I'm about to do something I said I would never do. I've avoided ads and commercial comment, until now, but looking at the last post, I think it only fair that I say out loud or in this case in bold letters how important a tool can be. Without this software I more than likely would have lost interest in a boat load of images I have captured. There is hardly an image that I have developed (mentally and digitally) that I haven't used a least one of the Suite of software produce by NIK. In my mind it is the second most significant software product a photographer can use short of Photoshop.
I was introduced to the young man who is the brains behind NIK software maybe 10 to 12 years ago when I was still working for Kodak. Amazingly he still remembers that day and has been very courteous whenever we talk, though I'm sure he knows 10 thousand more important and influential people than I.
There are 5 variation that I used and they have just rolled out the new HDR software that is so very impressive.
As usual I have gotten away from the point.
When I look back at the iPhone image, recently posted, I just marvel how that was not much of an image until I kicked it in the head with the NIK software. Sure, the composition was pretty darn nice but the other properties were nothing of which to speak.
I'm a bit of a hypocrite when it comes to sharing my little secrets or techniques. I say I love teaching young people the trade but there a few things that I feel a bit possessive about. For the longest time I used a very proprietary system for converting images to Black and White. I didn't share it with many people because it was unique to me. Then one day I began to enlighten others and surprisingly as hard as most tried, few were successful at getting the results that I got. I think there is an intuitiveness about it that others didn't have and I couldn't iliterate.
Then along comes NIK and its suite of software tools and at the very least I would tell anyone listening, if you're sharpening your images in Photoshop, stop now.
Download the free trial version of NIK Sharpening Pro. I'll give you back your investment if you don't love it.
May your love of the trade, blossom beyond your greatest expectations.
Thanks Michael.
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1 comment:
Interestingly enough while the software may be your "savior", your personal vision and creativity is what makes your work so wonderful. Software may augment it but talent and what is inside your head drives your images to be unreplicatable by any one else.
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