• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Offers
  • How tos
  • Listicles
  • Explainers
  • A-Z
  • Downloads
    • Adobe
    • DxO software
    • Capture One
    • Exposure X
    • ON1 software
    • Skylum
  • About

Life after Photoshop

  • Lightroom
  • Capture One
  • DxO PhotoLab
  • Nik Collection
  • Exposure X
  • ON1 Photo RAW
  • Aurora HDR

Add drama to your shots with the Dark Contrasts filter in Color Efex Pro

September 12, 2013 by Rod Lawton

03 Adding an opacity control point

Nik Color Efex Pro Dark Contrasts filter

To fix this I’ve clicked the ‘-‘ (minus) button in the Control Point section underneath the filter tools, then clicked on an area of the sky near the horizon. This removes the filter effect in that area. Sometimes that’s enough, but here it’s gone from one extreme to the other – so I drag the control point’s opacity slider to an intermediate value so that the Dark Contrasts effect is toned down but not removed completely.

04 More control points

Nik Color Efex Pro Dark Contrasts filter

These opacity control points operate over a circular area, so instead of increasing the size of the circle, which would make the opacity effect take in too much of the sky and the foreground, I simply add two more opacity-reducing control points (circled). This reduces the effect on the clouds in the lower part of the sky only – I think the top of the sky is fine as it is.

05 Vignette effect

Nik Color Efex Pro Dark Contrasts filter

I’ve finished this image by adding a Lens: Vignette filter. It’s nothing to do with the Dark Contrasts filter, but I thought it would finish off the dark, stormy effect quite nicely.

Related

Pages: Page 1 Page 2 Page 3

Filed Under: Nik Collection, Tutorials

Life after Photoshop is owned and run by photographer and journalist Rod Lawton. Rod has been a photography journalist for nearly 40 years, starting out in film (obviously) but then migrating to digital. He has worked as a freelance journalist, technique editor and channel editor, and is now Group Reviews Editor on Digital Camera World. Life after Photoshop is a personal project started in 2013.

Primary Sidebar

Subscribe to this site

Enter your email address to subscribe to Life after Photoshop and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Adobe Lightroom: what is it, where do you get it, what does it cost?

Adobe Lightroom is not one program but three. You could … [Read More...] about Adobe Lightroom: what is it, where do you get it, what does it cost?

The best photo editing software for organizing, editing, RAW and effects

Choosing the best image editing software used to be easy. … [Read More...] about The best photo editing software for organizing, editing, RAW and effects

Layers explained

Layers explained: what they do and how to use them

Layers are a central part of many photo editing processes, … [Read More...] about Layers explained: what they do and how to use them

BAN adjustments… Basic And Necessary image corrections to do first

Photo editing software does two quite different jobs. It can … [Read More...] about BAN adjustments… Basic And Necessary image corrections to do first

More Posts from this Category

Mission statement

Life after Photoshop is not anti-Photoshop or anti-subscriptions. It exists to showcase the many Photoshop alternatives that do more, go further, or offer more creative inspiration to photographers.

Affiliate links

Life after Photoshop is funded by affiliate links and may be paid a commission for downloads. This does not affect the price you pay, the ratings in reviews or the software selected for review.

Contact

Email lifeafterphotoshop@gmail.com

Copyright © 2023 Life after Photoshop · News Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in