Viveza and Silver Efex Pro ?

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Wouter

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Just wondering if anybody uses this software from niksoftware. Does it deliver what it promises ? It's not cheap ...
 
I havn't used Viveza, but I use SilverEfexPro all the time - it's made converting digital files to B&W... 'enjoyable' :)

You can download a free trial so I recommend you download it and see if it is for you.
 
I use Silver efex Pro and really like it. Very easy to use, very easy to customize and very good default black-n-white conversions. Works flawlessly with Photoshop which is my primary software.
 
Silver Efex Pro has very good tools for local dodging and burning, as well as overall control for shadows and highlights. The film emulations also let you experiment with different looks for the same photo. Recommended.

Kirk
 
Tried them both and love them. Viveza takes a bit of getting used to though. But once you do its worth its weight in gold. You can select particular pixels to modify simply by clicking on them. The software looks for similar ones inside the circle that surrounds the point where you click. You can then lighten, darken increase or lower saturation, change contrast etc. The alternative might be to spend hours making complex masks to select the bits you want to modify individually. Which is what I do now as I have only used the trial version. Would love it though - only put off by the high price.While Silver Efex Pro is very elegant and is fun to use, (eg the ability to replicate the tonal qualities of various BW film stocks) I do not miss it as much as there are many alternative means of converting to black and white that produce nice results.
 
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I use Silver Efex Pro and like it. Like others have said, download the trial. It's a good trial, as it is not crippled like other demo software sometimes is. The best thing is to wait until you know you will have a lot of time during the trial period to test it out thoroughly, and see if it will work for you.
 
I use both as plug-ins for Photoshop CS3. Both are excellent: quick to use, intuitive interface. The film simulations in SilverEfex don't really look like the 'real' thing!
 
I use Silver Efex Pro via Aperture 2 on all of my black and whites. Everything in black and white in the first six or seven pages of my flickr page (link in sig) was converted with silver efex pro. The filters are my favorite feature.
 
silver effex is fantastic. I never really "got" viveza - it seems rather basic for what it claims to do. The color efex one is really really good though - fantastic color film simulations that are very very accurate.
 
I use Silver EfeX Pro with Aperture and like it very much. I like film better, but when shooting digital, Silver Efex is great. I particularly like the way it simulates film grain, also the brightness, contrast and structure sliders, the filters, the ability to use control points - wait, I said I particularly like and then proceeded to catalog most of its features. Maybe I should just say I like it very much!
 
Not that you need another voice, but silver efex is a program I absolutely love. It's film emulators are quite nice. They may not look exactly like the real thing, but they lend a nice quality to the images.
If you look at my Flickr photo stream, most of the recent B&W conversions were done with the program.
 
Merkin said:
I use Silver Efex Pro via Aperture 2 on all of my black and whites. Everything in black and white in the first six or seven pages of my flickr page (link in sig) was converted with silver efex pro. The filters are my favorite feature.
Click to expand...

Interesting rework on "Megan, CW, and Liam" is that PP in silver efex, or a super-soft lens?
alberti
 
Silver Efex is very good. Viveza as well, although I have a question: can you adjust the range of pixels inside the circle? Like, control the degree to which it will look for matching/similar pixels to the selected pixel?
 
More of the same from me. I bought a 'bundle' of Nix sw as plug ins to Apple Aperture. I use Silver Efex the most.
 
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