Good Morning Everybody,WOW! Look at the comments from yesterday's post about me coming out of the RAW closet - thanks to everyone for your comments - fun and funny.
Anyway, after a shot nap upon arriving and settling in at our hotel here in London, we were ready to go. As we checked in, we got the word from the front desk that the hotel is officially changing to a Hilton Doubletree on Wednesday - LaDawn can't wait - she loves those warm chocolate chip cookies every Doubletree hotel offers their guests - yum!
I mentioned that we were over here with fellow Cincinnatians to see the opening of a new play in the West End. The name of the play is entitled, "Imagine This" - a brand new original musical opening Wednesday. We actually flew over with Lyricist's, David Goldsmith, mother, a very nice lady - that's LaDawn with our travel buddies in the picture to the right. Imagine (no pun intended) to our surprise when we saw a large poster advertising the play as we were going through the Gatwick Express train station - it was really cool for all of us to see it.
Tomorrow, we are having lunch, with British blogger and wedding photographer extraordinaire, Mr. Crash Taylor. If you haven't checked them out yet, Crash is doing this great series of interviews with some top photographers. His latest interview with Joel Grimes - unbelievable images - can be found right here. Lots of stuff happening this week - I'll keep you posted. Anyway, on with Technique Tuesday...
Lightroom Or NIK Viveza? That Is the Question
You know, I've been hearing this question come up as we explore the many software solutions available. People are asking, “Why do I need NIK Viveza when I’ve got the Lightroom 2 Adjustment tool. Can’t we simply add more or less density and saturation as easily within Lightroom 2?”
It's too bad the NIK Viveza [demo link] software doesn't work with RAW images. Since Viveza only works on JPEG and TIFF images within Photoshop, we don't have quite the range of control that we get with the Adjustment brushes within Lightroom 2.
In this tutorial I'll discuss the features of both pieces of software, demonstrating the benefits and the shortcomings of each solution. But keep in mind, it may be the combination of both of these solutions that gives us the best result. Let's take a peek. Hit the PLAY button below for the rest of the story.
Hey gang, that's it for me today. Tune in tomorrow for a brand new series I'm starting, "The Analysis Of A Wedding Shoot." See you then, Cheerio, -David
David, Great info. Please adjust the audio of your voice (raise it) to better match the intro. On many of your videos, I can barely hear you speaking and I have the sound turned up all the way on your screen and my computer. The intro is loud enough and that's perfect. For us old "hard of hearing" guys. We appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteI have to say, in this example I'm not sold on Viveza. Yes, it's masking ability is pretty good, but the quality of the sky just doesn't compare to Lightroom's version. Auto Mask in LR2 is best used on solid edges instead of heavily broken up areas. In this instance, I too would turn Auto off and turn up the feathered edge, painting the tree line until it built up to where I wanted it. Darkening the trees wouldn't bother me as much as those color adjustments from Viveza (I do realize though that this was just a quick tutorial and not a final image). Besides, lately I've avoided going into Photoshop for the same reason as your computer... mine just can't handle (yet) PS as fast as I'd like, but LR is quick enough. A new Core 2 Quad is on the way though ;) Hope you're enjoying England!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your brief insight into the two different applications. It's nice to see a couple of methods for post-processing before having to pick one or the other, and the same goes for simply knowing what's on the other side of the fence. Keep up the great work!
ReplyDeleteAs for the audio on this tutorial, it was okay on my setup (and I am hearing impaired). The on-camera segments are a little thin with the camera's built-in mic (I presume), but nothing too serious on my end.
David,
ReplyDeleteJust curious...is it possible to achieve the same result using Capture NX software? I cannot justify spending 250.00 on Viveza and NX came with my D300. I know that you are a Canon user but I was hoping that someone could answer this...
Thanks,
Kevin