Thread: Silver Efex?

I'm interested in shooting some black and white photography with my digital camera. To date, whenever I wanted to shoot black and white, I've just shot film. I'm wondering if I could get good results with a b&w specific program like Silver Efex.

Anyone here use it?

Is it good?

Never used Silver Efex. I did post this link for B&W film emulators in the B&W thread: http://www.presetsheaven.com/2008/10...for-lightroom/

You need Lightroom tho.

Never tried Efex, but I think you can go a long way by using any of the newer editing programs. Unlike in the past where you had only one simple b&w conversion, most/many programs now allow you to specify the b&w value for each color (e.g. pull the blue value down to turn blue skies black). Gives a lot more control over the b&w conversion to get the look you want.

I agree with Fuzz. I've downloaded Tip's link (thanks), but I'm really happy with even little ol' LR3's conversion capability.

conversions I like from LR3...


boatyard in winter, tahoe by chadbro, on Flickr



el ferrocarril en el noche 2, reno, nv by chadbro, on Flickr



esme\\\'s first snow -monochrome by chadbro, on Flickr



carson peak, june lake loop, eastern sierra by chadbro, on Flickr



aiden by chadbro, on Flickr



tahoe storm - B&W by chadbro, on Flickr



dream storm - tahoe by chadbro, on Flickr



untitled by chadbro, on Flickr



aiden by chadbro, on Flickr



cerveza con jake by chadbro, on Flickr



whale corner by chadbro, on Flickr



payphone monotone by chadbro, on Flickr





now, that's not to say I wouldn't love to have more toys to play with. Some things I've seen on other sites with silver efex are stunning.

Not totally unrelated, I've been tossing around the idea of converting my d5000 to infrared

I've used silver efex,both versions,a ton. Not so much for the different film emulations, but for the really fine grain control,texture,etc,that's not up to snuff in lightroom 3. The bw conversion itself is excellent in lightroom,but the multiple control points you can set up in s efex really does it for me. Dodging,burning,contrast here,flatten there. Ill try finding something I'm pleased to share,but on my phone now.

Worth the money if on lr3 or aperture and love monochromatic photography with digital.

Norsk.

Silver Efex should have a trial, I think. I was previously of the opinion that similar programs didn't do anything Photoshop couldn't, but Color Efex totally changed my opinion on that. Not only does it give you tons of control, but unlike Photoshop or LR presets, it's set up in such a way that you'll often "stumble" across a look that you hadn't thought of using on the photo, but which works well.

Originally Posted by Max Archer

Silver Efex should have a trial, I think. I was previously of the opinion that similar programs didn't do anything Photoshop couldn't, but Color Efex totally changed my opinion on that. Not only does it give you tons of control, but unlike Photoshop or LR presets, it's set up in such a way that you'll often "stumble" across a look that you hadn't thought of using on the photo, but which works well.

I had a two week trial for both v1 and v2 before I committed. V2 was so much improved from v1 that I had no problem justifying the cost to my wife (twice) .

Norsk.

isnt there a free demo on the niksoftware website?
apparently you can also get silver efex version 1 for free if you register or so, at least that was in a german foto-magazine, i havent tried it but apparently it works
http://www.niksoftware.com/fotohits


freak~[&]

Mobile, then converted:


Canon FF/24mm:




Canon APS-H, 24mm:

Originally Posted by splitter

I agree with Fuzz. I've downloaded Tip's link (thanks), but I'm really happy with even little ol' LR3's conversion capability.


conversions I like from LR3...



cerveza con jake by chadbro, on Flickr



whale corner by chadbro, on Flickr



payphone monotone by chadbro, on Flickr





now, that's not to say I wouldn't love to have more toys to play with. Some things I've seen on other sites with silver efex are stunning.

Not totally unrelated, I've been tossing around the idea of converting my d5000 to infrared

Nice work, especially those left in the quote. Excellent stuff.

I meant to say my examples posted above this post aren´t genuine works of art, just photos I rather like.

Thanks arild, you as well.

I like the whale corner shot, some really like it, others don't. Most seem to be of the latter. I still think I'll print it rather big on metallic for the next show.

The fine tuning grain aspects and the soft contrast of silver efex has me interested, but I'm more interested in putting $200 towards other photo toys first (and a new splittie, bindings, and boots). Besides, I'm really only adding grain to dirty up shots that are relatively noisy anyway. Sometimes they are relatively clean, like the 2nd one of Aiden with added grain above, but usually grain is there if the ISO noise is already noticeable.

^ That whale shot is one of the best posted here recently.

Nice shots Chad!

Did the trial version and loved it, just bought the student/teacher version for $99.

Some examples with heavier processing


MVSERS2- by jrmorris-mt, on Flickr


ETSEP3- by jrmorris-mt, on Flickr


ETSE12- by jrmorris-mt, on Flickr


ETSEP5- by jrmorris-mt, on Flickr



MPSEP6- by jrmorris-mt, on Flickr

That Llama is about to trample Macchu Picchu! RUUUUNNN!!!