What’s your workflow to Nik software?
If you own Lightroom and Photoshop, Photoshop “smart objects” are the best way to use Nik apps.
The workflow is easy. Do all your corrections in LR then select the image, right click and choose Edit In > Open as Smart Object in Photoshop. Then in Photoshop select the smart object in the Layers Palette (F7), invoke Silver Efex, and afterwards save as a TIF.
Why is this?
- Send to Photoshop as a smart object avoids baking in the raw conversion adjustments
- Smart objects means the Silver Efex work remains editable as a smart filter
- TIF because non-proprietary and there’s nothing a PSD can do that a TIF can’t do just as well
Any downsides?
- File size is bigger – but why economize on space when extra drives are cheap?
- Cost – you need matching versions of Lightroom and Photoshop
I normally use this workflow, too.
Sometimes, though, I won’t think of following the smart object routine and use the LR/Plugin of Silver Efex Pro. Of course, it’s exactly those pictures that I will want to rework later.
I find another advantage of the Smart Object workflow not only that you can change your settings, but you can also copy smart filters to other images, giving them the same look. When you use the plugin inside of Lightroom, if you don’t write down your steps, or you don’t make a preset out of them, it’s easy to forget how you achieved a certain look.
Only one thing, maybe: the LR/Plugin Nik workflow will be better if you don’t have the latest version of Photoshop. Or if you want to work with Smart Objects anyway, even without having the latest version of PS, I’d send the file over to PS using the ‘Edit in PS’ command and choose ‘Render Using Lightroom’ and then transform the file into a Smart Object in Photoshop.
Yes, in that short post I did say why I followed the workflow, but I should have added that copying the smart filter from one image to another is a big reason. For those without the latest version of Photoshop, I also mention that fallback route in the forthcoming 2nd edition of my Advanced B&W book. The other reason for going via Photoshop is that it seems to avoid some bugs which fall betweeen LR and Nik (the now-fixed keywords problem and a newer one that prevents LR writing metadata).
Great idea assuming you have the Photoshop supported Nik software but what if you only have the Lightroom supported version? Is there a way you can think of that would work around this limitation?
TIA
Dave
If you have Photoshop, then Nik seem quite nice about partial upgrades. If not, then I don’t see a way around it. That said, it’s a shame that Nik don’t write their adjustment data into a flattened TIF/PSD file and preserved the colour image as a layer – equally that Adobe don’t let Nik work non-destructively.
Like John says, I also discovered that Nik filters used “straight” put the new image on top and obscures the lower layers..and aren’t editable. I found that you can choose “filter” – “Convert for Smart Filters” and the Nik filters now work like others. They blend as layers and they are editable. Doing it this way means that smart object are not required to make a Nik filter editable.