I’ve edited a bunch of my Berlin pictures with Silver Efex Pro 2 and uploaded them to my flickr photostream.
Latest
Sunset on Fehmarn in January
We did a little trip to Fehmarn today and ended up on a beach when the sun set. I had brought my camera, a tripod, my 12-24mm Nikon lens and my new B&W ND filter. The ND filter is a 10-stop ND filter, so one can extend exposure time by a very large amount. This shot was taken with a 30s exposure time.
The shot was first edited in Silver Efex Pro 2 and then blended with the original color image where I had increased saturation.
Photographers: Andreas Gursky
Andreas Gursky is one of the most important contemporary photographers. Recently, his photograph Rhein II was auctioned for the exorbitant amount of 4.3 million USD at Christies’s New York, making this the most expensive photograph to date (previously, that title was hold by a photograph by Cindy Sherman).
There is a documentary that was broadcast on arte about Andreas Gursky that follows him during production of one of his photographs. As with apparently a lot of his images, he uses digital manipulation compositing a single image out of multiple others. The print that is produced in the end is huge, about 2.5m high and almost 2m wide.
The documentary can be found on youtube (in German). Worth watching.
New black & white photos
I’ve added a bunch of newly processed black & white images to my flickr photostream.
More Black & White Clouds
This shot was taken last year during a bike tour to the baltic sea close to Niendorf and converted with a beta version of Silver Efex Pro 2.
That day was as rainy as it was sunny with lots of rainbows. This made for some nice photographic opportunities.
Black & White Clouds
This black & white image of clouds was taken in Croatia (where we spent fantastic summer holidays in 2009). I converted the color image to black & white using a beta version of the new Silver Efex Pro 2, which is to be released soon (being a developer at Nik Software has the welcome side effect that one gets to try out some really nice new toys ahead of release). Please check out also my flickr photostream for some more images converted with SEP 2 here.
SEP 2 has some really cool new features that make black & white conversion even more fun than with SEP 1. I particularly like the Amplify Whites/Blacks that really make a difference when trying to add “tonal punch”.
Guest contribution at vismath.de
I wrote a little piece about my work at Nik Software for German website vismath.de. Vismath started an on-going series about what mathematicians do in their daily work life. In my contribution for this series (in German) I talk about what working in the research department at Nik Software is like.
Update: The same article, with some very slight modifications, can now also be found on the website of the “Deutsche Mathematiker Vereinigung” here.
HDR Efex Pro wins @ dpchallenge.com
That is, an image created with HDR Efex Pro wins the blue ribbon (first place) in the “Horizon Line” challenge.
The Malerwinkel in Lübeck
The Malerwinkel in Lübeck is another nice place to take pictures. I love going there at night to take pictures, even more so when the waters of the Trave are very calm and one has really nice reflections in the water.
This shot was taken from the bank of the Obertrave opposite to the Altstadt in April, 2010. The church tower on the right is one of the two towers of the Lübeck dome.
Update: I reshot this for the Reflections without mirrors V challenge at DPChallenge and landed third place. See my challenge entry here.
