Daily Photograph, December 8
© Brad Mangas
Another black and white work up of an image using the Nik Silver Efex Pro plugin. Photoshop offers it’s own black and white conversion which many times works out very well and in some cases the same effect can be achieved as with the Nik plugin, but in many cases this could take much more time and experimentation, Silver Efex just seems to do a very good job and does it usually with a simple click of the mouse. I used a preset called “wet rock” which I thought was fitting and produced an effect I liked. This image didn’t have much color to it to begin with, the oak leaf was a light grayish brown shade with some color in the rock background. I liked how the leaf had varying shades of tone. This was taken on one of my many hikes along Shunga Creek close to home. I always love exploring the creek areas and I have written how winter time seems to be the best time of year to visit. Looks like I’m going to have to venture back to the creek and do some more exploring very soon.
I like Silver Efex Pro as well, but at times I find it hard to decide which B&W tool I am going to use – Lightroom, SFP, or Photoshop! I like the details that pop out of this.
This is very nice, Brad. I’ve seen other examples of Silver Effects Pro, maybe I should bite the bullet and try it myself.
Thanks Ken, I put off buying the Nik software for while myself and it is pricey. I had an image awhile back that I worked up with the trial version and I loved how it turned out, I tried to duplicate it with just the Photoshop conversion and after lots of time never could get it to look the same so that kind of sold me on it. I think I talked myself in to it as my own Christmas present. The only problem is it’s just one of many on my list!