

Used with care it can deliver real detail and subtlety to your B&W images. Still one my favourite means of converting colour images to black and white. Any other photographer interested in doing serious image conversions from color to monochrome should also look seriously at Silver.
Silver Efex Pro 2 Most Useful Presets Copperhead Software So I
This is why it was such a big surprise when I fired up the new version and was met with a screen that I hadn't seen before.As usual I selected my brackets and then hit the “merge dialogue” button (they really need a better name for this), and then was presented with a screen I'd never seen before.You also have a variety of finishing options which are a nice touch. First ImpressionsI'd spent a lot of time in the first version of the software so I had a good handle on how it worked. All of Nik's products work best in the Photoshop environment, and this is a big plus if you use their full suite of tools (I use Silver Efex Pro and Color Efex Pro all the time)This is a review for HDR Efex Pro 2 however, and they've made quite a few leaps in terms of usability and quality of final results. The Nik WorkflowI got my first copy of the original HDR Efex Pro a couple of years ago and it was my first introduction to Nik.As a standalone program I found it lacking, but I LOVED the integration with Photoshop. If I had one issue, it’s the risk of producing ‘halos’ around objects.I've been doing HDR for over three years now, and for at least half of that time there really was only one option for editing professional looking photos: Photomatix Pro.I've used that program and continue to use, it but I was skeptical to say the least when a friend of mine emailed me to say that there just might be some legitimate competition with HDR Efex Pro.With a bit of hesitation I decided to give it a shot and installed the software.It was about 17 seconds before my hesitation turned into excitement.HDR Efex Pro is the real deal, and while it's not necessarily better than Photomatix, it's at the very least on par, and certainly has some advantages.In this article we're going to compare it directly to Photomatix and help you decide once and for all which one is the right choice for your HDR needs.
If you have the funds for both, then I highly recommend them both and I use each for different reasons.Wadi Rum, Jordan Sunrise – edited with HDR Efex Pro 2Later on I'll do a full comparison for the two. It's 1/3 the price of the other options, and is the best entry level option on the market – period.If you want something that's going to support the creative, and perhaps more professional side of you, then the decision gets a little bit more difficult, as both HDR Efex Pro and Photomatix are excellent pieces of software. The goal is to provide the person just jumping into HDR to find the best solution for them.Your big dilemma is going to probably be between three options:So let's try and make this as clear as possible.If you're considering Photomatix Essentials – just go for that one. Compared to Photomatix Pro 4I could go on and on providing you screenshots and examples like many of the other reviews out there, but that's not the purpose of this post.
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