An image that I’ve published previously but recently revisited as part of rebuilding my collection of China photos. It was 1999 with the sunsetting when I noticed and photographed this young couple overlooking Hong Kong Harbour. Is there a story here? I think so, it’s tempting to use our imaginations to fill in the blanks. Who are the people in the photo? I’ve no idea and I’m not sure it’s actually important. Original image on colour negative film using Pentax SF7 35mm camera with 28-80mm zoom.
Toned monochrome with Silver Efex Pro
I’m continuing with my use of Nik Software’s Silver Efex Pro plugin (SFX Pro) for Photoshop. In an attempt to give some consistency to my monochrome images, I’ve settled on an effect that I think looks pretty good and saved it as a preset in order to streamline my workflow a bit. In a nutshell, the settings include a light selenium toning and a subtle “lens fall-off” vignette. Each image gets its own localized adjustments for “structure” and contrast. Although SFX Pro has some interesting border effects, unfortunately, they are applied within the edges of the frame which means the image is effectively cropped to the extent of the border effect. This is one of my few criticisms of the plugin. Given that limitation, my choice is to expand the canvas in Photoshop, after committing the plugin effects, so as to create a border without image area cropping.
If anyone has any questions about SFX Pro, is perhaps considering purchasing the plugin and looking for some advice or guidance, then leave a comment/question or use the Contact page. ~KD.