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Some photos just look better in black and white and I think that a lot of folks agree with that. I’ve been using Lightroom, Silver Exex Pro 2 and a Topaz plugin for years and they are all fine at conversions. I’ve had the ON1 suite for about a year and a half and I’m just getting around to using the B&W module and I’m very impressed. With the B&W module, users have a lot of control with the brush system they use throughout their suite and there are many presets which are great on their own and can be also be customized for each photo. ON1 suite is now version 9 and I’m not sure what differences there are in each of the modules but usually these plugins get better with each new version. They do offer a trial version of the entire suite which you should take advantage of before purchasing.
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I’m using 9, and pretty much I’m at the point where I’m using onOne for nearly everything I do, color and B&W.
It’s a fine suite and I’d recommend it to snyone, especially when it goes on sale. I’ve only tried Resize once and the file size was huge but I never got it printed. Still, it remains the most mysterious module of the suite.
These photos look fantastic in black and white. I use Silver Efex myself but, like you say, they are pretty much all excellent at this point.
Thanks, Howard. Silver EFex is a great plugin and probably the only one you need.
Wonderful monochrome conversions, personally I use Nik plugins for Photoshop. I feel I still not get the maximum out of them… Improvements of Nik seems to have an end, that is not bad. Personally I think it is not about the tools but it all depends on how you use them and using means doing it a lot.
Thanks, Vincent. I think the Nik plugins are great. For some reason, Google gave me quite a few of them when they took over the company, but I had been planing to buy SE Pro 2 anyway. Thank you, Google. In my opinion, the Nik presets are the best.
The presets are starting points for customized presets, at least that is how they are for me. I picked an aggressive one and drilled down the controls to match my today’s taste… the “problem” is that yesterday’s taste is not today’s taste and tomorrow’s taste will be different again. So as of today I am re-doing a lot of my work to keep a consistent style… one day I will have too much to adapt… that will be the day to leave alone the old “interpretations” and look only in the future.. Anyway, it all is an interesting experience of developing in a certain direction.
is Silver Effext a plugin for Lightroom? (ima a Photoshop user, I use Florabella actions…)
I really love how you compose these shots with the leaves… I was looking at some leaves yesterday in the park and tried to take a picture like one of yours 🙂 but mine didnt work out as beautiful as this 🙂
Thanks, Alexandra. SE Pro 2 is a stand alone app but can be it can be acceded through Lightroom by right clicking on the photo and using the “Edit in” drop down. I’, not familiar with Florabella but I will definitely check it out.
Great post. I am a longtime Silver Efex Pro 2 fan. Topaz seems like a favorite of many. Beautiful images, too.
Thanks, Jane. SEP2 has been around for years and the current version is well designed. I wonder if there well be a SEP3?
Haven’t seen many updates since Google acquired them.