If you’ve been around here for any length of time you’re well aware that I’m a huge fan of the Nik Software Complete Collection for Photoshop and Lightroom.  Last week Nik released Silver Efex Pro 2, which is a significant update to their already stellar Silver Efex Pro plug-in that gives photographers the ability to create dynamic black and white images with ease.  The great thing about Silver Efex Pro 2 (and all the Nik plug-ins, for that matter) is that it affords tremendous creative control to those of us who aren’t and never will be Adobe Certified Experts.  I like anything that allows me to spend more time outside making images and less time chained to my desk.

A few weeks back I wrote a short pre-review of Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.  In that post, I guessed that I would really dig the new features like Dynamic Brightness, Soft Contrast and selective edits using the enhanced Brightness, Contrast and Structure controls.  Now that I’ve had a few days to experiment with the new features I’m happy to say that my predictions were accurate.  Silver Efex Pro was good.  Silver Efex Pro 2 is phenomenal.  What better way to show you just how awesome it is than to take you on a step by step tour of the development of my latest black and white image?

Click here to download this tutorial as a PDF document.

Last summer in Glacier National Park I made the photograph above of a false hellebore plant glistening with raindrops.  I love the color version but I needed some black and white images for a recent project.  I chose this photo as a good candidate for monochrome conversion because of the rich tones and wonderful patterns.  I won’t go into detail about the processing of the color image since we’re focused on how to convert a color image to black and white.

I use the Nik plug-ins within Lightroom mostly because I like to keep all my files in one place for easier reference.  The black and white image above is a straight conversion with no adjustments or modifications.  I clicked “Edit in Silver Efex Pro 2″ and this is what I got.  It’s a good starting point but it’s flat.  There isn’t much tonal separation and the patterns within each leaf don’t have much pop.  The raindrops aren’t very luminous, either.  Not to worry, we’ll fix some of that with global changes we’ll make in the next step.

There are two types of image editing adjustments: global and local.  Global adjustments affect the image as a whole.  Local adjustments target a specific area of an image.  When processing an image, regardless of whether it’s color or black and white, it is best to start by making global adjustments before moving on to local adjustments.  In the image above, I made the following global adjustments within Silver Efex Pro 2: Brightness = 4%, Contrast = 8% and Structure = 20%.  Brightness and contrast do just what you think they do.  If you’ve never used Nik plug-ins you’re not familiar with Structure.  In short, Structure is a micro-contrast control that emphasizes details within an image.  It can also be used to de-emphasize details but that’s a topic for another tutorial.  As you can see, with just these three simple adjustments the image is already coming together.  Total time spent processing the image, including importing to Lightroom from the CF card, making adjustments to the color image, converting to black and white and making these global adjustments in Silver Efex Pro 2: 5 minutes.

Next, the local adjustments.  In Photoshop, you’d have to make a whole mess of complicated selections and masks to do what I did in a matter of minutes using the new controls in Silver Efex Pro 2.  The image above is almost a finished product.  I made these local adjustments: Using the “Brightness” sub-controls, I increased the “Highlight Brightness” by 20%, the “Midtone Brightness” by 6% and decreased the “Shadow Brightness” by -18%.  This provided greater separation in the tonal values, meaning the highlights and midtones are brighter and the shadows are darker/richer.  Next, under the “Contrast” sub-controls, I increased “Amplify Whites” by 20% and “Amplify Blacks” by 12%.  Next, I increased the “Soft Contrast” by 5%.  So far, all the adjustments I’ve made have impacted tonality.  Next, I’ll work on enhancing details with the “Structure” sub-controls.  I really wanted the raindrops to have more “pop”, for lack of a technical term.  Since they are pretty bright, I was able to achieve this with an 11% increase in “Highlight Structure”.  I also wanted the patterns on each leaf to stand out more, and an increase of 9% to the “Midtone Structure” caused them to do just that.  I experimented with the “Shadow Structure” but in the end, I left it at 0% because I preferred that the shadows be a bit softer.  Finally, I felt the image was a little too warm.  This was super easy to fix using the “Toning” control.  I selected “Blue #7″ and reduced the strength to 8% – just enough to cool things off without going overboard.  Total time working on local adjustments: 3 minutes.

At this point I’m quite satisfied with the image.  I do wish the patterns were more pronounced, though.  It’s time to switch to the “Tonal Contrast” filter in Color Efex Pro 3.0.  I boosted the Highlight, Midtone and Shadow Contrast by 10% each (as opposed to the default 30%, which is almost always much too strong).  The change was subtle, but the patterns are better defined.  Total time in Color Efex Pro 3.0: less than 1 minute.

The final step was to re-size and sharpen the image for web presentation.  For this I used a custom action in Photoshop to resize the image and Nik Sharpener Pro 3.0 set to “Display” and with the following adjustments to sharpen it: “Adaptive Sharpening” = 50% and “Output Sharpening” = 20%.  On a side note, if you have a difficult time making sharp prints you won’t find a more powerful or easier to use way to achieve the perfect level of sharpening every time than Nik Sharpener Pro 3.0.  It takes all the guesswork out of the equation.  Yes, all of it.  Total time spent sharpening the image: less than 1 minute.

Total time invested in the conversion using Nik Silver Efex Pro 2, Color Efex Pro 3.0 and Sharpener Pro 3.0: 10 minutes, from import to final image.

As you can see, I was able to go from a color image to what I think is a pretty amazing black and white image in just 10 minutes.  I’ve done monochrome conversions using selections and masks, and never has it been this quick and easy.  If you’ve never used the Nik Software products it will take some time to familiarize yourself with each plug-in before you’re able to achieve results so quickly.  But, with all the free video tutorials on the Nik Software website and a little experimentation, you’ll be up and running in no time.  Visit the Nik Store to download a free, fully-functioning trial of any or all of their awesome plug-ins.  When you’re ready to buy them, use coupon code “BEDGE” to receive 15% off your purchase at the Nik Store.

Was this step-by-step guide helpful?  I’ll write more of them detailing my workflow using Adobe Lightroom and Nik’s other plug-ins if there is demand for the information.  I encourage you to leave comments and questions below.

It isn’t often that I get all fired up about software.  However, the announcement that Nik Software’s newest Lightroom and Photoshop plug-in, HDR Efex Pro, will be available for public consumption in October has me as giddy as a girl in a prom dress.

I’ve experimented with HDR in the past using what most consider the current industry standard software – HDRSoft’s Photomatix.  Frankly, I wasn’t terribly impressed.  Now, that isn’t to say that stunning images can’t be created using Photomatix, or for that matter, any other HDR software.  To the contrary, just read Royce Howland’s guest post on my blog last week, “Why I Love HDR - Part 1“.  Then pay a visit to his galleries to see some of the most amazing HDR landscape photography I’ve ever seen.  Clearly, Royce has mastered Photomatix.

After failing at HDR I went back to using filters to tame dynamic range.  Then I tried my hand at manual exposure blends.  While I love the control and final result of blending images by hand, I don’t love staring at a computer monitor for hours on end doing the tedious work required of the technique.  So, I’ve gone back to using filters.  Again.

Now, in walks Nik Software and their badass new HDR Efex Pro plug-in.  Okay, fine – I’m being a little sensationalistic.  I can’t really call it badass yet because I’m not one of the chosen few who was given a pre-release copy to run through the wringer.  But, if it’s even half as good as their other plug-ins it will in fact be badass.  Nik Software knows how to make software for people like me, who would much rather be outdoors photographing than sitting at a desk.  I have complete faith that HDR Efex Pro will allow me to create stunning, natural looking images in less time than blending by hand.  Naturally, you’ll all be the first to hear my initial impressions once I’ve had some time to spend under the hood with it.

Nik is currently taking pre-orders  on HDR Efex Pro, slated for release in October.  Anyone who purchases the Nik Complete Collection after July 25, 2010 will receive HDR Efex Pro free upon release.  And, if you don’t feel like paying full price for any of the Nik plug-ins, you can always use coupon code “BEDGE” at checkout to receive a 15% discount on your order from the Nik Store.

Until October, tick-tock…

Are you excited to try out Nik Software HDR Efex Pro?  What HDR software are you using now?  Let us know in the comments section!