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Allen Birnbach - Ten Tips On Using Nik Software to Improve Your Images Ten tips for using Nik Dfine and Nik Color Efex Pro to Improve Images by Allen Birnbach Article rating: 7.44

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Nik Dfine 2.0 and Nik Color Efex 3.0 

Allen Birnbach prefers doing more of his creative work in the camera instead of in post-production. But he makes it a point to know what Photoshop plug-ins are available so he can make post-production work as effortless as possible.  He is particularly impressed with Nik Software’s Dfine 2.0 plug-in for noise reduction and Nik’s Color Efex Pro 3.0 collection of filters and creative effects because it eliminates the need to carry a collection of different filters along with him on every shoot.  Here are some examples of how he has used to Nik Software to fine tune his images to get exactly the look he wants.

Skylight Filter Menu

1. Use Nik’s “Control Points” to isolate specific areas to which you which you want to add an effect. This is much faster than attempting to do extensive masking on an image in which the values are as close as they are.  In this example, I used control points to add warmth just to the rocks, and not to the background.

2. Use the polarization filter to make the sky a bit richer.

3. Use the skylight filter to make the colors pop.

4. Add neutral density to the sky to keep the eye focused in the middle of the image.

5. To create an image with a bit more of a mood, use the precision controls in Nik’s Dynamic Skin Softener to allow for some sense of skin texture, but reduce distractions and imperfections. It is much faster than using the Gaussian blur in Photoshop and does a really nice job of picking out just the areas of the image you want to change.

6. Use the Glamour Glow filter in Nik Color Efex to easily create a romantic, sensual image and a more painterly than literal interpretation of the scene. Nik gives you the option of adding the filter effect as a separate layer in Photoshop, so you could dial the effect back later if you want to.

Shadow/Highlights, Graduated Filters Menu

7. Use the bypass filter and its brightness and saturation controls to desaturate an image and give it a more dramatic effect.  Color Efex includes tools that let you preserve the highlights and shadows so the details aren’t blown out when you apply the filters.

 

After Noise Reduction © Allen Birnbach

 

8. You can get a lot of noise in your images when shooting at high ISOs in low light conditions. I used ISO 1250 to shoot this image of a dance company performing in a theater. As you can see when you examine parts of the image more closely, Dfine did an outstanding job of reducing the noise while maintaining the detail.

9. Use the white balance neutralizer to remove the yellow/green color cast in the original.

10. Use the tonal contrast filter to improve contrast.  Because you can protect the highlights and shadows as needed, you have more freedom to confidently experiment.  You  get the immediate gratification of seeing just what each filter can do to improve the overall visual impact of your image.

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