Reprocessed Parking Garage Skyline

First of all I would like to thank everyone that came by to visit the First Friday display on Thursday and Friday. It was great to meet so many people and I am truly flattered by all of the kind comments and remarks that were made about the photos that I was showing. And of course the biggest thank you goes out to Juan for letting me show at his loft during First Friday!

Today's post consists of reprocessing one of the most popular shots that I have ever taken from the parking garage behind Casa Rio on the Riverwalk (in fact, the photo won first prize in a contest held by Penn Camera in November!). I decided to re-process the shot because there were some elements that I though I could improve on by working on the photo again, primarily retaining more detail and making the colors appear more natural. In order to retain the detail I used the technique of "area noise reduction" (which I first learned of from Scott Frederick) which allows me to make the sky smoother while retaining details on the buildings (which also helps focus more on the buildings and less on the sky!).

The coloring I was able to enhance using Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 by creating a black and white layer of the shot, then blending it with the finished product to make the color appear more natural and less eye-popping.

I actually ended up liking the black and white version so much that I also saved it out and posted that photo as well. I am very satisfied with all of the tools from Nik Software, but I do not think any of them has enhanced my work more than Silver Efex 2 (and the original Silver Efex as well!).

Reprocessed Parking Garage Skyline

Black and White Parking Garage Skyline

Original Parking Garage Skyline

If you are so inclined, please feel free to leave any comments or feedback. Also remember that clicking on the photo takes you to my online gallery hosted over at smugmug where you can view this (and my other photos) in various sizes. If you enjoyed this post, please take the time to pass my post(s) on to others whom you also feel would enjoy my work. Thanks for stopping by!