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Joshua A. Haftel has been hooked on photography since he was yearbook photographer in high school. With a degree from the Rochester Institute of Photography, he has traveled the world photographing famous sites. When he's not taking pictures, Josh manages the entire product line of photographic tools for Nik Software.
Introduction xvi
About This Book xvii
Two Points of View xvii
Why This Book and Why Now xviii
Conventions Used in This Book xviii
Chapter 1: Editing Basics 2
Fundamental Editing Techniques 3
Evaluating an image before editing 3
Planning your edits based on the human visual system 5
Editing Terminology 10
Chapter 2: The Digital Workflow 18
A Basic Workflow 19
Use the correct settings 19
Organize your images 19
Identify images to edit 21
Apply any RAW-based adjustments 22
Apply lens-based enhancements 23
Crop the image 23
Apply noise reduction 25
Do panorama stitching or HDR merging and tone mapping 25
Retouch dust or other imperfections 25
Use Viveza 2 to balance light and color 25
Stylize with Color Efex Pro or Silver Efex Pro 27
Make a final round of clean-up 27
For Photoshop only: Save a master version 27
For Photoshop only: Resize based on output 28
Sharpen based on output 29
For Photoshop only: Save your sharpened working file 29
Print or upload your masterpiece 29
Creating a Custom Workflow 31
Noise reduction 31
Resizing 32
Cropping 32
RAW presharpening versus sharpening 32
Output sharpening 33
Living in the land of 2 percent versus the real world 34
Your Personal Workflow 35
Chapter 3: The Nik Software Editing Environment 36
Differences in Host Applications 37
Adobe Photoshop 37
Adobe Photoshop Elements 39
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 42
Aperture 43
Standalone Nik Software plug-ins 44
Other Host Applications 45
Which Host Application to Use? 46
Standardized user interface 47
Left pane 47
Top toolbar 48
Right pane 48
Bottom toolbar 48
Image area 50
Batch Processing in Photoshop 50
Chapter 4: UPoint 54
U Point Technology Explained 55
How U Point Technology Works 58
Using Anchor Control Points 61
The Different Uses of U Point Technology 61
What Is Noise? 67
Chapter 5: Dfine 2.0 68
How Dfine 2.0 Works 70
Step 1: Measuring Noise 71
Step 2: Reducing Noise 72
Reducing noise globally and selectively with control points 74
Reducing noise globally and selectively with color ranges 77
Using the Advanced Noise Reduction tools77
Using the Modes Popup Menu to Review the Noise and Selection Masks 82
When to Use Dfine 2.0 to Reduce Noise85
Chapter 6: Viveza 2 88
The Viveza 2 Interface 90
Adding control points 90
Grouping and ungrouping 90
Global and selective indicators 91
Expand and Collapse buttons 92
Enhancement sliders 92
Color picker and Eyedropper tool 94
Control Point List 95
Levels and Curves control 96
Applying Viveza 2 to Your Photographs 97
Working with landscape images98
Working with portrait images103
Chapter 7: HDR Efex Pro 3.0 110
HDR Imaging Explained 111
The two stages of HDR image processing 112
How to Capture and Process the Image Series for Best Results 117
Reducing motion 117
Optimal camera settings 118
Processing a series of images 118
Working with HDR Efex Pro 120
Merging with HDR Efex Pro 120
Alignment and ghost-reduction settings 124
Tone mapping with HDR Efex Pro 128
HDR panoramas 136
Setting up to shoot an HDR panorama 137
Creating the panoramas 137
Create the HDR panorama 139
Chapter 8: Color Efex Pro 4 140
Working with the Filter List and Presets141
Basic Controls144
Taking Advantage of Recipes149
Th e Powerful History Browser151
Example Images and Enhancements152
Example 1: A portrait photo152
Example 2: A landscape photo156
Example 3: An architectural photo159
Chapter 9: Silver Efex Pro 2 162
Creating Amazing Black-and-White Images 163
Working with Silver Efex Pro 2 164
Starting with presets 164
Brightness controls 165
Contrast controls 168
Structure controls 170
Selective Adjustments section 173
Color filters 176
Film types 178
Finishing Adjustments section 179
Loupe & Histogram section 181
History Browser 183
Image Workflows 184
Example 1: A portrait image 185
Example 2: A portrait image 187
Example 3: A landscape image 189
Chapter 10: Sharpener Pro 3.0 196
Th e Importance of Sharpening Digital Images 197
Detail loss during capture 197
Detail loss during image processing 199
Detail loss during output 199
Removing the Guesswork from a Complicated Task 200
How Sharpener Pro 3.0 Works 203
Applying Sharpener Pro to Your Images 204
RAW Presharpening 204
Output-based sharpening 209
Creative sharpening 212
Important Controls in the Settings 217
Default Control Point Settings 217
Image Size sliders 219
Chapter 11: Portraits Start to Finish 220
Example 1: Candace 221
What we did in Viveza 2 223
What we did in Color Efex Pro 4 227
What we did in Sharpener Pro 3.0 227
Example 2: Lori 232
What we did in Viveza 2 233
What we did in Color Efex Pro 4 235
What we did in Sharpener Pro 3.0 238
Chapter 12: Landscapes Start to Finish 244
Example 1: Trees of Peterhof 245
What we did in Dfi ne 2.0 245
What we did in Silver Efex Pro 2 245
What we did in Sharpener Pro 3.0 251
Example 2: Cliff Jump 253
What we did in Dfine 2.0 253
What we did in Viveza 2 254
What we did in Color Efex Pro 4 255
Example 3: Black-and-White HDR 258
What we did in HDR Efex Pro 261
What we did in Silver Efex Pro 2 262
Appendix A: The Rise of Digital Photography and the History of Nik 270
The Rise of Digital Photography 271
The History of Nik Software 272
Appendix B: Index 276
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