[Kevin Raber Silver Member Posts: 1311]

New Article Announcements & Discussions

on: March 27, 2020 at 1:47 pm

I am sitting at my computer editing Antarctica images and I have An Adult ADD moment.  I get sidetracked and decided to play with one image of an iceberg and see what would happen if I ran it through a number of different third-party apps.  The results can be found in this NEW ARTICLE.  I hope you enjoy it, and that it encourages you to have some fun and play with your images a little bit, even if it isn’t your cup of tea.

Kevin Raber
Owner and Publisher of photoPXL

[Mark D Segal Silver Member Posts: 951]

Re: One Iceberg, Many Looks – New Article

Reply #1 on: March 27, 2020 at 2:06 pm

Nice article Kevin, very creative.  “3rd party” applications (i.e. if we consider Adobe to be “1st party” and the OS the “2nd party”)  can bring new things to the palette of options we have, while in some respects they just make it (sometimes a lot) easier to do things that would give roughly equivalent results using the “1st party” applications – it depends on what they offer relative to what one is trying to achieve. For example, the B&W renditions you achieved with Silver Efex Pro – one “3rd party” application I really like – do you think you could pretty much replicate those looks in LR, PS or C1? That can also be fun to attempt and compare, insofar as the latter also allows a lot of creativity with B&W conversions. Of the bunch you did, I found the Luminar 4 conversions to be the most impressive – much subtlety and originality with add-ins that would be difficult to achieve without it. More “ADD” is definitely encouraged. 🙂

[Jeremy Roussak Gold Member Posts: 1047]

Re: One Iceberg, Many Looks – New Article

Reply #2 on: March 27, 2020 at 2:23 pm

That’s a fun article, Kevin. Some of your results are very impressive – I rather like the first – and some are, with respect, quite unbelievably hideous!

I realise now how you did all the variations on my Sun Seeker detail shot.

Keep well.

Jeremy

[Kevin Raber Silver Member Posts: 1311]

Re: One Iceberg, Many Looks – New Article

Reply #3 on: March 27, 2020 at 5:18 pm

Mark,

I have been able to replicate some of the effects in Capture One.  As far as sky replacement and such Luminar is the winner.  You need to try it to see how easy it is.  Nik Silver Efex does incredible BW.  The exercise for me showed what could be done and what tools worked best.  Now I know when I have a certain image which direction I could go with it and what app to use.  Plus it was fun.

Kevin Raber
Owner and Publisher of photoPXL

[Kevin Raber Silver Member Posts: 1311]

Re: One Iceberg, Many Looks – New Article

Reply #4 on: March 27, 2020 at 5:20 pm

Jeremy, I know some of them are hideous.  But it was fun to get to hideous and along the way I made some cool images.  It’s a good time to play with things like this.

Hope you are safe and healthy.  Boy, the world certainly changed in a matter of weeks.

Kevin Raber
Owner and Publisher of photoPXL

[Mark D Segal Silver Member Posts: 951]

Re: One Iceberg, Many Looks – New Article

Reply #5 on: March 27, 2020 at 5:20 pm

Thanks Kevin.Yes, I have Luminar, just not the time yet to install and try it. But I shall.

[Alain Briot Silver Member Posts: 24]

Re: One Iceberg, Many Looks – New Article

Reply #6 on: March 27, 2020 at 6:30 pm

Excellent essay Kevin.  I enjoyed reading it and seeing the different versions of your image.

Stay safe in these difficult times.  Processing is safe!

Alain

Author of Mastering Landscape Photography and 3 other books.
http://www.beautiful-landscape.com
[email protected]

[Greg Scott Participant Posts: 25]

Re: One Iceberg, Many Looks – New Article

Reply #7 on: March 27, 2020 at 7:40 pm

I too enjoyed the creativity expressed in these images.  Experimentation is an essential part of the creative process.  Awareness of the tools others are using and seeing the results expands our thinking about what is possible.  So this article is appreciated and helpful on many levels.

On the road less traveled....

[Greg Scott Participant Posts: 25]

Re: One Iceberg, Many Looks – New Article

Reply #8 on: March 27, 2020 at 7:50 pm

Mark, I use Luminar ‘s sky replacement fairly often.  On my last trip to India we managed to work in a quick trip to the Taj.  The sky was deadly dull so I used Luminar’s  sky replacement and PS CC to add the sky to the reflection.  The link below shows the result.  I also did a sky replacement on the sunrise shot of the Taj but that version has a lot of noise and I need to rework it.

https://www.scottgeographic.org/India-2020/i-JsPB8jV/A

On the road less traveled....

[Mark D Segal Silver Member Posts: 951]

Re: One Iceberg, Many Looks – New Article

Reply #9 on: March 27, 2020 at 7:52 pm

Great job on that Taj photo Greg. Thanks for sharing. However you used that application, the result looks very natural. I shall have to play with Luminar. It’s on my Desktop waiting to be tried-out.

[Mike Nelson Pedde Participant Posts: 641]

Re: One Iceberg, Many Looks – New Article

Reply #10 on: March 27, 2020 at 9:14 pm

For example, the B&W renditions you achieved with Silver Efex Pro – one “3rd party” application I really like – do you think you could pretty much replicate those looks in LR, PS or C1?

Mark: In my experience I can get some similar effects to Silver Efex Pro with Lr or C1, but the pathway is different. Here’s I’m referring to the way Silver Efex Pro does targeted adjustments, and also the framing options. One can create frames in Ps, but again, the pathway is different. Not much for presets so their film replications haven’t received much use from me. Still, a lovely program to use.

Mike.

_____
Mike Nelson Pedde
Victoria, BC
https://www.wolfnowl.com/

[Mike Nelson Pedde Participant Posts: 641]

Re: One Iceberg, Many Looks – New Article

Reply #11 on: March 27, 2020 at 9:46 pm

Kevin: I’m assuming you’re familiar with the Orton effect (developed by Michael Orton). He originally created it using transparencies, but it’s easily adaptable to digital and can give your images an ethereal glow. Taking your base image:

and without changing it, I added an Orton effect preset:

If that’s too much, you can always stack them and vary opacity, etc. It can be fun…

Mike.

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Mike Nelson Pedde
Victoria, BC
https://www.wolfnowl.com/

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