alive for 365 – week 10 « Neil vN

This very colorful street scene is – if I remember correctly – in the quaint town of Macroom in Ireland. It was one of the towns we visited while exploring the beautiful country-side near Cork, Ireland last year.

It is my choice for this week’s entry for the ongoing Alive for 365 project.

To enhance the colors even more, I used my favorite Photoshop plug-in, Topaz Adjust 4 …

If you do order Topaz Adjust (or any Topaz product) through that affiliate link, use the discount code ‘planetneil’ for a 15% discount off any item in your shopping cart. (There is also another time-limited discount in effect on their website.)

I used two of the Topaz Adjust effects in combination:

Topaz HDR Sketch, as a Soft Light layer, at 38% and
Topaz Spicify as a normal layer, at 26%

This gave the image a certain punch, without toppling over towards the garishness of some HDR-manipulated photos.

Here is the original as a comparison:

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5 Comments »

Neil, did you know that Noreen, one of the models that featured in your Cork workshop, is from Macroom? I’ll have to send her a link to this entry, I’m sure she’ll be delighted.

- Thorsten.

Comment by Thorsten — March 12, 2010 @ 3:17 am
Neil….If you increased the saturation and possibly a touch of contrast, would you not get pretty much the same effect….Thanks!!

Comment by Chuck — March 12, 2010 @ 10:47 pm
Chuck .. try it.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — March 13, 2010 @ 1:36 am
Neil, I have been considering buying various applications that may enhance my photography. I bought Noise Ninja, which gives me better noise reduction than Camera Raw 5.x. Now my question regarding Topaz Adjust is this: is it an application that a hobbyist photographer will will useful on more than just a few occasions?

Or, perhaps, should I consider a sharpening application first?

Sincerely,
Kwang

Comment by Kwang — March 17, 2010 @ 9:02 pm
Kwang .. that would depend on your needs. I have Noise Ninja and Neat Image, but don’t use them at all. Proper exposure on a high-ISO capable camera means that high ISO noise is rarely a problem for me.

Similarly, I use a sharpening method which is apparently simplistic enough that I’ve been scoffed at it before .. I use Smart Sharpen in Photoshop. Maybe a sharpening application is necessary.

So if I had to choose between a noise-reduction application and a sharpening application, I’d get more immediate use out of Topaz. Or similar. YMMV.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — March 17, 2010 @ 9:21 pm