Silver Efex Pro is a software plug-in from Nik Software that makes it very easy to convert your color images to black and white and it is compatible with a number of different photo editing applications. While to use this product in its basic modes is straight forward and simple, under the surface, it also has a lot of power behind it. The latest version - Silver Efex Pro 2, has brought even more capabilities to this powerful product.
Author and instructor Odell was first introduced to black and white film photography at a young age. At first, the results of creating black and white images in the digital era were disappointing, but as tools became more refined, and better printers were developed, the results have become better than you could produce in a traditional darkroom. One of these tools is Silver Efex Pro 2.
The author's mission with The Photographer's Guide To Silver Efex is to provide you with a clear understanding of the process of creating fine-art monochrome images with Silver Efex Pro. With the release of the new version, he has rewritten from the ground up his book and recorded a set of optional companion videos to go along with the eBook and this has become the The Photographer's Guide To Silver Efex Pro 2 Bundle which consists of the eBook and video training package. The book is 199 pages in length and is broken down into 11 chapters. The video is 144 minutes in length and consists of 4 separate 720p HD QuickTime videos.
The Photographer's Guide To Silver Efex 2 eBook
Chapter 1, "Introduction," is a short passage about the author, a bit of his background with black and white imaging, a brief history of this style of photography, as well as his goals in creating this book. Chapter 2, "Installation and Host Applications," looks at how to install Silver Efex Pro 2 in the various applications - Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Elements, Adobe Lightroom, and Apple Aperture, that it is capable of working with.
Chapter 3, "Getting Around in Silver Efex Pro," examines the various aspects of the Silver Efex Pro interface and how they interact. These include the Preview Window, the Browser Panel, the Adjustment Panel, as well as the other controls that you will work with in the interface to process your images. Chapter 4, "Raw Preprocessing," describes the overall workflow process before going into what exactly you should do with your RAW adjustments. These RAW adjustments are primarily concerned with exposure and tone curve, saturation, sharpening, and retouching your images.
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