Nik Silver Efex Pro Review

Can anyone tell me how they developed this plug-in? Did they hold a seance and contact Ansel Adams and Edward Weston? I don't know. I do know that Nik Silver Efex Pro is as good as gold. Even somebody like me can achieve fantastic results in just seconds. You may begin to smell the chemicals after looking at your own results.


Nik Silver Efex Pro has an easy to use interface with presets on the left and the main controls on the right. You can choose from many popular film stocks, apply color filters, adjust the amount of grain and burn the edges with precision. Then you can save it as your own preset if you like. You can also use it as a smart filter in PhotoShop. This allows you to go back to the photos current setting and tweak it a bit, rather than starting all over from scratch.


You'll find that the default presets are well thought out. As with many of the parameters you just roll over the setting and it temporally updates your photo. Click on it and the settings will lock in. High Structure works great on landscapes. It cranks up the detail and contrast. There's also pull and push settings that mimic film processing. I counted 26 presets in all. On the photo above of Monument Valley I used presets "Full Spectrum Inverse" on the bottom half and "High Structure" on the top half. The very top was a little too dark so I added a control point and brought up the brightness about ten percent. Control points function like a mask, but they're easier to make and adjust. You can click on and off each parameter to see it's effect.

It's fun coming up with your own look. For the Cally Lily I liked their "Antique Plate II" and removed the grain and bumped up the brightness a bit. For the Sand Dunes below I cranked up the Structure slider. For me Nik Silver Efex Pro is a must have plug-in.

Nik has many online video tutorials and they offer a 15 day free trial. You can't ask for more.

Check out my Fine Art Black and White Gallery using Nik Silver Efex Pro.

You can download a 15 day Trial and see the online video tutorials for Nik Silver Efex Pro here.

Yosemite Stock Photo Gallery

I've added a Yosemite Stock Photo Gallery. It's a collection from the past. I was inspired after losing a one terabyte drive with all my photos on it. I had about eighty percent backed up, but that's not one hundred percent now is it. After getting a couple of outrageous estimates I found Eco Data Recovery. John Marshall gave me a quote that was half of what the others offered. They did a great job and I'm very grateful.

After getting the drive back I started to organize the photos and reprocess some of the files in Lightroom. Some of the photos were scans of 35mm Slides, others were from my 6 mp Rebel and most were from my 1Ds Mark III. I found that Lightroom improved them all. For a few I used a free Lightroom preset from Heather Green. It's called "Warm and Lighten." Photos taken in higher elevations tend to have more blue and can look harsh. Heather's preset was just the ticket.


I found that I had ignored many of the files and was pleasantly surprised by some. I can see plenty of room for improvement too. I can't wait to go again and try out some new ideas. For more info check out my previous post "Photographing Yosemite in Winter".



For more on Yosemite Photos see my Yosemite Stock Photo Gallery , Yosemite Winter Photo Gallery. and Yosemite Stock Photos - Fall Gallery

Take a look at Heather Green's Lightroom Presets

Great books to check out and take along are Andrew Hudson's PhotoSecrets Yosemiteor PhotoSecrets San Francisco & Northern California: The Best Sights and How to Photograph Them. The Yosemite Section is included in the San Francisco book.

Michael Frye's The Photographer's Guide to Yosemite is terrific as well.

Photos: The top photo is Yosemite Valley from Tunnel View, 2nd photo is Yosemite Falls, 3rd is Half Dome from the valley floor, 4th is Half Dome from Glacier Point, and the last photo is the shortest fall in the park Fern Springs (near Pohono Bridge).