DxO acquires Nik Collection assets from Google, plans to continue to develop....

[maggieo]

IF... you dig into the software and don't use canned results. I've known a few that rely on the presets to make up for the fact that they don't know enough (don't WANT to know enough) about post processing.

Well, you can lead a horse to water, and it might not drink, but that doesn't mean the water isn't wet. 😉

Oh, and I'm reminded of the furor over Konica's first autofocus 35mm compact camera with a "P" setting!

 

[Nowhereman]

It's a FREE software that you want them to spend money on labor for programming to continue to support the ongoing development of operating systems. With no revenue?...

Actually, Silver Efex was not free — I think I paid $149 for it — until Google bought the company (Nik Software) for its own strategic reasons discussed in a post above; they then offered it for free, with no intention to develop it further. I'd be happy to pay for Silver Efex upgrades.
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Alone in Bangkok essay on BURN Magazine

 

[Nowhereman]

As Mitch can attest, the two of us have been chasing the best way to bring B&W into the digital world for a long time...Silver Efex Pro, like most digital tools, starts out decently enough with presets, and then becomes the closest thing to being in the darkroom again, once you fully understand the tools at your disposal.
...I mean, just look at the images. Why let go of the tool that made them possible?...That SEFXP loves Leica & Ricoh sensors and scanned film of all kinds, pretty much wed me for life to it.

Maggie - thanks for posting the images processed in Silver Efex for a variety of digital cameras, as well as scanned film images. The last one, taken with the M8, has marvelous tones that can so easily be achieved with Silver Efex, once you get skilled in using the software.

Although I no longer have the M-Monochrom, I think it's worthwhile posting a few images from this camera processed with Silver Efex because I also found it easier to get the results I wanted than with LR alone.


Leica MM | Macro-Elmar-M 90mm | ISO 1,250 | f/8.0 | 1/125 sec

Bangkok


Leica MM | DR-Summicron 50 | ISO 320 | f/4.0 | 1/180 sec

Bangkok


Leica MM | DR-Summicron 50 | ISO 320 | f/5.6 | 1/1000 sec

Bangkok
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Alone in Bangkok essay on BURN Magazine

 

[mani]

It's a FREE software that you want them to spend money on labor for programming to continue to support the ongoing development of operating systems. With no revenue?

The reason that Google released the software for free was precisely to fuel posts like this.

If they'd simply said "we're discontinuing the Nik Collection" they knew there'd be an outcry from all the customers who'd paid large amounts of money for the software, and were willing to continue paying for its development.

But by making it 'freeware' they bought an army of online supporters who drowned out the protests for ever.

 

[jamin-b]

Although I have had the Nik collection for some time, I admit to having ignored Viveza😱. I think I might have opened it perhaps once or twice, and then not bothered with it again... until now, that is. I investigated it more thoroughly after reading your post, and I'm impressed. Pleasingly subtle effects are possible.

Thanks for drawing my attention to it! 🙂

Yes, thanks for the tip! I also had ignored it but gave it a try based on this and see how it can be a lot simpler for minor color adjustments etc. and will start using when appropriate. Believe it or not I have actually made some use recently of the Alanog Efex plugin, which also provides a good way of making certain global adjustments, as long as you keep the changes subtle and shut off the "film" and "scratches" filters.

 

[Art Vandalay]

Props for using "inter alia" in an internet forum post...and italicizing it.

 

[robert blu]

I'm a LR and CC user and satisfied with them for my digital files , scans included.

It was only a few weeks ago that just for curiosity I tried to work a few files with Silver Efex and I was very surprised how easy it was to achieve the look I was desiring! And a better look than the one I could get with the mentioned products!

Personally I would be ready to pay a price to have it as a not discontinued product, but I know this will not happen! Sad that someone can buy a software appreciated by many users and let it die.

robert

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I'm sorry, but it was obvious. If software is giving for free it is abandoned. Or it is G.I.M.P ish in results.

I'm not IT expert, nor I care for Mac users, but if you are running most common OS, this software will works as long as no dramatic changes are made for Windows OS. For two decades I don't see any.

I like this software, I'm using it for frames in 99% and for 1% in processing 🙂

This does look remarkably like film! I feel I can see grain, just at the threshold of visibility!

Film doesn't give plastic, sightly over done on clarity faces.... IMO.

 

[victoriapio]

I haven't been shooting a lot lately for a variety of reasons, but as others have suggested, I have a XP based computer with Photoshop 6.5 that handles my digital photo processing, storage and archiving. It is not connected to the internet in anyway. It also has Silver Efex. Until it dies, I still have all the processing tools I've been using for the last seven years.

 

[sevres_babylone]

A bit of a digression first -- for a long time my favorite word processing program was Wordperfect for the Mac. Developed separately from the clumsy Wordperfect for Windows, it was a lean clean program. It was never updated to work on Intel versions of Macs, but a group of users, primarily someone named John Rethorst, created a virtual classic environment that they shared, and there is a Yahoo users group that continues to this day. I never tried it, because in its initial stages it seemed too complicated for me. (For a bit of the flavor, and, at least for me, the complexity, check this link:
http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/macintosh.html

Hopefully there will be SEP users as keen to keep Silver Efex going if it gets to a similar stage vis a vis hardware and software.

Silver Efex Pro is an essential part of my workflow. One feature I don't see equalled elsewhere is the u-point technology for local corrections that is a godsend for those of us who are PS selections-challenged (although some of the PS tools updates like magic lassos have helped.) I did pay for my copy. I also bought Viveza, which I used to use more, and after reading some of the thread posts, will likely use more again, and Color Efex Pro, which I probably did not spend enough time learning.

I sometimes use Silver Efex Pro for colour images, especially for its contrast, structure and gradient features, local or otherwise. Most commonly I would use the soft light and luminosity modes, and play with the opacity levels. Examples:

Exit by sevres babylone, en Flickr

Dancing to Mr. Lewis and the Funeral Five - SXSW by sevres babylone, en Flickr

Ex-Cult at Beerland by sevres babylone, en Flickr

 

[Nowhereman]

...I sometimes use Silver Efex Pro for colour images, especially for its contrast, structure and gradient features, local or otherwise. Most commonly I would use the soft light and luminosity modes, and play with the opacity levels...

I like your pictures. Do you mean that you colorize them in PS after processing in Silver Efex?

 

[Pablito]

The images in this thread most folks seem so happy with seem over-processed to me. I like Sliver Efex but it is so, so easy to misuse / over use.

 

[Nowhereman]

...Film doesn't give plastic, sightly over done on clarity faces.... IMO.

Although I don't mind criticism of my pictures, I'm surprised that you see this "plastic" in my OP: I certainly don't see it in the small JPG here, nor even in the 100% view in Lightroom. I'd be interested in what others think.

Although the subject of this thread is not whether Silver Efex can produce a film look — it's about the improvement it gives to B&W images of all kinds, digital or scanned film — for me the look of film differs the most in the grain and in the treatment of highlights, especially their transition to blown-out areas, but that is not necassearlily compelling for all images.

BTW, I just finished watching the film Carol, whose cinematography I liked, and found in this article that is was shot with Super-16mm film because the cinematographer, Ed Lachman, wanted to accentuate the grain to get a 1952-look — interestingly, at the end of the article he says he reduced the color palette of the film, shooting with a lot of magenta and greens and yellows. Of course, most of this comes from the color grading in (digital) post-processing.

I should add, however, that digitally shot movies like Gone Girl as well as HBO’s Big Little Lies and The Night Of, and B&W Polish movie Ida also have great cinematography. The point is that, like still photography, wonderful cinematography can be achieved both by shooting film and digitally.
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Alone in Bangkok essay on BURN Magazine

 

[Nowhereman]

Props for using "inter alia" in an internet forum post...and italicizing it.

Art Vandalay - Yeah, it was George who told me, “Don’t wear your learning lightly”; but Elaine and Kramer weren’t so sure.
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Alone in Bangkok essay on BURN Magazine

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Although I don't mind criticism of my pictures, I'm surprised that you see this "plastic" in my OP: I certainly don't see it in the small JPG here, nor even in the 100% view in Lightroom. I'd be interested in what others think...

It was addressed in another comment. #52. Maybe author of this comment is also real film shooter as well as me. Maybe even darkroom printer. We don't need to see if image is overprocessed on larger than you have posted.

 

[Nowhereman]

Had no idea what you meant when you wrote that the face looked "plastic". Seems you meant "over processed", which is a different thing — and largely a matter of taste.
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Alone in Bangkok essay on BURN Magazine

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Yes, sometimes faces gets plastic look by the camera sensor and the Siver Effex might fix it, but in the case of the photo in OP is seems to be plastic due to overprocessing (M10, M9, M8 doesn't give this on BW).

Yes, I can't criticize anything here. My initial comment was addressed to another comment where image in OP was described as with film look and film grain. But I don't see it... as film shooter 😀.

The print on the left is BW next to SOOC in camera JPEG1. On this I dare to see film look and like film grain. Print on the right is from the film scan.

 

[sevres_babylone]

I like your pictures. Do you mean that you colorize them in PS after processing in Silver Efex?

Thank you. No, I don't colorize them afterwards. Also, I think I may have confused people when I said I generally used the soft light mode "and" luminosity mode. I meant "or."

After applying the silver efex filter, don't flatten the file.
Change the blending mode from "normal" to another mode.
I have really only had success with "soft light" or "luminosity." I've tried "hard light" but haven't liked the look.
After changing the blending mode, play around with the opacity slider until it looks the way you want it to look.
I may sometimes you the "eraser" brush to lessen the effect on certain parts.

If I am then going to apply an adjustment layer, like curves, afterwards, I would flatten the image first so the adjustment isn't just applied to the silver efex layer.

 

[Freakscene]

MM Hexanon 50/2. Processed in Silver Efex Pro with a custom setting to match the curve and print colour of Plus-X printed on Kodak Medallist developed in Selectol (not Selectol Soft).

Simple in Silver Efex, extremely tedious every other way I tried.

Marty

 

[rybolt]

Many interesting comments here. My feeling is that until we reach the point where we're all sitting around a table and passing prints to look at the subtleties in any software are immaterial.
I use SEFX regularly but lately I've found myself using LR CC with Thomas Fitzgerald's Monolux and Monolith presets as a starting point. These presets work with the LR Develop module so the controls are very good.

[/url]PRT20310 by Paul Rybolt, on Flickr[/IMG]