27October2009
Nik Software Silver Efex Pro Black and White Conversion Photoshop Plug-In Review
Posted by Rob_Nunn under: reviews; software.
I love looking at black and white photographs, I love converting my colour shots to black and white, and since downloading this piece of software, I love Nik’s Silver Efex Pro to do just that. In fact, I’ll go a bit further. This is the most exciting piece of software I’ve used since I produced my first tone-mapped HDR’s with Photomatix, it’s that good.
Silver Efex Pro is a Plug-In, that is to say that it’s a piece of software that works from within Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Lightroom 2, Apple’s Aperture 2, or any other Photo Editing software that is compatible with Adobe’s plug-in filters. If you haven’t got any of the above, I’d recommend you start off with Adobe Photoshop Elements or Lightroom 2, depending on your budget and needs, then you’d be good to go with Silver Efex Pro.
Let’s have a look at how Silver Efex Pro works, and what you can do!
First up, remember that this is a Plug-In, so once you’ve installed it, you start off with your normal Digital Workflow – if you shoot in RAW, fire up Adobe Camera RAW, make your usual adjustments, then open the image in Photoshop / Elements / Lightroom 2 or your compatible image-editing software. You’ll want to straighten and crop your photo before you start up Silver Efex Pro. When you’re ready, you’ll find the plug-in through “Filter”, “Nik Software”, then “Silver Efex Pro”, and you’ll see this:
Silver Efex Pro has applied a neutral black and white conversion to our image, and that’s what you can see in the middle. On the left are small previews of the presets that can be applied without having to customise the sliders – think of them as a menu of possibilities. You could choose one and be done, or alter it to your tastes. Possible starting (or finishing!) points include simulated High Contrast Red, Orange or Yellow Filters, Holga, Pinhole, Infra-red and a whole host of others. Even more of the presets can be downloaded for free, from Nik’s website.
High Contrast Red Style:
Cyanotype:
Antique Plate II:
Pinhole:
The presets, or Custom Styles, on the left are great, and you could stop right there, they make our photo’s look so good. However Silver Efex Pro is all about control and flexibility, so it’s the right side of the screen we’re going to look at in detail next. These are the sliders and settings that allow you to come up with a unique black and white conversion suited to every image. You’ve got a massive amount of control and variation. Let’s start at the top.
The first two sliders, brightness and contrast, you’ll be familiar with already if you’ve used any sort of photo-editing software. A good start is to increase the brightness and contrast a little, then try the simulated filters near the bottom of the screen. (The coloured circles).
(Coloured filters are used in front of the camera lens when shooting with Black and White Film to alter the tone of a photograph. Red and orange are the most popular to darken blue skys.)
I like to try all the filters one at a time to see which one best suits the shot. Then if I think I need a little more detail in the shadows, or if I need to bring out some detail in the highlights (usually in the sky) I’ll take those sliders to the right a bit, then maybe go back and increase the contrast some more. These shadow and highlight recovery sliders are incredibly powerful – just like the similar tool in the full version of Photoshop.
You’ll see the “Add Control Point” button. This allows you to define areas of your image and change them independently of the rest of the photo, sort of like using a mask in Photoshop. You just click on the part of your photograph you want to change, expand the area of influence (a circle), then you can change the brightness, contrast and structure:
Nik call this “U Point Technology”, and like any great feature, at heart it’s very simple. Do your global adjustments, and if there’s areas such as faces, foreground interest or details that you want to highlight (or darken) just add a control point. Brilliant. (oh, and you can have as many control points as you need).
“Wait a minute!”, I can sense you thinking, “You’ve missed one of the sliders out! What about the Structure Slider?”
Well, the guys and girls at Nik software made a mistake with this slider. They shouldn’t have called it the “Structure” Slider. Oh no. It should be called “The Bloody Magic Slider That’ll Transform Your Photos In a Wonderful Way”. This one setting is worth the price of admission alone. I don’t know what it’s really doing, but I think it’s improving local contrast in a similar way to tone-mapping when you create HDR’s. It adds clarity and sharpness too, without Halo’s or other nastiness. The Structure Slider is magical!
Basic Conversion, No Structure (Magic!) Added:
Basic Conversion, 90% Structure (Magic!) Added:
When we’re converting to black and white, one of the reasons is because we love the look of b & w film. Well, Silver Efex Pro lets you simulate the look of famous b & w films, the look, grain and colour response, all with a couple of clicks:
Ilford Pan F Plus 50:
Kodak BW 400CN Pro:
Just as with the style presets, we can customise the details ourselves. We can adjust the level and look of the grain:
We can adjust the colour sensitivity of the simulated film (if you know what this means this will be a big deal!):
And we can adjust the tone curve of the film (a bit like doing a curves adjustment in Photoshop):
Now we’re into one of my favourite tools, the Toning Feature. You should be used to this by now, Nik Silver Efex Pro offers a choice of presets, or we can delve in for a fully customisable look:
Presets:
Full access settings:
Here’s some examples of what you can do:
Split Tone (2).
Copper Tone.
Selenium.
Sepia.
No black and white enthusiast can resist the odd vignette, and Silver Efex delivers the goods here, with expert control and a realistic look. You can choose the type and size of the vignette, its strength and shape. Here’s the controls:
Here’s simple versions of what you can do:
Dark Vignette.
Light Vignette.
This plug-in doesn’t stop there. Instead of (or as well as) a Vignette, we can burn the edges, with complete control over size, strength and the transition into the image:
And here’s a simple “burnt edges” treatment:
Conclusion
I hope I haven’t made it seem that Nik Silver Efex Pro is complicated to use by showing you all the controls. With every choice the software gives you a quick preset to use, or you can fully customise the look – so you can dive it and do a b&w conversion in seconds, or spend hours fine-tuning the settings.
The software is almost perfect. It could do with a rotate and crop option within the plug-in, Nik should release a stand-alone version that works outside of Photoshop, and if they created an Iphone app they’d be minted. I’d also like to see the ability to click on a point in the image, then drag to the right or left to darken or lighten that tone, like you can in Photoshops Black and White Adjustment Layer.
Silver Efex Pro is Smart-Object compatible, which means that in Photoshop you can convert the photo you want to work on to a Smart Object, Silver Efex will recognise this, and when you apply the filter you can then go back and make changes to the settings without having to start again from scratch.
Silver Efex Pro is the best Black and White / Mono converter I have used – it is a pleasure to open up images with the plug-in and see where the options can take me. It is a whole programme in itself, and I discover new things every time I use it. Highly recommended for any lover of black and white and mono images.
But don’t take my word for it, head on over to Nik’s website and download the free trial.
Cheers, Rob.
3September2009
Topaz Adjust Review- Single Exposure HDR’s And Much, Much, More
Posted by Rob_Nunn under: reviews; software.
Take a look at these:
Both are single exposure photographs edited in the Photoshop / Elements / Paintshop Pro Plug-In “Topaz Adjust”, created by the great people over at Topaz Labs.
Topaz Adjust is a Plug-In, that is to say that it’s a piece of software that works inside your main photo-editing program, whether that be the full Photoshop, Photoshop Elements or any other software that is compatible with Photoshop plug-ins. You fire up Photoshop, open your image, then go to the filters menu and choose Topaz Adjust. You’re then whisked into a separate programme where you make your edits, then when you’re done you’re returned to Photoshop to finish your work. Easy.
But what does Topaz Adjust do? That’s a tricky question, because it does so much. It enhances the detail in your photo’s, makes them more dynamic, and gives you a level of control that’s outstanding. To see if you might be interested in the type of images Topaz Adjust can help you create, why not check out this slide show of Flickr images tagged Topaz Adjust.
Lots of the photographs have a HDR look – which really means they’re full of detail, in the shadows and the high-lights. The beauty of Topaz Adjust is that you can get this look with single exposures – so you don’t have to worry about your subject or background moving between shots, which usually happens with multiple exposures.
Let’s dive in and look at how easy is to use the software. I’ve loaded an image into Photoshop, and fired up Topaz Adjust:
Topaz Adjust ships with 22 presets which you can use as a starting point for your editing. Just scroll through the different options, and by clicking on the previews on the left your main image in the middle is changed too. Click on “View Original” image to check the difference it makes.
The presets vary from simple and subtle colour pops and contrast or detail enhancement, right through to “Alien Sky” extreme HDR conversions and Psychedelic treatments. You can just choose one of these as a starting point, and then work through the tabs, nudging the sliders as you go, experimenting with the changes each one makes. You can be as dramatic or naturalistic as you like – you have total control over the final look.
I won’t go into details about how each tab works in this review, and in fact the controls are so intuitive that you’ll pick it up extremely quickly anyway. I particularly applaud the inclusion of Noise Reduction in the final tab, and again you have control over how the Plug-In removes the noise – how much and over what threshold.
Topaz Adjust opens up a whole new world of photo manipulation that is simple, quick, and easy to use. You don’t need to be a Photoshop Expert to create dynamic and striking images – in fact, you should go over to the Topaz Labs site and download the free, 30 day trial and have a play. If you like it (and I’m sure you will), the price for the full version is a bargain US$49.99.
It’s brilliant that we now have a tool that can help us create intricately detailed HDR-like shots, without the need for multiple exposures.
Topaz Adjust – highly recommended!
Thanks, Rob.
UPDATE: If you do decide to buy Topaz Adjust, enter the coupon code “robnunnphoto” (no quote-marks) for a 10% discount. This is a limited time offer, so use it quick!
23July2009
Improve HDR’s By Merging Different Versions In Photoshop Using Masks And Auto-Align Layers
Posted by Rob_Nunn under: tutorials.
Sometimes when you’re creating HDR images, whether in Photomatix, Photoshop, or other software, you end up with parts of the photograph that just aren’t right. Normally it’s something to do with movement – either in the camera, or in your scene. It could be people moving, plants waving in the wind or waves on a sea.
One way you can correct this is by using Photoshop (in this tutorial CS3) to align different versions of the same scene, then easily use masks to reveal (or hide) the parts of the scene that you want to use (or correct).
In the above photo, I’ve used three images. Two tone-mapped HDR’s (processed differently in Photomatix), and one of the original exposures. Lets see why.
In my first HDR, tone mapped in Photomatix, I liked the sky and greenery on the beach, but the boundary between land and sea had become blurred (I’ve zoomed in a little to try to show this):
I changed the settings in Photomatix, and although the join between land and sea was better, the people, and greenery, were worse. (Again, I’ve zoomed in a little):
So, I know that I’ve got something OK here, but it’s spread across two images, and that I’ll been needing one of the original images to make the people to look ok. Time for Photoshop!
I open all three images in Photoshop, then copy them all into the same document, “Edit”, “Select All”, “Copy”, then “Paste”, so they’re stacked above each over in layers:
The next bit is where we get Photoshop to line up the layers. It’s a bit tricky to see in the image, but first control-click each layer in the layers pallet so they’re all selected, then go over to “Edit”, “Auto-Align Layers”, choose “Auto”, then see what happens.
What Adobe Photoshop CS3 has done is to examine the contents of the different layers, then shuffle them about a bit so they line up almost perfectly. If you click on the eye’s on the layer’s palette to turn each layer on or off, you should be able to see how well they match up. Brilliant!
Next up I’m going to work on the people in the bottom right-hand corner. In my image, the top layer in the stack is a “normal” exposure, and it’s the only one where the walking couple look ok.
I’m going to click on the top layer in the layer palette, so Photoshop knows that’s the one I want to work on. Then I’m going to click on the little square with a circle in it (at the bottom of the layers palette) to add a mask:
Masks are an incredibly useful tool in photoshop. They allow you to hide, or show, different areas of an image by simply painting on the mask with the brush tool. If we started to paint in black on the mask, parts of the photo would disappear, and the image on the lower layer would show through. However, with this shot, all I want to do is have the people from this top layer, so instead of painting out everything else apart from the people, we actually do the reverse!
If I click on the layer mask in the layers palette, then press ctrl-I on the keyboard, the mask will invert and turn to black, hiding the layer, revealing the photo underneath. I now select the brush tool from the tools palette, and make sure my foreground colour is white.
I zoom in (ctrl and +), then carefully start painting on the dodgy people, and you’ll see the “good” people from the top image start to appear. If I make a mistake, I’ll just change my brush to white and paint over the mistake:
I’m happy with the people, but the transition between the land and sea is still all blurred:
So what I’ll do this time is click on the middle layer to select it, then click the mask icon at the bottom on the layers palette.
I’ll leave the mask white, select the brush tool, make sure my colour is black, zoom in, then start painting along the dodgy boundary:
Once the sea / land boundary is sorted, the image is ready for final editing – curves / levels / b&w etc – it can be helpful to click in the top right of the layers palette (not the cross!) and “flatten image”.
We’ve used Photoshops superb “Auto-Align Layers” and masks tools to fix a HDR, but you can use it for all sorts of other images. You could use your auto-bracketed shots to create your own HDR, or how about this – use it to make people or moving objects disappear from a scene – I’ll let you think about that one.
Here’s a black and white version of the HDR:
Cheers, Rob.
4July2009
Using The Masks Feature In Noise Ninja
Posted by Rob_Nunn under: tutorials.
Noise Ninja, the noise reduction software and plug-in for Photoshop and Elements, is great, but an often over-looked feature is it’s ability to apply a mask to the noise filter. You may want to prevent NN from touching parts of the image to avoid loosing texture and detail.
It’s incredibly easy to do, so if you’re using, or thinking about using, Noise Ninja, have a practice and pretty soon you’ll become more selective on the areas of your photographs that you’ll let Noise Ninja filter for noise.
To start off, load an image into Photoshop or Elements, then fire up Noise Ninja, “Filter”, “Picturecode”, “Noise Ninja”.
Before we start masking, it may help to increase the size of the preview frame – in NN, “Noise Ninja”, “Preferences” then click the “Other” tab, and choose a bigger preview Window size.
Now click the “Noise Brush” tab, and take a look at the buttons:
What we’re going to be doing is painting a mask in the preview pane, in effect stopping NN from changing the pixels behind the mask. You can change the size and hardness of your brush, look at the original pixels, see the mask, erase parts of your mask, or “Erase Mask” and start again.
In my image, I don’t want NN to work on the road, which is naturally “Noisy”, so I choose a large brush and simply paint over the road in the photograph. Easy.
Once you’re done, just click OK, the Noise Filter will be applied (as will your mask) and you’ll be sent back to Photoshop to finish your editing.
Have a play, experiment, and learn to get more out of Noise Ninja!
Cheers, Rob.
PS You could of course get a similar effect by duplicating your image on a different layer, applying NN to one of the layers, adding a layer mask, and then by “painting in / out” the NN filter.
17June2009
Adding Your Copyright, Contact And Website Details To Your Photographs Using Photoshop Or Adobe Bridge
Posted by Rob_Nunn under: tutorials.
There’s two ways to look at this one. You could say that by adding our copyright details to our photo’s we’re protecting them from unauthorised use on the web, but to be honest, if some-one’s going to “borrow” one of your photo’s from Flickr, I don’t think it’s going to make much difference.
What I do think though, is that it’s good to have your contact details embedded into your shots, so if someone came across one of your photos, and wanted to find out more or email you, the info is all there. In other words, it’s good practice and should be part of your digital work-flow. (And it’s easy-peasy!)
In these examples I’m going to be using Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Bridge. It might be slightly different in earlier / later versions, but you should get the general technique.
Let’s start with Photoshop. Simply work on your image, and before saving it, we’ll add our info to the exif data that is embedded into the photograph.
Just click on “File”, then in the drop-down menu, click on “File Info”:
Now we can add the info. The two main headings are “Description” and “IPTC Contact”. Click on the Tabs and add your details. Start by simply adding the copyright and your contact details, don’t add specifics about the photograph, because first we want to save a general template with this info, so we don’t have to type it in for every photo:
Once you’ve put in your data, click on the little arrow in the top right-hand corner. We can now save the template, and in future, simply apply that template to save time:
Now we can add specifics about this photo, perhaps title, description and keywords. Then we can save it, and that info will appear in Flickr when we upload it, or if we right-click “properties” and “advanced” in file browsers.
As you’ve seen, this is an easy and quick routine, but you do have to make sure you remember to do it for every photograph – wouldn’t it be great if you could automatically add this info to your photo’s as you copied them from your camera or card to your PC? Well, there is a way, and we do it with Adobe Bridge.
You can use Bridge to add exif data to your images already on your PC, but I’m going to show you how to add it as you’re copying your photo’s to your computer. If you start to use Bridge to always import your photo’s, this technique will become second nature, and you won’t ever forget to add your contact and copyright information.
(Make sure you’ve tried the above Photoshop method first, and saved a metadata template with your copyright and contact details.)
Fire up Bridge, connect your camera, click “File” and “Get Photo’s From Camera”:
In the dialogue box that appears, choose your camera or card from the “Get Photo’s From” box, tick the images you want, then select your previously saved template in the “Template To Use” drop-down box:
Now just click “Get Photo’s” and Adobe Bridge will import your shots, adding your data as it copies them to your pc. Easy!
So now, using this method, all of your imported images will have your basic copyright and contact details embedded into them.
If you want a more exhaustive guide to Adobe Bridge, with details about how to add keywords to photo’s, or batches of photo’s, check out Epic Edits Complete Guide To Adobe Bridge.
I hope you’ve found this article helpful,
Cheers, Rob.
