Nik Photo Editing Software - demo software

A photographer friend that I greatly admire recommends Google Nik Collection software for editing.  I downloaded the demo software and played around with it a bit.  There's 5 days left to demo, but so far I think I'm liking what can be done.  Might need to ask my photographer friend for some pointers, though.

Here is a little sample of what I've discovered on my own.

Here I used Analog Efex Pro, wet plate.  The software added textures to the sky above the tree sculptures and the sidewalk, making an okay photo a little more interesting.

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Here I used Silver Efex Pro 2, fine art high key, with a tad of contrast added in Photoshop.  I wanted the textures of the scarf and the tree sculpture to be the key components of the photo. I liked how the software brightened the image, but still retained the textures.

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This one, shot with a Canon PowerShot G15, I did the most work with.  This fellow was being honored and was feeling very emotional at the time.  Trying to control his emotions made his face very red.  On top of that the church had low yellowish light which turned the gentleman's skin tones a bright reddish orange.  What I wanted was natural skin tones.

I created a Nik Silver Efex Pro 2, Fine Art Process #19, layer in Photoshop CS5, reduced the opacity to 28%, raised the lower Levels a smidge, and added a bit of contrast.

Links:

• Google Nik Collection