jsf

I just returned from Scotland and I have to say you DO live in a landscape photographers dream. The sky was very co-operative in giving wonderful cloud formations. I has in the Highlands and the Isles of Skye and Lewis mostly. Ttwo beautiful weeks with bouts of overhead irrigation.

I process both the Fuji and Nikon (d800E) files in the same manner though the settings vary a little camera to camera and subject to subject. 1. Download Raw to LR 2.adjust color temperature 3.adjust exposure, make sure there is no clipping at the white and black end 4. null my sharpening, and adjust noise reduction to suit conditions 5. import to Photo Shop 6. convert to Smart objects via copy (it is already a Smart Object but the conversion is an important step) 7. import to NIK Silver FX Pro (this is for B & W OR Color, trust me) 8. Select full Dynamic Range preset 9. export back to Photo Shop 10. In Layer Style change from Normal to Luminosity 11. Import back to NIK Silver FX Pro and work the image in Black and White (this is just a layer it will be in full color when it is done.) This is mostly Structure in order to get middle tone contrast 12.import back to PhotoShop and now process with Layers and Masks as you would normally do (when you import back your image color is restored automatically) What the B&W layer does is give you beautiful middle tone contrast without blocking up anything or over saturating) 12. Lastly do a vigorous Noise Reduction and then localized sharpening via mask and layers. I know it sounds a bit much, it takes about 20 minutes, but the results are fantastic.