The Real Silver Effex Thread and Gallery is now online.

[simonclivehughes]

Here are a few from this weekend from our trip over to visit family on Vancouver Island.

Yellow Peppers


Marzipan


Dandelion Head


Shot handheld with an E-PL1 with CV 75mm f2.5 lens (plus Raynox M250 on the last shot). RAW files processed in SEP using custom presets.

(I tend to find a preset that's close and then rework it to give me what I'm looking for, and then save that for further use. This often involves choosing a specific film type and adding a vignette. I also do quite a bit of localized dodge & burn with Control Points, although not for these particular images.)

Cheers,

[BillN]

[Armanius]

That's very cool Bill! Is that something like an IR effect?

[BillN]

That's very cool Bill! Is that something like an IR effect?

Thanks - but just noticed I used "Colour Efex Pro" - mainly "Solarization"

[Streetshooter]

Simon, Bill....
Just great looking...a visual treat!

[ajramirez]

Simon,

These are all fantastic!

Bill,

Yours is begging to be printed really large. Fantastic job!

Regards,

Antonio

[BBW]

Agreed, I really like them all!

[Luckypenguin]

I was a bit skeptical about plugin software...until I tried the Nik stuff for the first time. Trouble is I have a bad habit of forgetting exactly what filter I used for a particular image, and it is confused further by the way you can take an image through multiple filters in Silver Efex and Color Efex.

I think this one was using one of the dynamic filters, and was a conversion of an old Canon 350D jpeg.






One thing to note with the high contrast Silver Efex filters that draw out detail is that they are EXTREMELY unforgiving of sensor dust. This shot was taken back in late 2008, which was long before I had any of the LensPen products for cleaning lens and sensors, and was shot at f/13 on a 20mm lens which is recipe for dust bunnies if ever there was one. The dust spots don't show up too badly on the original at this scale, and don't even come close to showing the ones that were drawn out by applying the filter. This was a major spot heal and clone stamp exercise.

P.S. Don, you've given one too many f's in the thread title.

[LisaO]

Amin, the portrait of your son in B&W is striking. Simply lovely.

[BBW]

My first try with Silver Efex Pro 2's selective color control points.