I am definitely in love with this software. It’s seriously easy to use, and per yesterday’s post, it was FREE. Google Nik Efex doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles but it can certainly produce some lovely results. My first attempt yesterday used HDR Efex to combine the RAW images, however, I find the result appears to be a little cleaner if I use Lightroom to combine the images into HDR – Lightroom produces a RAW DNG HDR file, whereas HDR Efex produces a .TIF file. It might just be the images I selected to combine, but these seem crisper (better aligned, less ghosting) than I got from those edited yesterday. All photos were taken using a tripod so there shouldn’t have been too much movement.
Both images are of Loch Indaal, Port Charlotte, Islay, Scotland.
I love the blown out look in this first pic, and the clouds are particularly intense. It almost looks like they’ve been printed on fabric.
Picture 1. Loch Indaal, Deep HDR, Vignette, 100% Structure
The second image is much less ‘structured’ (above setting was 100% structure vs below 38%). Both images were taken only moments apart.
Picture 2. Loch Indaal, Deep HDR, Light Vignette, 38% Structure
Which ‘look’ do you prefer ? I actually really like both of them – they each highlight a different element. I adore the clouds in pic 1, but prefer the smoothness of the loch in pic 2.
