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Discover the power of the Silver Efex Pro 2 soft contrast control

September 8, 2013 by Rod Lawton Leave a Comment

06 More Structure

Nik Software Silver Efex Pro 2 Soft Contrast

To start with, I’m adding some fine, localised contrast to the image with the Structure slider. This gives the objects in a picture much more definition without affecting the overall contrast. It’s very powerful, so take a moment to choose a setting that’s effective but doesn’t make the picture look too artificial.

07 Selective Adjustments

Nik Software Silver Efex Pro 2 Soft Contrast

I’ve also added some control points to lighten up some of the buildings. It adds a bit of texture and interest to the centre of the picture, which is where your eyes are drawn by the composition.

08 Burn Edges

Nik Software Silver Efex Pro 2 Soft Contrast

Finally, I’ve used the Burn Edges tool in the Finishing Adjustments panel to darken both the top and bottom edges of the picture. I do this a lot to give a kind of ‘framing’ effect to black and white shots and add a little contrast. The Size slider controls how far into the frame the darkening effect applies, the Strength slider controls the degree of darkening, and the Transition slider controls how smoothly the darkening effect is blended in with the rest of the image.

09 The finished picture

Nik Software Silver Efex Pro 2 Soft Contrast

This is much closer to what I had in my mind’s eye when I saw and composed this picture. It’s got the strong, dramatic contrast I wanted and a perfectly symmetrical appearance around the horizon line to make the most of that reflection in the water.

See also

More Silver Efex Pro tutorials

Pages: 1 2 3

Filed Under: Google, Nik Collection, Silver Efex Pro, Software Tagged With: Black and white, Contrast, Dodging and burning, Structure

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Ideas and techniques

Batch processing (4) Black and white (32) Blend modes (7) Bokeh (5) Borders and frames (7) Clarity (7) Colour tweaks (9) Combining filters (4) Contrast (7) Cropping (2) Curves (7) Dehaze (2) Depth of field (4) Distortion correction (2) Dodging and burning (8) Film looks (9) Graduated filters (15) Grain (3) HDR (14) Highlight recovery (6) Layers (5) Lens corrections (7) Levels (3) Miniature effect (2) Mist and fog (2) Moonlight (2) Noise reduction (6) Organising (10) Panoramas (4) Perspective correction (7) Plug-ins (6) Presets (8) Quick fixes (5) Retouching (5) Shadow recovery (3) Sharpening (3) Soft focus (4) Solarisation (2) Structure (3) Textures (8) Tilt shift (5) Toning (3) Vignette (12) Warmth (5) White balance (2)

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