Many photographers enjoy the benefits of tone mapping, the process of reassigning tones of an image to a distribution that looks good on screen or in print. In some cases, this process can be labor intensive, involving careful layer masking. Some RAW developers include intuitive controls over the process of tone mapping. LightZone is notable in this respect. Viveza utilizes Nik Software's U Point technology to allow remarkable control over specific tones without the use of layer masking. Viveza is incredibly easy to use. I downloaded the 15-day free trial less than an hour before making the video below. Despite having never before used any plugins from Nik Software, I was able to quickly pick up the basics after viewing a few short video tutorials. Given a cost just under $250, it is unlikely that I will buy Viveza since I'm pretty used to doing similar manipulations the "hard way." Nevertheless, two hours into my trial, I am impressed. The only real downside is that Viveza works at the level of TIFF files rather than directly on the RAW. In the following video, I take two of the Sigma DP1 RAW files provided by Carl Rytterfalk, quickly convert them in Sigma Photo Pro, and then process them using Viveza. The emphasis in this video is on Viveza itself, though I thought it would be fun to use DP1 files. See Carl's video here for a better demonstration of Sigma Photo Pro.



Addendum: One very important thing I forgot to show is that by default, the version created by Viveza is on a new layer in Photoshop. Therefore, it makes for a good start for further selective masking if one is so inclined.