NIK Viveza = awesome.

I used it to fix the exposure as I feel it does a better (and quicker) job at blending than I can do. Also boosted the contrast a bit. Used two different cross processing effects blended together from Color Efex. Then did a bit of dodging/burning/select​ive curves masking. So I'd say Viveza's role was providing me with an appropriate starting point.

I been using Viveza since the very beginning, I even think I started a thread about it back in the day.

Here is a tip I picked up from Nik instructors.

When working on an image eg. American Football player with helmet on

Your goal is to lighten & brighten the face/eyes area.

The simple way is just to put a control point in the dark area and adjust the radius of the adjustment area and increase the brightness slider.

But now here is the tip. By just increasing the brightness slider everything within the adjustment radius area gets increased right. But in this example you want the players facemask & helmet to remain unchanged. All you have to do is add a control point to the different color samples that you want unchanged eg. facemask & helmet (adjust the radius area so that it covers all the color you want unchanged).

So with a total of 3 control points you can adjust the players dark area under the helmet keep the facemask and helmet colors unchaged.

Recap - adding a control point but making no adjustments to the control sliders effectively leaves the color within the area of the control point unchanged.

You can Thank Me now

Wow, that fountain shot is completely awesome. I'm going to have to download the trial for these.

For $299 for the entire pack for Aperture, it's a steal.

$299 for Aperture version , $599 for PS version, why?
I had to buy the PS version

chrisvl wrote in post #7017404
$299 for Aperture version , $599 for PS version, why?
I had to buy the PS version

PS version includes the Aperture plugins too.

yea but I don't use Aperture would much rather have spent 299 vs 599

chrisvl wrote in post #7017576
yea but I don't use Aperture would much rather have spent 299 vs 599

Yeah, I think that kind of stinks. They released the Aperture bundle because enough Aperture users complained that they didn't want to pay for the PS plugins. Odd that they didn't just split them up entirely (and give a discount if you bought both). If the PS plugins were available at the same $299, you'd be paying a dollar more than buying them separately.

I have attempted to save some "discards" that were poorly exposed, or had a gazillion people blocking a good shot. For the Sacre Couer shot, I tried the film grain look, which I usually shy away from. . .

P.S. Papal seal is from the Fountain of Four Rivers. . .

Pete wrote in post #6846269
I use Viveza and Silver Efex quite a lot. Viveza is just brilliant (when you get the hang of it) and Silver Efex gives great BW/film treatments.

http://www.the-aperture.com …rge/20080720__P​ER7474.jpg
http://www.the-aperture.com …rge/20080720__P​ER7400.jpg

Just a question about Viveza. I downloaded the trial tonight (I already use Color Efex Pro). It seemed that once I used a control point on a particular area, when I made any changes, i.e. brightness, contrast & saturation, the changes didn't stay within the control point radius I chose. For example, I was trying to brighten up some statues that were dark so no detail showed. There were lighter columns in the background. I chose the radius big enough to cover both statues in the foreground & the column was in the background between the two statues so it was inside the radius. When I increased the brightness, the statues brightened up but so did the lighter columns.

I thought the dark control point I chose would only make changes to identical or similar tones within the radius. There were really no tones that dark in the columns.

I must be doing something wrong. Any suggestions?

Worst case, Doug, you could probably put another control point on the columns and dim them back down to where you like them.

I think when Viveza looks at tones, it's looking at the color: if the statues and columns were all stone, they may be a very similar color even if one has a higher luminance.

Pete wrote in post #6846269
I use Viveza and Silver Efex quite a lot. Viveza is just brilliant (when you get the hang of it) and Silver Efex gives great BW/film treatments.

http://www.the-aperture.com …rge/20080720__P​ER7474.jpg
http://www.the-aperture.com …rge/20080720__P​ER7400.jpg

iacas wrote in post #7028140
Worst case, Doug, you could probably put another control point on the columns and dim them back down to where you like them.

I think when Viveza looks at tones, it's looking at the color: if the statues and columns were all stone, they may be a very similar color even if one has a higher luminance.

Thanks for your explanation. Hey...it seemed to do the trick. Thanks!

You could try switching the masking on and moving the control point slightly to se if you can refine your selection, it works sometimes.

I have Viveza for Christmas and have been very pleased with it but there are caes when doen't work as well as others.

dougsturgess wrote in post #7028010
Just a question about Viveza. I downloaded the trial tonight (I already use Color Efex Pro). It seemed that once I used a control point on a particular area, when I made any changes, i.e. brightness, contrast & saturation, the changes didn't stay within the control point radius I chose. For example, I was trying to brighten up some statues that were dark so no detail showed. There were lighter columns in the background. I chose the radius big enough to cover both statues in the foreground & the column was in the background between the two statues so it was inside the radius. When I increased the brightness, the statues brightened up but so did the lighter columns.

I thought the dark control point I chose would only make changes to identical or similar tones within the radius. There were really no tones that dark in the columns.

I must be doing something wrong. Any suggestions?