Tag: photography

Topaz B&W Effects 2.1 Released

Posted on by Nick Roberts

Topaz Labs announced yesterday that Topaz B&W Effects 2.1 has been released!  This upgrade is free  for all users who have already purchased Topaz B&W Effects. For those who don’t already own Topaz B&W and want to purchase Topaz B&W Effects 2.1 I have included a 15% discount code below.bw

Use the link below to Topaz Labs site where you can download a free 30 day trial.

http://www.topazlabs.com/705.html

Save 15% NOW by entering coupon code: “ NEW2TOPAZ ” during checkout.

New features include: 

A Zone System: Allows users to identify various zones in their images as well as observe the changes in zones as exposure and other adjustments are made. This is not an adjustment tool, but a visual aid.

Screen-Shot-2013-04-04-at-10.41.40-AM

Each number relates to a tonal range (0-3 are shadows, 4-7 are mid-tones and 8-10 are highlights) . The blue color will show where that particular zone is in the photo being edited on the image you are editing.

Borders: Prior versions of B&W Effects only had a choice of 2 borders: Solid Black or Solid White. This version adds many more options.

Tone Quicktools: Similar to the Color Filter buttons, quicktools have been added for Silver and Paper toning for: 1. Selenium, 2. Cyanotype (Gold/Blue), 3. Copper (Red), 4. Sepia and 5. Antique Dye *The 6th, white teardrop refers to No Tone

Apply Button: This feature allows a user to apply changes without having to exit the program. Multiple presets can be applied one on top of another and so forth.

Language Support: B&W v2.1 supports Spanish, French, German, (Brazilian) Portugese, Japanese and Chinese (Simplified and Taiwanese). If your machine has one of these languages set in the region/language settings, the UI will be rendered in that language.

I hope you enjoy the newest release. Feel free to post any feedback in the comment area below. Thanks and enjoy!

Lover’s Sunset

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Lover's Sunset
Lover’s Sunset

Click on the image to enlarge it in another window.

This is another three exposure bracket set merged in HDR Efex Pro 2 using the Deep #1 preset. After merging the images I returned the image to Aperture 3 where I adjusted the Contrast, Exposure, Vibrance and finally Sharpened the image.

Out For an Evening Spin

Posted on by Nick Roberts

Kids Out For an Evening Spin

Click on the image to enlarge it in a separate window.

Sunday evening I was down in Waterfront Park to shoot the sunset and the people out enjoying the park. As I was heading back to my truck I saw the children’s playground was getting a little attention too. It was well after sunset and the light was very low so I thought I would experiment with some long exposure brackets of the kids playing on the merry-go-round. They were all ages from toddler up to five or so and they were having a great time. I knew that the figures would be blurred by movement so I decided to capitalize on that.

One mother, whose two children were the smallest on the ride, stood nearly motionless as she watched over them. I hoped that she would show up in the shots and was well rewarded. Even though there were eight or ten kids on the ride and several more parents in the scene they all stayed in motion and appear as faint ghosts in the final image.

I merged the three frames in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 using a 100% setting for anti-ghosting. I also applied the Deep #1 preset and made some very slight adjustments to the tonality before returning the image to Aperture 3 for final adjustments. In Aperture 3 I adjusted each color channel separately in order to compliment the blue tone that the twilight sky cast over the scene. I was still bothered by the way the kids were being rendered as simply a blur though; I decided to add some mid-contrast and voila their small figures appeared inside the merry-go-round. A little sharpening and some further tweaks to the Exposure and Enhance sliders and this final image emerged.

Sunday Evening Strollers

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Sunday Evening Strollers
Sunday Evening Strollers

Click on the image to open it enlarged in another window.

I shot this last night on the Big Four Bridge Ramp as the sun was setting. The evening was balmy and people were out enjoying the sunset and strolling along the bridge.

Processing was done on NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and Aperture 3. There are three frames here that were merged at 100% anti-ghosting setting which eliminated the problem of shooting people moving during the three exposures. I also had to use the underexposed image as the reference image before I managed to get the people de-ghosted. I learned that when applying anti-ghosting it may take several tries before I can get the results I’m looking for. In this case I first used the  0 ev exposure at 20% anti-ghosting but it didn’t stop the ghosting. I then ran through the rest of the settings 40%,60%, 80% and finally 100% but there were still ghosted figures I then switched my reference image and that eliminated the problem.