My favorite Photoshop Plugin: Nik Software's Viveza 2
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 05:30PM I have been chugging along as a happy Adobe Lightroom guy for the past 4 years (since the beginning of the public beta program), and I really thought I had all of the control I needed within 1 application. Well, that changed a few months ago when I downloaded a demo of Nik Software’s Viveza 2 plugin for Photoshop and Lightroom. I am not stupid when it comes to complex masking techniques in Photoshop, but I really don’t enjoy the process and I the process just takes too long.
I don’t want this to be a formal review of the product, but rather I would like to quickly illustrate what a before and after may look like with a few challenging images of mine from Botswana.
Image #1
Challenges: overall contrast, subject is too yellow, need subject to pop from background and surroundings
Solution: I added control points in all corners and darkened the corners, I cooled off the background to make the leopard have both a hue and luminance contrast when compared to background (leopard is warm and background is slightly cooler, and leopard is brighter than background), and I increased the contrast on the leopard. Oh, and I also slightly desaturated the leopard, because big cats tend to look too yellow / orange when the global saturation is increased in an image.
Before
After
Image #2
Challenges: Similar to the image above, I had issues with overall contrast, subject is too yellow, need subject to pop from background and surroundings
Solution: Similar to the image above, I added control points in all corners and darkened the corners, I cooled off the background to make the leopard have both a hue and luminance contrast when compared to background (leopard is warm and background is slightly cooler, and leopard is brighter than background), and I increased the contrast on the leopard. Oh, and I also slightly desaturated the leopard, because big cats tend to look too yellow / orange when the global saturation is increased in an image.
Before
After
I am now evaluating Nik’s newest offering: HDR Efex Pro. There are definitely circumstances where I can use such a tool, and based on my experience with Nik’s Viveza 2 I am certain that I am going to be happy with it. I am currently a user of Silver Efex Pro 2.0 for all of my black and white work, and I am finding new ways of working on my images right now. It’s a great feeling to see that I can get the quality that I need in a short amount of time, without all of the long steps of complex masks in Photoshop for each and every adjustment.
Reader Comments (9)
Great tips here, Andy. And beautiful images too.
I've been contemplating and procrastinating for a while of the various Nik products. What you don't show above is the same basic edit result done with old fashion layers and masking. Can you accomplish the 'exact same' result, better or not quite as good? Do you feel the savings is number of layers and many tool opacity changes due to U point technology or is there more?
Buddy, I am not saying that I cannot get the same results in Photoshop with layers, masks and a ton of work, but I am saying that I am saving a ton of time by using Viveza 2.
Andy, I have also been playing with this Nik plugin and I agree with you - saves a lot of time in Photoshop.
What I really like about it is the ability to apply local color temperature adjustments; I really wish Lightroom could do that as its such a basic adjustment. Your examples show how important this adjustment can be. Hopefully the Adobe engineers add this in the next lightroom update. Regardless - this is a great tool to have in the tool box.
Cheers and see you in Antarctica!
Andy: I've been using the Nik plug-in's for almost a year. Frankly, I don't know how I processed images without them. The plug-in's don't allow you to do anything in Photoshop that you couldn't do without them - they just make it a whole lot easier. The examples you've shown here show what a dramatic effect Viveza can have on an image and, if I had to guess, it likely took less than 5 minutes to create a finished product. I use Viveza 2 on every image I process and have also been using Color Efex Pro filters (Tonal Contrast & Brightness/Warmth, primarily) on most images. I've got nothing but praise for Nik. I'm glad to see you're putting their products to great use!
What a great transformation. It would have been great to have a small video to see the steps you did. I have several pictures that look like your "before" picture but using Viveza 2, I can never get it just right like you did.
Andy, great images, excellent Nik lesson. I rarely buy plugi-ins opting to do all of my editing in Lightroom and Photoshop. I know that I will now look into both of the Nik products that you recommended. Thanks again Andy!
I'm a big fan of Nik's Complete Collection. Dfine 2 is another great tool that offers beautiful noise reduction.
Great examples using Viveza! It is a very good plugin for Photoshop or as a stand alone. So when will you offer a workshop using Viveza?
As usual all your new and past images are exceptional!
Thanks for the examples.