examples: efex pro 3 complete on nikon capture nx2

[nokinnikon]

ah yes your spot with skinning the cat, fab way of putting it,
now ive got the efex pro 3 complete on nx2 which is a fab package,
the only let down i find with nx2 is that you can only open 20 pix at a time as opposed to how many your ram could handle with pshop cs3. the efex i find is nowhere near as good as the tiffen full version is, i had a trial version of it it was absolutlely awsome, but very expensive, efex was a lot cheaper i got
efex 3pro complete from imagemixer.net for $179 in sterling it equated to about £123
and was downloaded straight away,(its not snydie either. genuine)


nokinnikon

[crisscross]

2 silly questions
1 what on earth are you doing with 20 (or more) pics open at a time? For preview sorting isn't View NX good enough? It often seems to produce a preview that needs a bit of head-scratching to improve on
2 never found any need for filters other than the ones already in NX2 like Photo Effects etc under the filter menu and I certainly don't want any to make my photos look as if they were painted by rightly unknown Dutch master on the back of a cheese case - but should I download trial version nethertheless? Suppose answer to that is obvious, OK will do

[nokinnikon]

answer 1- after filtering the pix i need, i bung em in a folder then open up multiples in nx2
so i can work quickly and smoothly.

2- i use the filters in efex so when i do weddings im not faffing around with the non hardy cokins, less stuff to carry, but saying that when i shoot in black and white (yes we are still about) i do use the glass filters on lens, but not for my digital work, its all there and no probs!

i hope thats ok, anymore head scratching and youll be billing me for a hair transplant.
i do rightly like to do things unconventionally, it has done me proud and clients love the
quirkyness and different approach. it has won me awards! (i can hear a trumpet blow somewhere)

nokinnikon

[crisscross]

i use the filters in efex so when i do weddings im not faffing around with the non hardy cokins, less stuff to carry...
anymore head scratching and youll be billing me for a hair transplant.
nokinnikon

OK Jason

downloaded efex trial and played a bit - being more of a landscape/seascape man I tried the Grad ND and Pro contrast and was quite impressed except that they seemed to generate a lot more noise than normal NX2 usage and don't seem to be as seamless with NX as I would hope for if paying real money. I tried some portrait stuff on one of my grand-daughter which had also been played with by a pro & in that case felt our hand jobs far better....but I can see that if you had 200 from a wedding to do by Monday, a mass batch/filter would have advantage.

I expect a real messy landscape to try on for real and from scratch will come up within 30 days May still also have to use my OP heating allowance for heating rather than software

I am old, but my hair is more than adequate in quantity

Chris

[crisscross]

Still looking for a much-loved but impossible-to-edit NEF for you to play with Jason and will put it on my webspace and give you URL

[crisscross]

ok chris i look forward to it, i love little projects!!! just keep trying chris you will grow to love it, keep it simple! its the biggest key to taking a successful image, and all this over complicated stuff just gets in the way!

nokinnikon

Hi Jason, you seem to have blocked off your PM intake - of course here any one else foolhardy enough can have a go too!

I have returned this one to 'original' but unfortunately this does not restore original compression so the file is 13MB - my last edit got the sky & sea back to nice blues and just a hint of detail in LH cliff and a bit of foam to rescue it from great lump of silhouette. Don't know if its worth adding the ndf taken shortly afterwards (another 1.7 MB) as the efex filters don't seem to take much notice of the dust removal.

But it is surely a pig to get the undoubted joy back into.

http://www.evendine.eclipse.co.uk/images/_dsc5917.nef

Chris

[nokinnikon]

thanks, just downloading it now. will work my magic for you.

[nokinnikon]

ok, ten minutes work,unsharped ,crop,grad,soft, noise reduction and d-lighting to see the cliff, curved down then applied craft. i must say, you say it was a pig to do, it would have been easier if
the composition was more easy on the eye and you had actually exposed for the shadows on camera, in order to maintain any detail at all in the cliff. if my pic can be accomplished on camera then i will do so, sod having to work endlessly in a photo software!!

nokinnikon

[crisscross]

OK, here is my effort using just NX2, probably more than 10 minutes
http://www.pbase.com/crisscross/image/104601464
If you backtrack to the rest of that gallery on pbase you will see the context that justified pressing the button when I saw it, despite it being almost directly into the sun...can never resist those light paths on the water...and if anything it should have half a stop less and then histogram would be exact fit
Another of the genre which I am always try to improve on each time I pass it
http://www.pbase.com/crisscross/image/104172375

Thank you very much for wrestling with it tho

[nokinnikon]

hey no problem chris, can i have a play with this image "rock near Trebarwith strand" i would
like to turn it into something.

nokinnikon

[nokinnikon]

OK, here is my effort using just NX2, probably more than 10 minutes
http://www.pbase.com/crisscross/image/104601464
If you backtrack to the rest of that gallery on pbase you will see the context that justified pressing the button when I saw it, despite it being almost directly into the sun...can never resist those light paths on the water...and if anything it should have half a stop less and then histogram would be exact fit
Another of the genre which I am always try to improve on each time I pass it
http://www.pbase.com/crisscross/image/104172375

Thank you very much for wrestling with it tho

hey no probs, if you could see some of the pix ive taken with the sun blaring etc etc, no matter what, you can achieve a great pic when you compose it well, the rest just falls into place, sod convention its to stuffy for my liking, having being a press photographer has
its big advantages in my opinion, you have to "make it happen" and make do its the nature of the beast and you have to be very curt when you do it.
i remember i was at the top of cader idris in wales, the lens guard on my 17-35mm nikon sw 2.8 lens was lost, i came across a gem of an image, the sun was blaring like mad, so i got my sunglasses put it over the lens and got a fantastic effect, like i say sod convention
go with what you like and never ever justify it!

nokinnikon

[crisscross]

can i have a play with this image "rock near Trebarwith strand" i would
like to turn it into something.

nokinnikon

as long as it is not into a frog or a bat, I don't like witchcraft
http://www.evendine.eclipse.co.uk/images/_dsc5922t.nef
sorry 14MB again; this was underex to get shutter speed up

[nokinnikon]

hiya just got in and putting the kettle on, will play soon.
ok here we go the b+w is "mono stream" and the other one is "molten blue" couldnt recover the shadow on the underside of the rock, to far gone for a satisfactory result, this is what i do for the unsalvagable shots. enjoy!!!!!

nokinnikon

[crisscross]

couldnt recover the shadow on the underside of the rock, to far gone for a satisfactory result, this is what i do for the unsalvagable shots. enjoy!!!!!

nokinnikon

Funny thought I had replied to this before, but, er the black underside of the rock is just perfect to show every droplet of water against, unsalvageable huh, meet you at dawn with loaded Nikons

I know the rest of the world likes its water time exposed to milk, but I like to see every drop whether in a wave, a waterfall or just hanging about (see thread 'wet weather game' in nature & architecture)