[kjacks]

i've used the nik silver efex trial and really liked it, however i'm not sure i can justify the expense for the benefit. i've been successful using pse7 for what i do, but...
opinions please

[SPB]

Pixelmator if you are on a Mac is very good indeed. Gimp also is good.

[manishved]

If you have a Pentax DSLR with the in-camera filter, it works great.

[jac]

Silver Efex Pro is the best in my opionion, both for interface as a plug-in to CS(3), PSE(9) and Aperture (Mac user obviously). I particularly like their control point system over dodge/burrn. But it is expensive as a separate module. I looked at this and decided on NIK's Complete Collection and haven't regretted it. All the modules are now 'go to'.

[VaughnA]

Silver Efex is great, I have and use it. I've found the best combination for me is to use Nik Viveza to get the Color version looking as best I can with contrast and color, then use Silver Efex to do the final conversion. Anything promising I'll throw into Viveza to tweak, there I can play with it and then drop the saturation to zero to see if it would look good in B&W. If so then off to Silver Efex. If you have Aperture or Lightroom then getting the Complete Nik Tools Suite is a much more economical way to go than buying individually.

[joebob]

You may want to look at B/W Styler from The Plugin Site. It has lots of features and is reasonably priced.

The Plugin Site - B/W Styler - B&W Conversion & BW Effects

[kjacks]

thanks to all for your input, i hadn't heard of the b&w styler so i'll check that out. maybe i'll put the nik complete set on my christmas list...

[cats_five]

If you have a Pentax DSLR with the in-camera filter, it works great.

Using the camera to do the B&W is greatly reducing the options available. Using a PC there are a lot of different ways, some of which work better for some images than others. The camera only has one way. If you are serious about B&W, shot colour then convert. Google will turn up plenty of web pages that illustrate the range of choices that can be made.

[MPrince]

I can't help you with software, but here is the technique I use in PSE 8:

The technique is called luminosity blending.

Step 1: Press Alt and double click the words "background layer". This changes the layer name to "layer 0" and makes it possible to add a layer below what used to be the background layer.

Step 2: Press Ctrl and click new layer to add a layer beneath layer 0. Fill this layer with white. This layer is named layer 1.

Step 3: change the layer mode of layer 0 to luminosity.

Step 4: Press ctrl-alt-shift-E four times to create 4 new layers named layers 2 through 5.

Step 5: Deactivate layer 5. Change the layer mode of layer 2 to screen, layer 3 to multiply, and layer 4 to overlay. Adjust the opacity levels until you like what you see. I first leave the screen layer at 100, change the multiply layer to between 30 and 50, and change the overlay layer to 20-30. I then adjust to taste.

Step 6: Activate layer 5. Go to filter-->other-->high pass and enter the pixel radius of your choice. Something around 4 is good but I've used a radius as high as 50 just to see what would happen.

Step 7: Change the layer mode of layer 5 to overlay. Adjust the opacity as needed.


Most if not all of the photos in this set Black & White - a set on Flickr use this technique.

[Arjay Bee]

Hi Matt
Just looked through that album - your conversions look great so I am going to try that technique.

For B&W conversion at first I used the saturation tool for a while, then the gradient map tool and then the channel mixer tool in CS2 or 3 - More recently in CS4 I use the Adjustment presets and choose the option that best suits the image - which to my taste usually turns out to be the red or yellow filter option. Like you I will optimize the image for B&W first in the colour mode using vibrance and saturation sliders.

[MPrince]

Hi Matt
Just looked through that album - your conversions look great so I am going to try that technique.

Thanks, Arjay. I like the Gorman conversion method, but that method requires lab mode, which PSE 8 doesn't have. I think the luminosity blending method I use closely approximates the look of the Gorman method.

[JohnBee]

i've used the nik silver efex trial and really liked it, however i'm not sure i can justify the expense for the benefit. i've been successful using pse7 for what i do, but...
opinions please

I've worked with so many BW converters since I started in post that I honestly can't remember them all. However, over the years I've come to appreciate some over the others. And Silver Effects is/was one of them. However... for film processes, none compare to Alien Skin's Exposure plugin, which has the most concise analog film and processes I've ever used on digital(over 500); cross processing, Polaroid, Daguerreotype etc.

Here are a few samples:





PS. the tool also does color processing as well, which is really nice.

Hope this helps.
JohnB

[kjacks]

i'm going to check out alien skin, and attempt the seemingly very complicated luminosity process...hopefully pse7 does that.
all of my shots are taken in raw and conversion is done on the computer, i use de-sat, gradient, b&w conversion in pse7, which ever gives the best results, however sometimes i want more.
thanks for the info and nice pics!

[MPrince]

The luminosity blending method may seem complicated, but after doing it a couple of times, you'll be able to do it in your sleep!

[Fries]

Silver Efex is great, I have and use it. I've found the best combination for me is to use Nik Viveza to get the Color version looking as best I can with contrast and color, then use Silver Efex to do the final conversion. Anything promising I'll throw into Viveza to tweak, there I can play with it and then drop the saturation to zero to see if it would look good in B&W. If so then off to Silver Efex. If you have Aperture or Lightroom then getting the Complete Nik Tools Suite is a much more economical way to go than buying individually.

+1. Thats my workflow and experience to.