Bad Company - Color EFX 4.0

Original Image

Woke up this morning to an email from NIK releasing the new Color EFX 4.0 which I had pre-ordered. Color EFX 3.0 has been a favorite for quite some time but the new 4.0 has made some significant changes. You can now add filters without leaving the application. 4.0 also has a new feature for saving a recipe/preset. More info when I get a chance to play a bit more.

Wanting to jump right in I pulled up a recent scan made of the band Bad Company from the Academy of Music, circa 1976. Band members were Simon Kirke - drums, Mick Ralphs - Guitar,  Boz Burrell - Bass and Paul Rodgers - Vocals. Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke were from the band FREE.....Mick Ralphs was in  Mott the Hoople. They were managed by Paul Grant who, in prior years,  had worked with Led Zeppelin. But I digress.....I was looking to make this image more appealing by adding some depth and color in the background - a bit more like the lighting you would see in a live show.

First thing I did was take one of my back-ground textures and blend it into the original image - needed some color behind the band - see below.. 

Added Background Clor

Took this image into NIK 4.0 Color EFX and used the vintage film dialog (see below)  to create a grainy look for the background. Final move was to use a brush in CS5 to paint the effect out of the players.

So after a rather quick look at the new NIK 4.0 it seems a rather useful tool to add to the workflow-still need a closer look but that will happen over the next few weeks....check it out...