SILVER EFEX PRO

[davidb]

I note that the programme Silver Efex Pro (v2) seems to be spreading.

I've looked for this version and (at least on Amazon) it's not currently available.

Google are offering the Nik Collection at £95.00 but it includes 'Analog Efex', 'Color Efex", 'Viveca', 'HDR Efex', 'Sharpener' and 'Dfine' as well as 'Silver Efex'. Is this collection a worthwhile purchase? I don't want to buy the whole collection if I can possibly avoid it but if the other Efex are "recommended" by others I might consider it.

Does anyone use other parts of the Collection? Where can I get Silver Efex Pro?

[Mike Farley]

Following the acquisition by Google of Nik, the original developer, SEP is no longer available as a separate product. Instead it comes bundled with all the former Nik applications, but at a substantially lower price than the standalone products used to command.

Google actually bought Nik to acquire Snapseed, which it gives away free of charge, but has at least continued to develop the other former Nik products and added a new one.

[Rose]

If you use LightRom I recommend you try Gavin Seim's plugins - I use several, including his Silver Shadows II http://seimeffects.com/silver

[davidb]

Thanks, Rose.

I've downloaded Seim's SS Sampler Pack and will have a look at them before going the whole hog.

[Rose]

He has some great pre-sets for LR brush tools, they allow for some really precise adjustments

[davidb]

He has some great pre-sets for LR brush tools, they allow for some really precise adjustments

Rose, I must agree - he does seem to have some excellent presets (I especially like the "Easy Infrared") but if I were to purchase all sets it would probably break the bank. It's something I would have to consider for a while and perhaps get a different collection each month thereby spreading the cost. I have, in the meantime, added the site to my Bookmarks/Favourites so it won't be lost.

[davidc]

I'm a convert to SEP2 now as well, once the price came down! While you can achieve the same results manually, it does save time. I quite like Analog Efex Pro 2. Not yet found much of a use for the others but since trying to embrace LR (hard work ) SEP2 at least has helped speed things up.

[Rose]

Sign up for his newsletter - he does early bird offers when he releases a new version and I've bought most of his products this way.

[Mike Farley]

While you can achieve the same results manually, it does save time. I quite like Analog Efex Pro 2. Not yet found much of a use for the others .......

I was speaking to someone the other day (I think it might have been David Lloyd who judged the second DPI competition) and he reckoned he could achieve similar results to SEP2 using Lightroom. While LR seemingly has fewer mono controls, I can see how using all different options available it would be possible to do that. There are also many other ways to convert to mono, such as the Gradient layer technique I described recently in another thread. Some, however, involve using Channels or Lab mode, so require either the full version of Photoshop or another application which supports them. If you want to experiment, GIMP is free and might be all you need.

As David says, what you are paying the money for is convenience, but if you already have LR there is nothing to stop you devising your own presets if you have the time and inclination.

Like David, I have rarely used the other applications in the Google/Nik package, mainly as I use SEP2 for both mono and colour work and prefer it to Color Efex for the latter. There is a lot of overlap with the functions available in Lightroom or Photoshop, although I have heard that the HDR utility is effective.