Take a Photo Adventure on the Wild Side - with Andy Biggs and Laurie Rubin

Laurie Rubin and I recently co-ran a webinar, featuring Nik Software products. Laurie and I processed some images from our safari together in Kenya last fall, and we had a few laughs during the 1-hour presentation. Take a peek and hopefully a few nuggets of information will be of use to you.

Take a Photo Adventure on the Wild Side - with Andy Biggs and Laurie Rubin

Remember that you can earn a 15% discount on all Nik Software products by using ABIGGS as your code when checking out.

Nik Software Webinar on Feb 16

Please join me, along with Laurie Rubin, for a 1-hour webinar on February 16 at 10am PST (1pm EST). Laurie and I were on safari together a few months back in Kenya, and we are going to go through some of our images and will process some of them using Nik Software products. Here is a description of the event:

Join award winning photographers, Andy Biggs (Workshop Educator and Leader) and Laurie Rubin (Nik Education Project Manager) as they revisit their recent trip to Kenya, Africa. Take an adventure into the world of photographing the ‘Super Bowl’ of the animal kingdom. They will show you their tips and techniques from photographing wildlife to post-processing in the digital darkroom using Nik Software products and the equipment that they used. This will be an entertaining and educational webinar that will both motivate and inspire anyone that enjoys wildlife photography. (www.andybiggs.com and www.imagesbylaurie.com) 

(Please note that the first 1,000 attendees to join the live webinar can attend. We also offer a variety of other online training webinars held everyday, Tuesday through Saturday, as well as Master Classes held once a week. Please visit www.niksoftware.com/learnmore )

Take a Photo Adventure on the Wild Side with Andy Biggs and Laurie Rubin
February 16 at 10am PST

Also remember that if you are interested in purchasing any Nik Software products, you can use my code ABIGGS for a 15% discount.

Nik Software Discount Code - 15% off

Nik Software has given me a code that people can use for a 15% discount, which is ABIGGS. During the checkout process, just use ABIGGS to claim your 15% discount off of any Nik Software products. If you watched my webinar a few days ago, you probably know that I am a huge fan of Viveza 2 and of Silver Efex Pro 2. I do use both of these tools in my own workflow, as they both save me time as well as give me control over my images like never before.

Nik Software products - use ABIGGS for a 15% discount

Managing Color and Light, Tuesday, May 31, 2011

I will be hosting a 1-hour webinar, sponsored by X-Rite and Nik Software, on Tuesday, May 31 at 12pm CST (10am CST, 1pm EST). I will be will explaining some of the fundamentals of color management as well how to best utilize several of Nik Software products in Photoshop to enhance and add dimension and light in the digital darkroom.

Free Webinar

Tuesday, May 31st

1pm Easter Daylight Time (12pm Central, 11AM Mountain, 10AM Pacific)

Managing Color and Light with Andy Biggs free webinar

Update on Monday, July 25, 2011 at 06:33AM by Andy Biggs

The webinar has now been posted online, and you can watch the hour-long video over at Nik Software’s OnDemand Training area on their web site.

Yours truly on Nik Radio

If you have 47 minutes to spare, you can tune in to Nik Radio for a recent interview of me. Host Scott Sheppard and I have a fun chat about my safari and workshop business, Gura Gear and some other fun topics.

Nik Radio interview with Andy Biggs, streamed

Nik Radio interview with Andy Biggs, on iTunes

My favorite Photoshop Plugin: Nik Software's Viveza 2

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.