Nik'd Trees
Trees processed in Nik's HDR Efex Pro by Neil Alexander
I've been concentrating on shooting trees lately for a wall coverings company in the North West. So having splashed out on Nik's Complete Collection at Focus last week, I thought I'd have a little peak at HDR Efex Pro. On first inspection, the application is pretty slick. It's consistent with Nik's interface and is straight forward to use. The presets are very handy, and the control point functionality that was previously in Silver Efex is a welcome inclusion. It doesn't quite have the granular control of PhotoMatix though, and I feel that this lets it down a little. If you're new to the whole HDR thing, then I'd definitely recommend downloading a trial and giving it a whirl, but if you're a seasoned PhotoMatix user, then I'm afraid to say that I wouldn't bother - you already have the best HDR application on the market.
So to the images... Both of these are processed using Nik apps. The first is a simple preset selection from HDR Efex, and the one above is processed in Silver Efex Pro 2, though I've spent a little more time on this one. I'm torn over which one I'd put on my wall. Which one do you prefer? Would love to hear your input.