The new Silver Shadows 2, black and white toolkit for Lightroom is now available from Seim Effects Photo Tools. SS2 is a complete black and white preset system that’s been refined and rebuilt from the ground up for stunning silver conversions without leaving LR.
V2 contains over 100 refined easy-to-use black-and-white presets that address the subtleties of digital silver conversion, photographers can easily mix and match, customize and tweak to create artisan quality black-and-white images without leaving Lightroom. I uses the Seim Effects workflow structure that permits both large batches and single images to be processed quickly and accurately without leaving Lightroom.
The cost is Silver shadows is just just over $50 for the entire collection. You can find out more on the Seim Effects website. Silver Shadows 2.
by Gavin Seim: Silver Shadows 2, my new black and white toolkit for LR is finally here. This is a really exciting release for me. I’m passionate about black and white, and the refinement that has gone into Silver Shadows 2 has been years in the making.
SS2 has been expanded and revamped from the ground up. I think it will blow you away when you see the efficient high quality silver conversions you can do without leaving LR. I can’t tell you how proud of this set I am. So let me show you. Head over to the SS2 page and check out the brand new video, freebies and more, plus get the special introductory price if you get SS2 before Nov 30th. I may also talk about this new video later. It was quite a project… Gav
You can get the official media kit via the SE Press page.
by Gavin Seim: Panasonic seems to be making a statement with this ad they released earlier this year before infamous Nikon Page Fail. I’m seeing a pattern in the industry. The Lumix spot insults skilled photographers everywhere & mislead consumers into thinking skill and experience is irreverent as long a you have a good camera.
Perhaps it’s meant to be funny, perhaps it’s creatively done, but if you understand photography and how much work it took you to master it, I think you’ll know how insulting this this really is. But it’s not just this ad. It’s the whole mindset and it’s part of the attitude that is breaking down this industry. Watch it, then lets talk.
The photography world is inundated with the idea that experience is not necessary and it’s breaking it down. This promotes that and that promotes the idea that a photograph is of no value. Anyone can do it.
It’s not true. A great photographer cannot be clueless about how they made a photo or how their equipment works. That’s a snapshooter. Understanding shutter speed, aperture and beyond are the most basic essentials to consistent quality. People who don’t understand the basics often think it’s not critical because of marketing like this. They are wrong.
Photographers that have spent years and even decades mastering their craft are shown in this ad as irreverent. As if their saying “Those skills don’t matter as long as you own a good camera.
The man here is portrayed as doing a showcase to his peers. He’s the expert. Yet in the real world you won’t get accolades by snapping photos that are only as good as your camera can make them. Anyone can do that.
Great is no longer great when everyone else is doing it. A camera can have good quality, but without skill you just have quality snapshots. That’s what everyone else, including many so called pro’s, are making today.
So this is targeted consumers. What’s the big deal right? Wrong. This is also targeting would be photographer, but that aside this mindset is a big problem right now and it’s really hurting this industry. People are believing this stuff, and those that do are being mislead into thinking that a camera makes a photograph and not a photographer. Some have told me their are great photographers who have no idea how they make their images. I have yet to have one shown to me.
I know this is extreme, but imagine an ad for a scalpel that says “it’s so good, anyone can do surgery”. Imagine a world where everyone claimed to be a surgeon, airline pilot, etc and you did not even know how to find one that was actually experienced. Photographic skills have not really changed over the past 150 years. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you won’t make great images. You’ll just be making images like the droves other consumers and even pros who have bought into the idea that cool gear makes you good. The problem is, it’s not great when everyone else is doing it. That defies the meaning of the word. We need to Raise the Bar.
Gavin Seim: The folks at Nikon got a little too enthusiastic yesterday and posted this on their FB page, telling us that “A photographer is only as good as the equipment he uses” Perhaps they were momentarily blinded by how the world seems to actually look at photography these days and forgot that it’s actually a skill. Oh wait, I guess it was companies like them that promoted that idea 😉
Don’t get me wrong, quality optics and the like are important considerations. But the best gear is of no value at all, unless your good enough to make it sing. If I play a Stradivarius, it still sounds something akin to cats being run over by trucks.
I’m not sure what’s more scary. That Nikon posted this. Or that 1695 people Like it. Thanks for sending us this Greg. We still love you Nikon (sorta), but really. Teach your social team about photography.
I’ve been hinting at this for awhile, but today Silver Shadows II is getting official. This is a collection of LR presets for black and white that is like no other and I think it’s going to set a standard.
Black & White was my second ever presets collection and after some refinements and updates it became Silver Shadows. A collection of effects for black and white that kept getting better with free updates over the past few years. But I felt we needed something more.
Note, that anyone who buys Silver Shadows v1 after Sept 20th 2011 will get a free upgrade to V2. So even if you get v1 today, you’ll get an email with that free upgrade when v2 launches.
I’m passionate about black and white. I mean I’m really fanatical about it. I want to take digital images and make silver art from that that sings. There’s some great tools our there for B&W, but they can slow a workflow and usually require that you leave your RAW file behind, that throws away information and dynamic range that can be really valuable in making a great silver image.
This is just a little teaser I had made up. But the full collection is releasing soon along with all the details. SSII been remade from the ground up and will be the only toolkit you need for black and white.
The new Silver Shadows 2, black and white toolkit for Lightroom is now available from Seim Effects Photo Tools. SS2 is a complete black and white preset system that’s been refined and rebuilt from the ground up for stunning silver conversions without leaving LR.
