Updates, Cool Links, & Before & Afters with Nik Color Efex 3

Happy Friday! I have a few updates and things happening that I am so excited about. First off I want to say a Hi out to the Gainesville Photogs that I “met” last night at Dane Sanders web Q & A . Dane Sanders is the developer of the Fast Track Photography Group and is an amazing wedding and portrait photographer based in Southern California.  When I logged in there were not 1 BUT 3 other photographers right here in Gainesville! Small world. So much talent in my own back yard. So here goes, A special shout out to:

• Shandon Smith
• Kara Pennington
• and Cindy (I’m not sure if she wants her web address public)

I look forward to getting to know all of you!

I got my first “official” assignment as a second shooter at a wedding in Jacksonville with amazing photographer, Jamie Smith. She is based in Jacksonville and is expecting her second “gift” any day now. I have been an admirer of her blog for sometime now and when she asked if I would be available I was just beside myself. Thanks Jamie and I look forward to meeting you and helping you anyway I can!

When it rains it pours! I also have a chance to work with superstar  wedding and portrait photog, Nina Sutherland. Nina is based in Atlanta, Georgia and travels all over,  but lives here in the Gainesville area.  Just a short story about how I met her. My two girls  (Madison 12, and Rowan 10) have been heavily involved in a local acting group for many years. At one of their performances I noticed a very attractive lady in the front row taking pictures with a Nikon D200. I introduced myself and Nina said she was the wife of the director (Dr. William Eyerly) and that her two sons were also in the play. She also made mention that she is a  professional photographer. I was thinking, yeah o.k. another photo enthusiat like myself just starting out, blah, blah, blah,. Let’s see if she’s any good. I have to tell you I had my head in-between my legs faster than you can say “sucker” after checking out her very COOL and PROFESSIONAL web site. I was so embarrassed. Here I was talking  shop with her like I knew what I was talkin about and she was just so gracious and nice, not saying a word and taking it all in. I had no idea of the   talent behind the smile. Now, we have become friends and she has asked me to help her and I get a chance to follow behind her and learn. Thank you Nina for this opportunity, I won’t let you down!

Here are my cool links for Friday:

• Experience a whole new way of viewing pictures online with this new plugin for Firefox from Piclens.com.  Amazing. I normally don’t use Firefox but now I do because of this amazing plugin that allows you to see pictures on your own personal wall – it is so Star Trek it’s not even funny! Beam me up baby!  I can’t explain it, you just HAVE to check it out yourself.  Here’s the link to the tutorial on it here  or you can go to the Piclens web site for more info. And its FREE.  Let me know what you think.
• Check out the inspirational photographs by Lynn Blodgett. He was recently featured on CBS Sunday Morning. It is a collection of very powerful photographs of homeless people from around the country. Very graciously done, hence the title of his book. He has given grace to these people. The interesting item about Lynn is that he is a corporate CEO. Check out the link here
• I have been listening to Israeli singer Yael Naim. She is best know for her song Young Soul which is the  song used n the Macbook Air ads. The whole album is just so soothing and creamy. Simply Delicous. Buy it! I love it. Check it out here
• Here is a really cool web site that my buddy Mark Bensky from Cape Cod just sent me – Create your very own Jacskon Pollock inspired masterpiece. Here is my husband’s fine art. Make your own at:  www.Jacksonpollock.org

Speaking of my buddy Mark Bensky – he had a question about Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0. He wanted to know which set to get. They come in three different versions. Standard, Select, and Complete. Obviously the complete version is the most expensive, but that also includes my favorite filter – Tonal Contrast. My suggestion is to download the 15 day trial version at www.niksoftware.com- Start off with the Complete and when that expires, download the Select, and then the Standard. When the Standard expires you should have an idea of which filters you find yourself using the most and purchase that set. I have been using a mix of Color Efex and some Kubuta Actions. I find that I have more control with the Nik Filters and a much more precise effect. I can pinpoint exactly where I want the filter to take with the Upoint technology and then if that’s not enough, I have full control of the effect in the Layers palate with turning up or down the opacity or brushing in and out the effect.

My favorite filter, Tonal Contrast (which is only available with the Complete Edition) allows me the highest level of control for contrast with the highlight, midtones, and shadow ranges individually without effecting the rest of the image. It really softens the skin in portraits. I rarely have to use Dynamic Skin softner (which is a way cool filter with the Color Efex suite) or any other action to get the soft skin look. I also like that it does not look fake. Here are some examples of  the Tonal Contrast filter below. I shot all the pictures in raw and just tweaked the curve in Lightroom. I exported as jpgs within Lightroom – and this is exactly what you see:

Before

After

 Before

After

Before

O.k. with this one I did brigten up the eyes..but the rest is the Tonal Contral filter

Before

After

Before

After