After
Before
Much of what I have been doing these days is about post processing. So I decided to start something new and show the before and after pictures in the blog. We’ll see how it goes. This week I was experimenting with a new plug-in from NIK called Analog Efex Pro. As nearly as I can tell it is designed to recreate your worst nightmares from the old film and wet darkroom days. For a long time I couldn’t think why I would want to do that to an image. But as I was scrolling through the files looking for something that would look good in black and white I came across this image of a defunct grocery store in the agricultural corridor along the Pecos River somewhere south of Roswell. I liked the avocado green stove and the rusty red neon sign so I didn’t want to go monochrome and I didn’t think spot color would work either. Then I thought “what if I funked it up a bit in analog efex pro just to emphasize the decadence?” So, I gave it a try and I have to say I liked the result. Here I used the color wet plate filter and played around a little with the dust and scratches overlays. In the end it needed more light on the sign so I took it into Color Efex pro for a darken/lighten center treatment and then added an edgy border just to continue the mood.