Nik’s Tonal Contrast

I’m asked a lot if there is a “secret trick” or favorite Pluggin or filter I use on my landscape image finishing. There is one, it’s lives in Nik’s Color Efex Pro 3.0. Looking at this image, you can’t see how it’s been applied and that’s the way I like it.

And in a photo like this, which as it stands is a looser, you can’t even begin to see how one filter can make a difference. But it can. Take a look.

It’s now up to you to decide if this is a tool that works for your photo finishing and if it does, embrace it and make it yours. And if not, then you just saved yourself one more thing to learn in Photoshop.

Photos captured by D3 / D700 12-24AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film