Digital BW, The Print

Disclaimer/background:
* I lurk here 99.9% of the time
* I'm a hobbiest, not a pro (I do BW for personal use, friends; 
definitely not in the fine art league)
* Print proofs at home on an HP inkjet; use MPIX or WHCC to make 
large BW prints
* Have used all "convert to BW" methods using Photoshop that I've 
ever found, e.g., use best of individual channels via layer masks, 
channel mixer, calculations, BW adjustment layer, Gorman, multiple 
hue/sat layers, L channel, etc., and many 3rd party plugins (free and 
$$)
* Written numerous PS actions to reduce labor intensity
* Used to spend hours converting a given image to BW

When SEP first came out I was on the side of those who rightfully 
asked, "Why pay for a plugin to do what you can do in PS, especially 
for THAT MUCH money?" 

But then favorable reports from "real people" (not flowery, seldom 
critical BS reviews found in mags and commercial websites) started 
showing up on various forums. Since NIK offered a fully functional 15-
day trial, I decided to give it a shot. In short order I was very 
impressed.

I ended up purchasing it for my school-age son (33% educational 
discount) and installing on his computer. I use this plugin almost 
every day. I still use methods noted above for comparison purposes; 
90%+ of the time I end up going with output from SEP, either by 
itself or in combination with results from another process.

I also suggest doing the download trial thing. Seeing is believing.
 
YMWV.

Danny

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "atrembly2001" 
<atrembly@...> wrote:

> if anyone in the group has used Nik Silver Efex Pro and what their 
experience has been.