So, after seeing all the hullabaloo on Twitter today about the release of Nik Silver Efex Pro 2, I decided I should probably give it the old college try. I downloaded the 15-day trial last night, and produced the image you see below. I was very happy with how the software worked and I can definitely see myself shelling out some cash once my trial version has expired.
]]>One lesson I’ve slowly been learning when out on a shoot is to always look back when walking away from a scene, because you never know what you might be missing. On this morning, I was absolutely exhausted from waking up to catch the sunrise and after the show was over, all I could think about was getting back to the cozy bed in my room for a little more shut-eye. But, I forced myself to look back at the sunrise as I was walking back…and boy am I glad I did!
]]>Originally, this shot included much more of the tiled floor in the foreground, but I felt the composition worked a bit better with the extra tile cropped out. I threw a few of my favourite Phototools filters on the tonemapped image, and then used the Midnight filter in Nik Color Efex Pro selectively to darken a few areas. This is exactly how I remember this hallway looking that morning:
]]>This chess set is in the lobby of the Excellence Riviera Cancun where we spent our honeymoon. As soon as I walked in on the first day and saw these large table boards with the huge carved wooden playing pieces, I knew I had to get a shot of them before I left. I also knew I would be throwing on my 50mm to get some super shallow depth of field and some nice bokeh on some of those playing pieces. I don’t usually choose to go with an angled frame, but I thought it would work nicely here, and I wasn’t disappointed.
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