Three different BW Conversions

[407370]

Hi All,

Have a look at the following BW Conversions and let me know which one you prefer or hate:

NIC Silver Efex

Luminar Neo

Affinity HDR / Tonemap

All comments welcome.

CHEERS
JBO

 

[Dave Maciak]

Hi All,

Have a look at the following BW Conversions and let me know which one you prefer or hate:

NIC Silver Efex
View attachment 282658

Luminar Neo
View attachment 282659

Affinity HDR / Tonemap
View attachment 282660

All comments welcome.

CHEERS
JBO

All nice, I'll vote #2 as my choice--

 

[smoke665]

Unfortunately I'm not a fan of any of them.

 

[cgw]

Quite a few online tutorials for the Nik plug-ins, especially Silver Efex which I use regularly. Underrated product IMHO.

 

[Ysarex]

Very nice image! I'd take your 3rd candidate and do some more work on it.

 

[cgw]

Like the image. Simply think Silver Efex could deliver waaay more with some tweaking.
Take a look at my "Lived-in Pontiac" shot in the Automotive forum.

 

[hooray4mo]

To me, each one evokes a different emotion. I like the 3rd one the best, but I couldn't tell you why

 

[Jeff15]

Number two for me ...

 

[407370]

HJ

Like the image. Simply think Silver Efex could deliver waaay more with some tweaking.
Take a look at my "Lived-in Pontiac" shot in the Automotive forum.

I had a wee look and the image sets off my OCD with the blown whites / blacks:

Its a great image but not one I would try to emulate.

CHEERS
JBO

 

[407370]

Unfortunately I'm not a fan of any of them.

Thats a wee bit vague.

The forum will not let me upload the NEF so see above a big JPG of the RAW file . Please feel free to have a go yourself.

CHEERS
JBO

 

[cgw]

Not sure of the point of this unless it amounts to a SFX tutorial, i.e., showing the edits that lead to a final image.

 

[smoke665]

Thats a wee bit vague

I will admit that they look a little better full size on a desktop. The problem I see is a scene with a wide DR. A histogram shows you with a full file, but most of the data within that range is limited to high and low midtones, creating a flat image with muddled whites and blacks. Blowing specular highlights isn't always a bad thing, when dealing with a wide DR, it becomes the lesser of two evils. I suspect this is similar to what CGW was alluding to in an earlier comment. The alternative here would've been to bracket the exposure and combine them post.

 

[Rickbb]

No. 1 for me, but then I’m a dark kinda guy.

 

[407370]

Not sure of the point of this unless it amounts to a SFX tutorial, i.e., showing the edits that lead to a final image.

The point was to ask people what they prefer. Three very different BW conversions will attract opinions and that is what I am looking for.

My photo club always seems to prefer BW over colour images and it is rare that a colour image will ever be in the top three of a given competition. I have not done a lot of BW conversions and I am actually not sure what I regard as a good BW image but seeing what other people like / dislike is helping me to form an opinion of my own.

CHEERS
JBO

 

[webestang64]

If this were mine and printed in the darkroom I'd go for something between 2 and 3.