I Have A New Toy - Silver Efex

[John Perriment]

Just a few pictures converted to B&W in my new toy, Nik Silver Efex 2.0

[Ian]

Re: I Have A New Toy - Silver Efex

Do you think you can achieve the same results just using Photoshop or Lightroom? I think some of the examples you showed on the e-group are better than these - which, ahem, to me here look not a lot more than grainy black and whites (sorry!).

Ian

[John Perriment]

Re: I Have A New Toy - Silver Efex

Do you think you can achieve the same results just using Photoshop or Lightroom? I think some of the examples you showed on the e-group are better than these - which, ahem, to me here look not a lot more than grainy black and whites (sorry!).

Ian

Don't be sorry, Ian, I value an honest opinion. It's a steep, steep learning curve for me and it will take a long while before I can claim to be proficient at B&W. Part of the challenge is to be able to even recognise a good B&W and all objective advice is most appreciated.

[Graham_of_Rainham]

Re: I Have A New Toy - Silver Efex

I attended a trade show demonstration of the Nik software and was very impressed by a few features that are available in all their products.

However, as I get to see a lot of images, I'm noticing a that more and more of these "processed" images are being shown to us, that are to my eye (and others I have spoken to) over done. Even the latest copy of the East Anglian Federation Bulletin has most of the images that are tonemapped/HDR enhanced creations.

It's much like when people discovered "cross processing" and other such techniques and we saw them again and again until they fell out of favor. With the advent of CGI and HDTV, we have come to expect to see images that are larger than life and maybe in the same way as processed food have lost the taste for the real thing...

That's not to say that I dislike processed images, more that I appreciate the quality of the composition, lighting and the basic elements of good photography. Fortunately, John, your photography skills are very good and you have an eye for a picture that I think you will be able to use this software to very good effect, in the way I believe it was intended to be used.

I'm genuinely interested in seeing how you get on with this and your thoughts on it having used it for a while

[John Perriment]

Re: I Have A New Toy - Silver Efex

I attended a trade show demonstration of the Nik software and was very impressed by a few features that are available in all their products.

However, as I get to see a lot of images, I'm noticing a that more and more of these "processed" images are being shown to us, that are to my eye (and others I have spoken to) over done. Even the latest copy of the East Anglian Federation Bulletin has most of the images that are tonemapped/HDR enhanced creations.

It's much like when people discovered "cross processing" and other such techniques and we saw them again and again until they fell out of favor. With the advent of CGI and HDTV, we have come to expect to see images that are larger than life and maybe in the same way as processed food have lost the taste for the real thing...

That's not to say that I dislike processed images, more that I appreciate the quality of the composition, lighting and the basic elements of good photography. Fortunately, John, your photography skills are very good and you have an eye for a picture that I think you will be able to use this software to very good effect, in the way I believe it was intended to be used.

I'm genuinely interested in seeing how you get on with this and your thoughts on it having used it for a while

Thanks Graham, I'll tone down the processing and I'll update my progress with the software from time to time.