Thursday March 17, 2011

Silver Efex Pro Review

I have a Nik Coupon Code of “STUCKINCUSTOMS” for 15% off this and all the Nik products. Just go to Nik Software, and you will save some money!

This page is just for Silver Efex Pro. I have a full Nik Review up here on the site too

Nik Silver Efex Pro

Wow this thing is cool. Those of you that are regular readers to the blog know that I don’t do a lot of Black & White photography. I have nothing at all against it… I see things in a very vibrant and alive way, and I’ve spent a long time perfecting a technique that helps bring this to photographic reality. However, that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate a good B&W pick. Often times, the default B&W conversion in Photoshop can just be… well, boring. And predictable. Sometimes I take something and convert it to B&W and then look at it and think, “Yeah, well, that’s how I kinda thought it would look”.

So, I reluctantly tried Silver Efex Pro, because I expected it to be a slightly improved version of what Photoshop can do — but I was wrong! This is very fun to use and you can get a wide variety of looks. Frankly, I really like the Holga and Pinhole settings on the left, and then tweaking it further on the right. There are many many wonderful options here that can really make a B&W image “alive” and pop off a page.

I have since talked to the rep from Nik and he tells me that they used a bunch of classic B&W shots to make sure they could get all those as presets. It’s very fun and you’ll see something immediately!

Below, I have put several screenshots of the things I have done with the product, so you can begin to get an idea.

Silver Efex Pro - High Structure
Silver Efex Pro enables you to make a choice on the left to give you a basic look, then you can really make it unique on the right.

Silver Efex Pro - antique Plate 2
The Antique Photo treatment sounds like a gimmick. But it came out fairly amazing, don’t ya think?

Silver Efex Pro - center the vignette
The Holga and Pinhole treatments are two of my favorites.


This shot from Argentina I was able to customize with an icy blue tint.

Silver Efex Pro 3
Silver Efex’s B&W options can enable some cool results

Silver Efex Pro 2
When it comes to Vignette, the “Stylizing” dropdown has a ton of very easy-to-use options


Sometimes Silver Efex Pro can help remind you that some photos are more about shape and line than color

Shots from Silver Efex Pro 2

The new version is out! I haven’t updated the review… honestly, it’s just the same stuff but a little bit better all around! Here are some shots I processed with it…

The Mighty Rocket AwaitsToday I had a great day at NASA. I've come back to the space coast in Florida to see the space shuttle Endeavor blast off, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.Around noon, I was invited out with a group of other Twitter peeps to see the RRS Rollback event. This is the slow-motion but exciting time when they peel away to the Rotating Service Structure to reveal the shuttle. It was so awesome that I almost forgot to send a tweet.Read more here at stuckincustoms.com.

Any questions about the nature of these reviews? Visit my Ethics Statement. It’s all quite simple!

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