Smart Photography 201707

Picture 4: Image before it was converted to monochrome. Picture 5: After conversion by Silver Efex Pro 2.

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processing is now within the reach of many at an affordable price. All you need is

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inkjet printing not only breathed life into monochrome photography but also helped

it to become immensely popular. You will really be surprised to see how easy it is to

produce beautiful monochrome images with rich and wide range of tones. Try it and

you will not be disappointed.

CONCLUSION

All text, diagrams and images © Ashok Kandimalla

Some important points:

Here are a few points that

you should pay attention

to when you use this soft-

ware.

• While this is not a rule, all images
  are not suitable for monochrome
  conversion. Images which have
  textures, patterns, shapes and high
  contrast are better suited for this
  purpose.


• Portraits especially of people
  with weathered skin are eminently
  suitable for monochrome
  conversion.


• Process the image in colour as you
  would normally before you start
  conversion.


• Don’t start with an image that has
  been converted into monochrome
  in-camera.


• Please note that unlike Lightroom
  which keeps record of the entire
  history of edits, Silver Efex Pro 2
  does not store the editing history.
  So, if you need to apply the same
  editing to a number of images, store
  the settings as a new preset and then
  apply this preset.


• At the end of all command groups
  there is a reverse arrow symbol
  which when clicked will reset (undo)
  all the operations of that group.


• All the changes you make are
  reversible till you click on Save. So,
  feel free to experiment with various
  commands available.

Finishing Adjustments: This group of

commands (Picture 2�11) help you to

apply features like toning, vignetting,

borders, etc.

Cancel and Save: After you have done,

you can click on Save (Picture 2�12)

to create a Tiff file in monochrome (as

already explained). This file will be

added to your library and you will be

returned to Lightroom. If you want, you

can even further process this image in

the Develop module but generally that

will not be needed.

You can also abort all the operations

by clicking on Cancel (Picture 2�12).

However, even now a Tiff file will be

created and added to your library though

this will not be a monochrome version.

You can delete this if you want.

Example: Picture 4 shows an image

which was processed in Lightroom first

as a colour image. At this stage, it was

converted into a monochrome image

through Silver Efex Pro 2 using the

Preset ‘#023 Wet Rocks’. This preset

photography as it is the tones that are

more important. Green filters brighten

foliage and also soften skin tones. Hence,

they are used in portraiture.

Note that the colour filters do not give

any colour or even a colour tint to a

monochrome image!

Silver Efex Pro 2 offers red, orange,

yellow, green and blue filters. You can

apply them by just clicking on the dots

(Picture 2�9) bearing the same colour.

Clicking on the first dot will remove the

filter.

Film Types: This (Picture 2�10) is

meant for simulation of well known

films of yesteryears and is meant for

film aficionados. Silver Efex Pro 2 offers

presets for simulating several films like

the legendary Kodak Tri-X. When you

choose the film, the image is modified

to reflect the characteristics (grain,

contrast, etc.) of that film. Try it for fun if

not for anything else and see how output

from these famous films used to look.

You can fine-tune the look too.

gives very high contrast. In addition, I

tweaked the Brightness, Contrast and

Structure sliders to 19%, 40% and 69%

respectively. No other adjustments were

made in Silver Efex Pro 2. The resulting

image is shown in Picture 5.|SP

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Smart PhotographyJuly 2017