Below are pictures taken at Coast Guard Beach in Cape Code Massachussets during the DLWS www.digitallandscape.org workshop that Aaron and I went to in October. It was the very first shoot of the workshop and I was very nervous and TIRED! The colors below are not tweaked too much..that is pretty much as I saw it with the sun rising. I can’t tell you how many hours I spent making sure that my camera was clean, I had all the supplies I could possible need for a landscape workshop with Moose Peterson and Laurie Excell, including traveling way out of my way to find the Lee .9 ND Filter that Moose recommends. After about 20 minutes of shooting - I realized that my ISO was set at 500!!!!!!! My heart just sank! Aaron had shown me some tips on taking pictures in low light the night before and I totally forgot to set my ISO back to 200! Anyway, I downloaded a free trial version of Nik Define - and it did an amazing job of getting rid of all the noise in the sky. !! I also used Scott Kelby’s tip of moving the Recovery slider in Lightroom all the way to the right to “crunch” the clouds. From there, I took the photo into Photoshop and used the patch tool to clean up the clouds in the sky. I also got rid of the truck to the left of the house and the van to the right of the house. I also used a curves adjustment layer to brighten the house a wee bit. I really like Define and plan on using it more. But…remember to check your ISO!
Before
After
I have been getting lots of emails about my experience at DLWS. The main thing I can honestly tell you is that DLWS is NOT a Photoshop course. You do need a basic understanding of Photoshop - including using Layers Adjustments - but you don’t need to be a pro at it. I’m certainly not. I suggest grabbbing a copy of Scott Kelby’s new 7 point system book before you head out (and for g-ds sakes- read it) to better prepare you for tweaking your amazing landscape photos that Moose and Laurie are going to help you create! Your time is very limited while at the workshop for editing your photos, because there is so much to learn…so the more prepared you are with the 7 basic steps of editing your photo - the more you are going to get out of it. I tell you all of this in hind sight - shoulda, coulda, woulda! We met a wonderful student while at the workshop named Mark…he actually lives on Cape Cod. Just to give you an idea of his skill level - he had never shot in RAW or understood the raw converter. He had a fantastic eye for photography and shot some amazing shots..but he felt very lost when it came time for the post-processing. We were lucky that Scott Kelby came and shot with us for a day, and even taught a bleary eyed group of 30 students the basics of his 7 point system. Once Mark saw what he could do - and not without difficulty - he felt much more comfortable. I spoke to him last week and he told me he just got his 7 point System Book in the mail, and he really likes it!
Moose and Laurie will show you how to enhance your photos with Photoshop AND other programs, including NIK Software, but their hope is that you learn how to get it right ”in camera” so you can spend less time in post-processing. If you are planning on going on one of the DLWS workshops with Moose, Joe McNally, and Laurie Excell, I highly recommend that you download the trial versions of Nik software including: Define (which is a noise reduction software), and Nik Color Efex Pro (a filter plug-in) - BEFORE you take off. I wish I had done that - but I did not know about these programs before. Both Laurie and Moose show dramatic examples of these programs and how to bring out dramatic details in your photos. They are more than willing to help out during the high noon sessions; explaining one-on-one how to achieve these effects. You can purchase the software while you are there…but it is a few hundred dollars. I suggest using it first while there and deciding if it is going to work for you.
3 Comments
I really enjoyed reading about your time with Moose and Laurie. This past august I spent a week on an Alaskan cruise with with both of them, Dave Cross, and Vincent Versace.
During that time I felt like I learned a lot about photography and photoshop. And being able to go up to Moose & Laurie to get their input on what I was doing was simply fantastic.
I keep kicking myself to get to the book store to take a look at Scott’s new book.
I’m assuming the software you are referring to is for Nikon users; what if I shoot with Canon? Appreciate your input on the workshop and any other advice you think of before I go next September. I still need to purchase Photoshop, although I have Elements, I need to get the full version for the workshop. Scott’s book will definitely be in hand as I’m attempting to familiarize myself with Photoshop! Love your photo’s.
~Marcy
The Nik software product line is for all shooters. Nik is just the name of the product and not made specifically for Nikon shooters. I thought the same thing too when I first heard about Nik software. The names are very close!
They do package a raw converter specially for Nikon NEF files called Capture…and that is specifically for Nikon.
Cheers,
Laurel
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[...] I LOVE Nik Software. I first found out about them at DLWS CC. I am a huge user of their noise reduction software called Dfine 2.0. The best part about their software is that they use U Point technology. Meaning you decide where the effects take place and how much of an effect to add. They just came out with their new Color Efex Pro 3.0 filter effects. You can check out some before and afters from a previous post here. [...]