Martin Liew PhotoBlog

Friday, March 25, 2016

GREAT NEWS! Google's Nik Collection Is Now FREE For Download!

On 24 March 2016 Thursday, Google announced that its desktop photo editing software, Nik Collection (worth USD$150), is now 100% FREE for download. What an awesome great news!

I got to know about Nik Softwares (originally known as) back in 2007 or 2008 and it was acquired by Google in late 2012, along with Nik's popular mobile photo editing app, Snapseed. Here's what Google wrote about this news.

“Today we’re making the Nik Collection available to everyone, for free.

Photo enthusiasts all over the world use the Nik Collection to get the best out of their images every day. As we continue to focus our long-term investments in building incredible photo editing tools for mobile, including Google Photos and Snapseed, we’ve decided to make the Nik Collection desktop suite available for free, so that now anyone can use it.

The Nik Collection is comprised of seven desktop plug-ins that provide a powerful range of photo editing capabilities -- from filter applications that improve color correction, to retouching and creative effects, to image sharpening that brings out all the hidden details, to the ability to make adjustments to the color and tonality of images.

Starting March 24, 2016, the latest Nik Collection will be freely available to download: Analog Efex Pro, Color Efex Pro, Silver Efex Pro, Viveza, HDR Efex Pro, Sharpener Pro and Dfine. If you purchased the Nik Collection in 2016, you will receive a full refund, which we’ll automatically issue back to you in the coming days. We’re excited to bring the powerful photo editing tools once only used by professionals to even more people now. ”

My all-time favourite of Nik Collection is Silver Efex Pro which has a bunch of black and white presets to choose from and I can even tweak settings to achieve the results I wanted. Most often I use this plug-in for all of my color digital photographs, selectively, as some look great after B&W conversion. As for B&W film after I got them on high resolution scan, I would use Silver Efex Pro for further enhancement on tonalities.

Below are a few photos using Silver Efex Pro alone. I've yet to try out the other 6 plug-ins. All photos here are made with my Nikon D70s on wide angle and prime lens respectively.

OK! That's about it! Go get your FREE copy of Nik Collection plug-ins for Photoshop and Lightroom now! Keep shooting and tweaking to your heart's content.

Monday, March 21, 2016

LAST DAYS of the SUNGEI ROAD THIEVES' MARKET - A Teaser

COMING SOON

Friday, March 18, 2016

Street Photo - Visitor

Visitor

Apple iPhone 6 Plus on default mode • Flash & HDR off • Post-processed in Snapseed 2.0 without cropping

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Street Photo - Alternate Way

Alternate Way

Seagull 205 RF on FujiFilm Neopan 400. Developed in 1:1 Kodak D76 for 500 seconds and scanned on Epson V700 with tonality adjustment in post.

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Street Photo - Fashionista

Fashionista

Seagull 205 RF on FujiFilm Neopan 400. Developed in 1:1 Kodak D76 for 500 seconds and scanned in Epson V700 with minor adjustments in post.

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Street Photo - CUSTOMAXXX ROAR

CUSTOMAXXX Chopper Bike

This is the first street photo post in 2016. Expect more to be posted here on this blog site so do subscribe and stay tuned for the latest updates.

OK here's a little story on how I got this street portraiture of this cool dude with a cool killer big chopper bike. It was in mid-2014 on a Sunday morning as I was walking along the sidewalk of Marina Bay Sands, I saw this guy riding on this strangely shaped bike. It reminds me of a Harley-Davidson-styled bike but this one is different. I told myself I wanted to take a few photos of him and his cool chopper bike but he rode away.

A few moments later, he came around and stopped to rest, and this is the only chance I got so I rushed up and approached him. I told him I'm a street photographer and I found his bike so unique and asked for his kind permission to take a few photographs. He smiled and gladly agreed.

After the photo shoot, I asked for his contact so I can send him a copy of his best portrait, and he gave me his business card. And he told me he is the owner of a bicycle company by the name CUSTOMAXXX, where they make customized chopper bikes like the one he rides on. Pretty cool eh! I thanked him and he rode away.

This is what I like about street photography. You never know what would be unfolded before your eyes and it always happens when you are least expected. When that moment occurs, trust your own instinct and self-confidence, and go ahead to seize that opportunity to take photographs, be it with kind permission or taking a few quick candid snapshots. It may or may not be the best street shots you have taken but at least you have no regrets about letting those beautiful moments slip by.

Photo info:

Seagull 205 RF on FujiFilm Neopan 400. Developed in 1:1 Kodak D76 for 500 seconds and scanned on Epson V700 with slight tonality and contrast adjustments in Photoshop.

Sunday, December 27, 2015

Street Photo - On Reading...

On Reading...

Nikon D300 on 18-70mm lens @ 40mm f/4.5 1/60 second ISO 400 • Daylight WB Spot metering • RAW processed in Camera RAW • Slight color adjustments in Photoshop, uncropped

"This would be the last street photo for 2015. Rest assured that more street photos are coming their way into 2016. Thank you all readers for your kind support all these time. I look forward to your continuous support and readership in the coming new year and many years to come.

Lastly I wish all my supportive readers and friends a Happy New Year! Cheers!"