Silver Shadows 2 LR presets and Silver Efex Pro

juggler

juggler

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Simon
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I've been contemplating buying Silver Shadows 2 from http://seimeffects.com/silver/ OR Silver Efex Pro.

I use LR5 - and PS Elements & Elements+ when LR can't do everything I need

I've been playing with a trial of Silver Efex Pro and while I like it I don't like the way it integrates with LightRoom - once the changes are done that's it - and I don't like the fact there's a new UI to learn.

I haven't had much chance to play with the other parts of the Nik Collection but at present they don't seem to add much value to LR.

Many of the SEP presets seem overdone to me, and I'm wary of blindly applying stuff without understanding what it's doing.

Anyone got any experience?
  • Are the other parts of Nik actually any use to a Lightroom user?
  • Does Silver Efex offer anything that a good set of presets can't accomplish?
  • Is Silver Shadows any good?
 
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I use silver effx but don't use their presets, I just made my own that works for my images and tweek it if needed.
 
I personally don't really understand the market for LR presents such as Silver Shadows. Unless I'm missing the point, they are just some pre-defined settings for the various sliders at your disposal that may or may not look good on any given image. They are not 'context' aware, they don't analyse the image in any way, if the preset sets clarity at +20, then +20 clarity is applied.

The Nik stuff on the other hand has the opportunity to do a little more. Again, I don't believe it intelligently analyses the image as such, it does provide additional control above and beyond that provided by Lightroom with its position based local adjustments (the ability to put a control point on the image and locally affect the image properties in that area only) - actually LR5 offers something very similar now if think about it.
 
Furtim said:
Unless I'm missing the point, they are just some pre-defined settings for the various sliders at your disposal that may or may not look good on any given image
I think the utility would be in having a batch of possible starting points available which would help me work faster and possibly end up with a better result than I could on my own.

However.. a handful of freebies is probably sufficient. Having too many presets to choose from just slows things down again.

Furtim said:
The Nik stuff on the other hand has the opportunity to do a little more. Again, I don't believe it intelligently analyses the image as such, it does provide additional control above and beyond that provided by Lightroom with its position based local adjustments (the ability to put a control point on the image and locally affect the image properties in that area only) - actually LR5 offers something very similar now if think about it.
Click to expand...

That makes more sense of SEP - I started using Lightroom at V5 and hadn't realised that local adjustments were new. I suspect that SEP is now of more use to non-lightroom users. I'll keep using it until the trial runs out, as well as try the Silver Shadows freebies, and see where we go from there. If I get chance I'll process the same image with both - and without either - and post here.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Here are three very quick edits of the same shot (which I never intended to be b&w but it's what I had to hand).

I spent the same time on each. There are no local adjustments or gradient filters. One of them is by hand in vanilla Lightroom, one is using a Silver Shadows preset and one is a Silver Efex preset, tweaked. I couldn't work out how to get a similar look in SFEX so I settled for getting the best out of it in the time available. Which do you prefer?

1.


2.


3.
 
#2 or #3 for me. First one looks a bit flat. I think I prefer the second, there's more interest in the water but not 100% sure about the toning.
 
Hi

I agree with David re the flexibility of SilverEfexPro. I don't have LR5 (using LR4) so don't know what LR5 can do but SEP is good to try out different styles. I like to use a preset as a starting point then tweak to get the look I'm after. The control point function is good, simple and effective.

Gavin Seim offers some good presets but I have found these and others on offer are pot luck in that they are a blunt instrument.
 
Thanks, all.
1 is SEP, 2 is a Seim preset and 3 is by hand in LR5.
After another evening spent experimenting I'm finding LR presets more of a hindrance than a help. It takes longer to remember that I've got a preset to warm up and lighten a cool dark portrait than it does to dive straight in and do it myself.

Then I have to remember how each preset works. Some modify all settings, some just a few, so stacking presets is hit and miss at best. I'll probably hang on to a handful which can provide inspiration and dump the rest.

I'm still not decided about SEP but the collection as a whole may be just enough to convince me to buy; some of the filters in Color Efex Pro are nice.
 
Just to update the thread for completeness' sake:

I've played with Topaz B&W effects and DxO labs filmpack too, now.

I'm now finding it much easier to get quick lifelike results with SEP than I can with LR on it's own, where it's easy to come up with some horrible conversions. Topaz was good - and cheap, and had great previews - but I'm getting better results with SEP.

I didn't persist with DxO - I'd got a free copy of the essentials version but it didn't integrate well with LR without paying extra.

There are two serious omissions from SEP unless I'm missing something:
  • the ability to re-edit an image
  • export to jpeg (or whatever) direct from SEP without closing the editor
My workflow often involves inspecting an image on a number of screens or devices and tweaking accordingly and I've found no way to do this other than grabbing a screenshot and pasting into another editor - while leaving SEP open.

I'll be buying SEP anyway, though.
 
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