As you adjust your image, Photoshop remains running in the background. This one, from Finnish photographer Mikko Reinikainen, is striking as a color photo, but its vintage style makes it a good candidate for the black-and-white treatment.** Go to Filter > Nik Software > Silver Efex Pro 2 to start working in the plug-in**. Open the image that you want to convert in Photoshop. You will quickly see how different (and more efficient) it is to make a b&w conversion in this plug-in compared with using one of Photoshop’s tools. Here’s an intro to working with Silver Efex that will show you how and when to use some of its unusual features.
In RAW workflow programs such as Aperture or Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Silver Efex can bring your converted file back in as a TIFF. In Photoshop, after you’ve made your adjustments, Silver Efex closes and can output your b&w conversion to a new layer. And if you’ve never used a plug-in before, the way it works can be confusing at first.Ī plug-in acts as a program within a program, so to work with Silver Efex, you need to open it within one of its supported applications, such as Adobe Photoshop or Apple Aperture. It is simply the fastest way we know to create really beautiful black-and-white photographs from color image files.īut while it’s easy to make conversions once you get the hang of the software, Silver Efex’s tool names and selective adjustment controls aren’t necessarily intuitive to a new user. If you read our monthly Fix It Fast department you know how much we love Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2 plug-in. Photo: Mikko Reinikainen, mikkoreinikainen.fi