Nik Is Not Your Enemy

For those who are hesitating about getting one or more Nik Software products I can only say go for it. Not only because we sell it but we also use it and we can only recommend it. You need to enhance your images quickly without spending a lot of time brushing around in photoshop, drop a couple of control points apply and done. Here's an example:

I took this picture down in Croatia this year. Not much at all. That is why I adjusted the brightness, colors etc with Viveza in the various details like sky, water, the hull and glass of the boats.

 

This really brought out the noise in the lightened underexposed areas. No problem, we have Dfine...

This one is really great. It really took care of it. Check the large plastic area in the foreground. Or the sky. Gone. Before one would figure outhow to start with removing noise with Photoshop's standard tools you can already go to next step. On this pic I just applied a gradual orange filter. One of the presets in Color Efex. I kind of like the picture now. And I didn't brush, didn't mask anything.