In his 1970s song, Kodachrome, Paul Simon sang that “Everything looks worse in black and white“.
So with that in mind, I set about trying to prove him wrong with these 8 black and white photos converted with Nik.
In my last story Snapshots From The Road, I mentioned that I prefer gritty, noir-style black-and-white images, and having just reinstalled On1 Photo RAW and having it run fast and smoothly at last, I first tried some black-and-white conversions in On1.
But guess what? I wasn’t really satisfied with the results and instead turned to what is arguably the best black-and-white conversion app – Nik Silver Efex.
Following is a series of 8 black and white photos converted with Nik Silver Efex which, to my mind at least, prove Paul Simon wrong.
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8 black and white photos converted with Nik Silver Efex
Sand dunes was shot in July 2017 using a Nikon D5100 with the standard 18-55mm kit lens. The range of textures—the grasses, the sand, and the clouds—in the original color photo prompted the black-and-white conversion.
Old teapot is more recent having been taken as one in my series of Snapshots From The Road.
This is a low-light exposure shot at ISO 3200 on my Lumix G95, which is not renowned for handling such high ISOs well. In the conversion to black and white, the noise apparent in the original image becomes non-important.
Another snapshot from the road, and a less gritty finish than the previous photos, Please return jars is finished using more soft sepia effect.
Again the textures caught my eye in Water Reeds in what was at first glance a rather innocuous photograph.
Inside Calley’s Battery is another ISO 3200 picture shot at 1/8 sec and f8 – to try to keep things sharp through the image. A control point was used to give the stampers of the battery a little more prominence.
Another from 2017, Ladder and shadow was just “blah” in colour but the black and white conversion with Nik seemed to breath life into the image with the curved shadow brought into prominence.
This is the first time I have shot an image specifically for black and white.
I did my best to keep the balance between the darkest and lightest areas of the photo in check and also added a bit of grain – because I could – but it certainly hasn’t reached Ansel Adams standards!
The attraction here was the outline of Rock Formations against the skyline.
In converting these images to black and white I started with one of Nik Silver Efex’s wide choice of presets, and made further adjustments to suit my taste.
You can download a free trial of Nik Silver Efex as part of DxO’s Nik Collection 7.