first image.

[Shadowman]

On my calibrated monitor, the skin tones look very natural in the first version and very unnatural in the second version (way too warm with a slight orange cast).

I see no noise when displayed at the size you uploaded to CiC. If it was my image, I wouldn't be concerned about noise until it is displayed in the planned output.

Hi Mike,

Part of the NIK workflow from the book included upping the saturation level in ColorEfex, perhaps only needed for specific skin types. Thanks for commenting.

[Shadowman]

Same here John. I much prefer the rendition of the first image.

Hi John,

Thanks for commenting.

[Shadowman]

I applied Elements skin adjustment filter (3rd image), does it help?

[Mike Buckley]

Part of the NIK workflow from the book included upping the saturation level in ColorEfex, perhaps only needed for specific skin types.

Perhaps it shouldn't be applied to any skin tones, especially lighter skin tones.

I still prefer the skin tones in the first version over all the versions you have posted so far. Rather than go by what the book recommends, go by your eye when considering its recommendations.

[Mike Buckley]

I haven't tried modifying this image, but if it was mine I would probably do only three things if I had the original full-size file:

• Increase the mid-tone contrast but only slightly so as to keep the very nice skin tones.
• Apply a judicious amount of attention to the person's face on the far right to smooth the skin.
• Sharpen the image according to the planned output.

[Manfred M]

John - I rarely apply some of the Nik filters to anything other than landscapes. They often do not work on people shots, as you are clearly showing with these images.

[Shadowman]

I haven't tried modifying this image, but if it was mine I would probably do only three things if I had the original full-size file:

• Increase the mid-tone contrast but only slightly so as to keep the very nice skin tones.
• Apply a judicious amount of attention to the person's face on the far right to smooth the skin.
• Sharpen the image according to the planned output.

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the suggestions, I typically don't use NIK for portraits/people edits , I usually use just LR and Elements, however as the book included a few tutorials I decided to give them a shot. The one thing I liked about the NIK technique is that I never applied any sharpening throughout the workflow and the result looked vibrant and detailed enough at the final stages. What started me down this path is that I was planning to do a comparison of sharpening techniques (unsharp mask in PSE, NIK Sharpener 3, and high pass filter) but never reached the sharpening stage; I got sidetracked on the NIK workflow.

[Shadowman]

John - I rarely apply some of the Nik filters to anything other than landscapes. They often do not work on people shots, as you are clearly showing with these images.

Hi Manfred,

See post 10 for my purpose in undertaking, it was my first time using NIK for a people shot. While I liked the detail brought out it obviously isn't to everyone's liking. Some of the steps suggested in the NIK workflow (adding saturation and structure) did surprise me but I applied anyway.

[Manfred M]

Hi Manfred,

See post 10 for my purpose in undertaking, it was my first time using NIK for a people shot. While I liked the detail brought out it obviously isn't to everyone's liking. Some of the steps suggested in the NIK workflow (adding saturation and structure) did surprise me but I applied anyway.

I saw that post John. I find I don't like Nik with people to the point that I will use it for the image but will mask out skin.

I also find that many of the default settings are too heavy handed for my taste and will use them at lower settings. I do most of my work in Color Efex Pro.

[Donald]

I'm just catching up with this thread and would only contribute the following.

With whatever you're doing with the NIK tools, subtlety and a light touch are they key words. It is so easy and so tempting to go over-the-top with so many of the sliders, etc. The tool I use almost exclusively is Silver Efex Pro2 and I've found that, when I began to understand it, a useful 'rule-of-thumb' was - "Make the adjustments that you think are appropriate, then wind back everything by about 50%."

[Shadowman]

I'm just catching up with this thread and would only contribute the following.

With whatever you're doing with the NIK tools, subtlety and a light touch are they key words. It is so easy and so tempting to go over-the-top with so many of the sliders, etc. The tool I use almost exclusively is Silver Efex Pro2 and I've found that, when I began to understand it, a useful 'rule-of-thumb' was - "Make the adjustments that you think are appropriate, then wind back everything by about 50%."

Donald,

Thanks for the comments. I did zoom in to see if I could detect the changes, most didn't seem to alter the image too much, but the structure and saturation slider obviously did. It's interesting to note that none of the video tutorials on the NIK site were used on portraits/people shots; only landscapes. Also, I generally do not like the Sharpener filter in NIK, I was going to use it within this undertaking, following the guidance from the book; but never got around to using it.

[Shadowman]

I saw that post John. I find I don't like Nik with people to the point that I will use it for the image but will mask out skin.

I also find that many of the default settings are too heavy handed for my taste and will use them at lower settings. I do most of my work in Color Efex Pro.

Hi Manfred,

I too like ColorEfex and have experimented with Viveza used only on the eyes, perhaps I'll stick with that workflow.

[rpcrowe]

I agree with John regarding the book, NIK Software Captured.

I love using NIK software but mostly use the RAW sharpener, Dfine (only when needed) and Viveza.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZEtThwBIps

Viveza has many aspects. In combination with the control point technology and the capability to work with brushes, you can really improve many images using Viveza. You can make the edits as simple or as complicated as you desire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq8sZpo9M8w

One important aspect of my dog photography is keeping my Maltese dog's coats white. Using Viveza, I will often select portions of the coats of my white dog subjects that have color shades due to reflections of the surrounding areas (this is especially evident when using red colored suroundings). I will select the areas using control points and the desaturate those areas and/or decrease the specific color that is interfering with rendering the hair white. Quite often when I desaturate an area, I find it advantageous to increase the brightness in that area a bit also in order to get a nice white.

I enjoy using my Chromebook in combination with my desktop computer when editing images. I can do the editing using my desktop computer (with CS6 and NIK) while having instructions or an instructional video open on my Chromebook. That makes it easy for me to follow along with the instructions.

BTW: I also use Perfect Photo Suite as a CS6 Plug-In to edit many of my images. There is some amount of duplication between NIK and Perfect Photo but, there is enough difference for me to regard the combination as quite viable. One portion of Perfect Photo that I really like is Perfect Resize which was once marketed separately as Genuine Fractals and was the premier photo sizing program available.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9hdJXahuSw

[Shadowman]

I love using NIK software but mostly use the RAW sharpener, Dfine (only when needed) and Viveza.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZEtThwBIps

Viveza has many aspects. In combination with the control point technology and the capability to work with brushes, you can really improve many images using Viveza. You can make the edits as simple or as complicated as you desire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq8sZpo9M8w

One important aspect of my dog photography is keeping my Maltese dog's coats white. Using Viveza, I will often select portions of the coats of my white dog subjects that have color shades due to reflections of the surrounding areas. I will select the areas using control points and the desaturate those areas and/or decrease the specific color that is interfering with rendering the hair white. Quite often when I desaturate an area, I find it advantageous to increase the brightness in that area a bit also in order to get a nice white.

BTW: I enjoy using my Chromebook in combination with my desktop computer when editing images. I can do the editing using my desktop computer (with CS6 and NIK) while having instructions or an instructional video open on my Chromebook. That makes it easy for me to follow along with the instructions.

Richard,

Thanks for the links, I can get youtube through my TV and will often use that to follow along on my laptop.

[IzzieK]

Last year I used Colour Efex in some of my people shots in Bill's air events. I thought I like the special effects especially the film ones. I submitted a few of them that I had started and it wasn't well received, so I had to start all over again right from the beginning and did it right, just in Viveza, most of which, I selected the people and exclude them in the edit from Colour Efex and then most of the ones intact with people, I converted using Silver Efex. A bunch of them are now hanging in their new museum's walls, some still waiting to be hanged. I think Viveza is enough when it comes to people too. Just my experience...

[Shadowman]

Last year I used Colour Efex in some of my people shots in Bill's air events. I thought I like the special effects especially the film ones. I submitted a few of them that I had started and it wasn't well received, so I had to start all over again right from the beginning and did it right, just in Viveza, most of which, I selected the people and exclude them in the edit from Colour Efex and then most of the ones intact with people, I converted using Silver Efex. A bunch of them are now hanging in their new museum's walls, some still waiting to be hanged. I think Viveza is enough when it comes to people too. Just my experience...

Izzie,

Did you get familiar with the software through the website's video tutorials or another method?

[IzzieK]

Izzie,

Did you get familiar with the software through the website's video tutorials or another method?

I just used some videos like this ones...nothing really especial but I learned that if you select the people, then invert your selection, you get the background to go to Nik's and you do can anything to it as you please...

https://www.youtube.com/user/NikSoftwareLessons


http://edknepleyphoto.com/2013/04/05/googles-nik-collection-tutorials/