Nik Software - Silver Efex Pro, Color Efex Pro, etc

catspaw

Two part question.

#1. Nik Software? Silver Efex Pro? Color Efex Pro 3.0? Etc? Worth it? Not? Obviously MANY other ways to do post processing. Bundled, it's not that expensive, but there are ALWAYS other things to spend money on.

#2. Huge difference between the Lightroom version and Photoshop version?

thanks!

pathfinder

I have both Leah, and to be honest, I do not use them a great deal.

I do really like the warming tone in Color Efex Pro, and Color Efex Pro has a pretty darn good NB&W filter as well.

I bought Color Efex Pro finally, because when you read Vincent Versace's "Welcome to Oz - A Cinematic Approach to Digital Photography with Photoshop" much of what he discusses requires Color Efex Pro - specifically warming nearer, sunlit objects, and cooling farther, shaded objects. I hated that Welcome to Oz felt like one long add, but I did learn some useful techniques that I still use daily. Color Efex works well, but can crash with large files for me sometimes. I always save the tiff before opening Color Efex Pro, I have just had too many images crashed and had to start all over again, so now I always save my file before going on to Color Efex Pro. I do like what it can do though.

Silver Efex makes lovely B&W images, but I frequently just do my own in Photoshop via Image> Adjust >B&W, or via the B&W profiles in Color Efex Pro.

I never use either of them in Lightroom, because I need to use them on layers so that I can paint them in selectively on highlights or shadows, or selected areas which I cannot do to my satisfaction in LR. I do know how to use the adjustment brush in LR, but in my hands it is a very poor tool compared to what I can do in Photoshop. SO I always use my plug ins in Photoshop YMMV of course. Maybe this will be better in LR3 - I will find out when it is commercially available.

catspaw

Pathfinder - excellent information, thank you! I can see why the PS version is more expensive than the LR/Aperture version now since blending the layers will give such a higher degree of control.

It just seemed lately that any time I saw a B&W photo I was seeing notes that it had been run through Silver Efex Pro. Only a few mentions of Color Efex and I have yet to see anyone mention the other 3 in the 'bundle' package. A bit as if they have a gold product, a silver level product, and a bunch of duds that no one uses. Good marketing though.

There's a thousand ways to do B&W conversions, that's certain. I still miss an ACTUAL darkroom for those, but I'm definitely exploring options.

Reply, invaluable. thank you

Kyle D

I have the complete collection and love it. To be honest I don't use Viveza because I do most of my major editing in Capture NX2. I also have the Color Efex Pro version for Capture NX2 so that is mainly where I use it.

My favorite plug-in of the bunch is Silver Efex Pro. It is just so easy to get the exact look I'm going for with a b&w image in a few clicks. It does a phenomenal job. As for Dfine and Sharpener Pro, I definitely use those when I'm doing a more artistic or fine art image instead of just batch processing shots from a horse show. Some of my favorite things to use in Color Efex Pro include, pro-contrast, glamour glow, dynamic skin softner, midnight (used on the appropriate image of course), and duplex. Combining the glamour glow with duplex has given some interesting effects.

Here is an image that I have processed with Silver Efex Pro.



And here's something that I processed in Capture NX2 using the Color Efex Pro plug-in.

Ric Grupe

I have all the NIK plugins...and the one I thought would be less useful is the one I use most...Color Efex Pro. I find the tonal contrast adjustment most useful. There is always at least one of the Efex I want to use.

Dfine does a nice job too.

The new version of Viveza is intriguing...I'm on a trial right now.

dlplumer

[And here's something that I processed in Capture NX2 using the Color Efex Pro plug-in.

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Gorgeous shot and PP Kyle

Kyle D

Thank you. The client loved it!