Dramatic Black & White Photography Using Nik Silver Efex Pro 2

By Robin Whalley

Fully revised & updated August 2018
Covers DxO and Google versions of Nik Silver Efex Pro 2
Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 quickly gained an enthusiastic following amongst photographers’ keen to produce dramatic black and white photography. Today, it still enjoys a strong following and for good reason. It helps you to quickly produce photographs that could take many hours using other photo editors. Despite this, a lot of photographers still don’t realise the full potential of their work.
The secret to success with Nik Silver Efex Pro is like most things in life. It’s knowing what to do to achieve a desired outcome. This is where this book can help you.
•It thoroughly explains every control in the Silver Efex software. Not by using vague descriptions, but by examining the effect of the controls on sample images.
•You will find recommendations about which sliders to use to achieve specific results.
•There are tips spread throughout the book explaining how to accomplish dramatic conversions as well as improve your photo editing.
•It explains the order in which you should apply adjustments to your image to improve conversions (it’s not the order in the interface suggests).
•There are ideas about how to pre-process your photos before converting them black and white.
•It contains four full length examples detailing image conversions with Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
To support the worked examples in this book, you can download the starting images from the authors website and follow his editing on your own computer.
Truly master Nik Silver Efex Pro with the help of this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Robin Whalley
• Release date: Sep 11, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463476987

Robin Whalley

Robin is a Landscape Photographer with a passion for software, image editing and a skill for sharing knowledge. He has been honing his photography skills since 2000 starting first with film before moving quickly embracing digital. Whilst he is not widely known as a photographer, his work has been published and sold around the world. He has appeared in exhibitions including The Landscape Photographer of the Year and been published in the popular UK photographic press. He now speaks at Camera Clubs and Photographic Societies throughout the North West of England where he likes to share his insights into how to create engaging photography.

Book preview

Preface to the Latest Release

I published the first edition of this book in 2013 and it’s proven popular ever since. In this time the Nik Collection have been through a lot of change. Once developed and owned by Nik Software, the company sold out to Google who immediately dropped the price. What once cost hundreds of pounds (yes, I’m British) became affordable and many more photographers began to use the software.

The future was looking great for a time. Google launched a new application, Nik Analog Efex Pro and quickly followed this with Analog Efex 2 Pro. Gradually though, the new releases slowed and then stopped, before Google announced the Nik Collection was available for free. Lots of people were delighted by this, but it also caused a few to question the future of the software. Shortly after, Google broke the news that it was stopping support for the Nik Collection and that there would be no further releases.

It was now expected that without continued development, the Nik Collection would become obsolete as software and systems changed. Then came the announcement in Autumn 2017 that DxO Labs had acquired the Nik Collection from Google. They quickly integrated the U-Point technology into their PhotoLab software (the Control Points that make Nik tools so easy to use). Most importantly they announced they were working on a new release of the Nik Collection.

In June 2018 the Nik Collection 2018 by DxO launched. On the surface, very little had changed but below the surface there was a lot of investment. They had fixed bugs that had crept into the software over time and the code was now fully compatible with the latest Adobe CC releases. Most importantly the new software is back under support with DxO planning a new version.

Why then, if so little has changed, should I pick now to revise this book? The answer is, like the Nik Collection, the book is due for some loving maintenance. At the start of the process I thought I would be correcting a few errors and typos as well as upgrading the screenshots to use the 2018 release of Silver Efex Pro 2. As I began to see the tinkering that had taken place over the years, I realised a lot more had changed than I thought. I also recognised that my approach to using the Silver Efex Pro software had evolved and improved.

The book now takes all these points and more into consideration. I’m also publishing the book in print for the first time. A print version of the book is long overdue and something that’s regularly requested by readers. I hope you enjoy the latest book and benefit from the revised content.

Here’s to the future of the Nik Collection.

Robin Whalley, August 2018

Introduction

The objective of this book is to provide you with the knowledge and skills to apply the Silver Efex Pro software to your photography. Used correctly, it will enable you to create dramatic black and white images with a look that would be very difficult to replicate using other software. Whilst I refer to Silver Efex Pro throughout the book and may even abbreviate this to Silver Efex, you can read this as being Silver Efex Pro 2. Silver Efex Pro is one of the best black and white conversion packages on the market. It's used widely by both amateurs and pros alike and with good reason. When used correctly the results it can produce are superb.

Using this software is not though an excuse to rescue poor photographs by converting them to black and white and applying some dramatic effect. You must start the editing process with a good, well composed image. To help with this at the start of the book, I will present a few black and white image conversions that work well and share some simple guidelines to help you understand why. This is not though a comprehensive guide to composition or to shooting black and white images. These are suggestions about what works well and what doesn’t when converting a colour image to monochrome.

Next, we will explore the Silver Efex Pro interface including the tools and options it provides. All the elements of the interface are explained, enabling you to improve your productivity when using the tool and applying effects. I have also included a lot of detail to explain how the various sliders are affecting your image when you work with them. This will help you to select the best approach to editing your image and achieving your finished vision.

In the final part of the book you will find full length worked examples, where I step you through complete black and white conversions using Silver Efex Pro. This draws together everything from the earlier sections of the book. It will also explain my own thinking, decision making and workflow when I come to convert an image to black and white. To support the worked examples, you can download the starting images from my Lenscraft website (https://lenscraft.co.uk/landing-page-for-book-images/). This allows you to follow the example to reinforce your understanding of the material.

Who is this book for?

Anyone who uses the Silver Efex Pro, who wants to gain a solid understanding of its features, and how to achieve the best possible black and white conversions. This isn't a long or complex book, but it doesn't need to be. The Silver Efex Pro software hides most of the complexity from you. This allows to you to concentrate on developing a strong black and white conversion, which is the subject of the first chapter.

Important Notes

I wrote and illustrated the first version of this book with Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 (Lightroom Edition) on a PC. It’s now revised using the Nik Collection 2018 (released in June 2018) on a Mac. Many of the screenshots have been replaced with this latest version although you may still identify earlier shots. This will not be a problem as I have checked all illustrations for accuracy against the latest version.

This book is fully compatible with the Nik Collection 2018 by DxO as at July 2018, but you can still use it with earlier versions of the software.

Notes for Mac Users

Both Windows PC and Mac computers have been used to develop this book. The version of Silver Efex Pro for each platform is very similar although the keyboard shortcuts differ slightly. I have therefore provided both versions in the text.

Trademarks

Throughout this book I have referred to various organisations and their products. Where I refer to any trademarks or product names within this book, the reference is purely in an editorial capacity. There is no intention of Copyright infringement whatsoever.

Disclaimer

Whilst I have made every effort to ensure the information in this guide is accurate, up to date and factual, it does represent my views and approach. Some may disagree with the information I present but I have not intentionally made any omissions or errors. If you find something you believe needs to be corrected, please contact me by email using [e-mail].

Thanks, and I hope you enjoy the book.

What Makes a Strong B&W

Before we begin looking at the Silver Efex Pro software we need