{ Little Sean meets Silver Efex }

Spent the evening with Nik Software’s Silver Efex and Viveza (available here as trials if you’re curious) and came away loving both. Both work as plugins for Photoshop or Aperture, and those familiar with their other programs will be somewhat familiar with their interfaces. Both are relatively easy to use and get into, mostly in part to the easy control points implemented by Nik in their software. One can control selective areas or whole images by just adjusting the radius of a point (via slider) and connected additional sliders for the “adjustments”.

With Viveza, control points are the program. By using multiple control points, users can begin globally on their image and then gradually move into more and more selective areas…in addition, the photoshop version allows you get even more specific by using masks. I found it relatively easy to make fairly quick corrections, and better still, nice enhancements to images that otherwise would have been a little more difficult to achieve. The price for Viveza is pretty steep at $250, but I’d be pretty tempted to get it, but not before….

Silver Efex.

Silver works in ways more familar to Lightroom users, essentially moving up and down a series of sliders giving you all the options needed to create amazing black and white conversions. When Nik says:

Silver Efex Pro includes advanced imaging algorithms to protect against unwanted artifacts, a comprehensive collection of emulated black and white film types, a variable toning selector for adding traditional toning techniques, over 20 one-click preset styles, and a state-of-the-art grain reproduction engine that help produce the highest quality black and white images possible from your color images while providing more freedom to experiment…

…they really aren’t far from the mark. It is by far the best B/W conversion utility that I’ve come across, and an amazing creative tool. Curves, color filters, toning, even paper tone, grain control, vignette, save as presets…and Nik’s control points to boot. The above image was done with very little effort, and the results are quite satisfying.  Silver Efex is $199, which ain’t cheap. Get the trial, but you’re gonna want to purchase this one.