Thursday, April 17, 2014

Nik software - crow deconstruction



I saw this crow on my way home from work as I was crossing Centre Street Bridge.  In the background are the stairs that lead up to Rotary Park.

Thought maybe I should talk a little bit about how I edit.  The following is a step by step view of how this crow photo was edited using Nik software (a recent acquisition) and Photoshop CS5.



The original crow photo, shot with a Canon PowerShot G15 using the Auto setting.  I chose Auto because it gives me a little more zoom than the other settings.
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Crow cropped in camera. (Say that 10 times fast.)

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Using PhotoShop CS5s Spot Healing Brush tool, set to Replace mode, I removed the white bridge wall just below the crow's tail.

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Next I used one of the Nik Silver Efex filters to turn the photo black and white.

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Maybe I should have stopped with the Silver Efex, but I wanted to see what would happen if I combined effects.  So I ran the photo through one of the Analog Efex filters hoping to add shading to the background and to make the crow stand out more.

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Finally, using Photoshop, I tweaked the levels and contrast a bit and added a signature. 

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