When it comes to B&W conversions, there are so many approaches you can take. Silver Efex Pro is without a doubt my favorite tool for B&W conversions, and in this post I’ll show you how to make an advanced black and white conversion in silver efex pro.

This article is an expansion of just part of the video webinar on B&W Fashion Photography. That video is at the end of this post, and while it will cover some of the same info, it also has a lot of other tidbits. In other-words… enjoy both!

Bringing a Mood to Life

When I shot the photo below, I knew I’d covering it to black and white. Her dark hair, pale skin, and vintage dress made me think of a ghostly world. I found an old barn to photograph her against, and set up the shot.

I’ve already done some base retouching on this image in Adobe Lightroom Classic, which you can see in the video below. However there is some additional retouching that I’d like to do in Photoshop, where it’s a little easier to do. That means sending the photo to Photoshop not as a Smart Object, but as a rendered pixel file. This also means I’ll need to be sure to convert it to a Smart Object before going into the filter!

In Photoshop, I quickly removed some stray hairs with the healing brush, then converted to a Smart Object. Right click on the layer, and choose Convert to Smart Object. Now the photo is ready for Silver Efex Pro!

For this process, I chose to start with the preset 050 Dark Selenium, although the final result is nowhere near that. But, it provided an inspiring first step to take. (post continued on DxO's Blog; link below…)

Learn more about DxO Nik Collection

To read the rest of this article, please visit the DxO Blog!