Beyond Silver eFex Pro2?

[FataMorgana]

Hello.

How is everyone doing?

I am sure this has been covered a 100 million times (?), and having just read a post about opening Silver Effect Pro2 in PS and not Lr, in another thread, I thought would broach the subject of which other b&w converters people rate highly.

Ideally, I am looking for a slightly different look from my X1-d 'Blad & the D800 raw files, typically I import into Lr & save as a DNG, then open Silver Efex Pro2 from there.

If there are existing links that you wish to share, that would also be great.

Thank you in advance.

FM

[budjames]

Try Capture One Pro 21. There is a 30-day free trial. No plugins needed to create great B&W conversion.

I dropped LR for C1P about three years ago. My images and prints have never looked better and with much less fuss and work that LR, particularly with my Fuji-X files.

Regards,
Bud James

Please check out my fine art and travel photography at www.budjames.photography or on Instagram at www.instagram.com/budjamesphoto

[rdonson]

FM.

I use Silver eFex Pro 2 and I'm happy with it.  I usually do some basic processing in LrC first before sending it off to Silver eFex Pro 2 as a DNG.  YMMV.

Lately I've been using Luminar AI as well. 

I do recommend Nik's videos on YouTube to learn more.

https://www.youtube.com/nikphotography/videos

[langier]

Hard to beat SilverEfex for starting points and customizing your tweaks.

A few years ago I tried MacFun (now SkylumP b&w presets as it was designed by the Nik software gurus but found it was simply presets without customization features. Luckily SilverEfexs was bought and made compatible to newer versions of Photoshop.

It's not always perfect at which point I'll convert using the B&W adjustment layer which is what I started to use after learning to channel blend 20 years ago...

However, I'm now importing files into my iPhone to use Snapseed to do an occasional image or two and it does a nice job in conversion, also. The only negative is you are working on jpeg images and finishing as a jpeg. 

[roonsmits]

Recently I bought the “Digistock - Classic Film Bundle for C1” styleset from FilterGrade.
Great filters, esp. for the b/w Tri X400 emulation the work that has been put in replicating the film grain.

If the link to the product is inappropriate, let me know and I'll remove it.
https://filtergrade.com/product/digistock-classic-film-bundle-for-c1/

[BAB]

C1 is the very long way around for me to a finished file suitable for printing even still I’m having to round trip to PS. Going into Silver eFex then into PS for final toning of light along with finishing the file in proof mode has produced stellar results for my prints.
When until 6 months ago I had Fuji files I loved C1, now my Sony files are done in LR and I did same files in C1 , sorry but with the new improvements in LR it’s clearly a winner.
My Hasselblad files remain initially pp by Phocus then to PS and then if needed catalogued in LR…..
C1 on (some) images does a better job ie sony and Fuji but not every one.

[BobShaw]

You should check out Peter Coulson.
Most of his studio work at least is with a blad in black and white.
There is information on a paid subscription here
https://inspire.peter-coulson.com.au
but he has lots of videos on youtube