Tonal Contrast In Nik Color Efex Pro

[Saphire]

I have been trying out different settings in various software to get a photo to pop without going over the top. I have found that Photomatix is great if you want do the HDR effect, but its easy to go to far and the image can look Dragonized.
The best and the easist to use in my opinion is Nik Color Efex pro 3's Tonal Contrast its brilliant.
The first photo is as it comes straight out of the camera.
The second I have used the Tonal contrast tool in the Efex pro software.
Highlight Con 55, Mid Con 65, Shadow Con 70, Saturation 45
The last photo is with the Highlight Con on 0.

[Birdsnapper]

The building really pops, Christine, but the sky looks very noisy.

[Saphire]

Thanks Mike you are right it is a bit noisy I will correct that it is so easy to do in the Nik software just turn down the highlight contrast a bit I will add a new ver on the end.

[andy153]

Good sequence Christine - Nik Color Efex Pro is a great tool - I take it that you are using it in Photoshop ?? I've recently invested in the Aperture 2 plugins that work within Aperture itself - They are just as good, most of my abstract work is pure ColorEfex Pro 3.

[Saphire]

Yes Andy it is CS, there is some nice features in the Nik software. This one is my favorite I find if I use it correctly I don't need to do any sharpening.