Image Editing - Part 14

Black & White, using Silver Efex Pro 2

- Rohinton Mehta

Black & White photography has a charm of its own. While some people prefer to photograph in colour, others feel that black & white is very romantic. This write-up is not meant to convince you towards B&W; if you prefer colour, then you prefer colour! That’s it! B&W is a creative choice and only you can decide what you like. This write-up shows you one possible way to convert your colour images to black & white.

We have talked about B&W in our earlier issues. Part 14 is dedicated to using a free and very easy-to-use software called Silver Efex Pro 2. The software is from Nik Software, now owned by DXO (earlier owned by Google). Please keep in mind that this is not a review of the software; it provides a general view of how to use the software. You can use the app through Filter in Photoshop.

Step one is to download the software from https://nikcollection.dxo.com/ You will not be able to download only the Silver Efex Pro 2 software; you will have to download the entire collection that includes Analog Efex Pro 2, Color Efex pro 4, Dfine 2, HDR Efex Pro 2, Sharpner Pro 3 (Raw Presharpner and Output Sharpener), Silver Efex Pro 2 and Viveza 2. This shouldn’t matter as the total package size is approximately 429MB and it is free!