Advice needed re processing with Silver Efex pro and Lightroom, please.

[Gibbo]

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I am fairly new to Silver Efex pro, just over a week in fact, so I'm still learning and I must say I am very impressed although the last couple of days I seem to have developed a problem.

 

When I transfer a file back from Silver Efex to Lightroom by clicking on the Save button there appears to be some degradation on the file and I see 'blocks', for want of a better word, that were not present in Silver Efex.

 

This is a file as an example:

 

 

 

And this is a crop from the bottom right-hand corner which shows these 'blocks' more clearly.

 

 

When I had my first few attempts I didn't have any such problem. It has happened over the last two days.

 

I hope it's something obvious I'm doing that one of you has come across before!

 

Any ideas?

[wda]

Have you looked critically at the original file rather than a processed copy? If that is clean, heave a sigh of relief and return to plug-in diagnosis. My limited experience with LR and SEP2 has not yielded any artefacts such as those shown. I would guess that somehow the processed file has become corrupted in PS. If so, try again making a fresh start both in LR with a 'zeroed' file and in Photoshop/SEP2.

 

Once you have found a finely tuned version of a processed file to your liking, you can save the filter variant for future use within the plug-in. Just name it so that it means something to you.

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[k-hawinkler]

My workflow is LR - PS - Nik functions.

Do you go directly from LR to Nik and back?

If so, how do you do that?

 

Could you make a raw file available via DropBox so that I can try it on my setup?

[Gibbo]

Hi K-H, yes I do go directly from Lightroom to any of the Nik collection.

I do this by either clicking on Photo in the top toolbar or right clicking on the image itself then clicking on Edit in and then selecting whichever of the Nik collection I want to use.

 

I'd be quite happy to let you have a play with the RAW file however I am very unsure on using dropbox having only used it once before. Do I have to set you up on it or something similar?

 

wda, the original file looks fine to me

[sanyasi]

I used to process from LR to SFX. Now I start in Photoshop. Never had that happen.

 

As suggested, I would go back to the RAW file. In doing so, I would try to simulate the SFX adjustment in LR. Those boxes may be there in the original file, but if you did something extreme in SFX like the Second Push Processing template, SFX and the adjustments may be bringing out something that is already is in the file, but not visible until you make adjustments.

 

You might also check your output settings in EFX.

 

Good luck

[Gibbo]

Thanks Jack, I'll have a look at that tomorrow when my eyes are fresh

 

It's all good fun, eh.

[k-hawinkler]

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Hi K-H, yes I do go directly from Lightroom to any of the Nik collection.

I do this by either clicking on Photo in the top toolbar or right clicking on the image itself then clicking on Edit in and then selecting whichever of the Nik collection I want to use.

 

I'd be quite happy to let you have a play with the RAW file however I am very unsure on using dropbox having only used it once before. Do I have to set you up on it or something similar?

 

wda, the original file looks fine to me

 

 

Thanks Gibbo. I have now changed the LR Settings so that I can also invoke SFX directly without going through PS. Is there a way in LR to setup more than 2 external editors?

PS: Forget this question. Unchecking “Store Presets with Catalog” in Preferences did reveal all my plugins in "Edit in".

 

With regards to DropBox, once you put your image into DropBox, it will give you a URL for the image. You then can either post that URL here for everybody to see or send me a PM with the URL.

Edited November 26, 2014 by k-hawinkler

[Gibbo]

K-H, another job for tomorrow If it keeps raining I won't mind at all

[Gibbo]

Ok, not quite ready for bed yet so here we go. Is this link ok, K-H?

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/omvn6xv4fjs8gl0/Slimbridge%20%20-%20102.DNG?dl=0

[k-hawinkler]

Okay, I now can invoke all Nik functions from either LR5 directly or via PS CS6.

So, it will be interesting to see whether your image will behave differently.

[k-hawinkler]

Ok, not quite ready for bed yet so here we go. Is this link ok, K-H?

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/omvn6xv4fjs8gl0/Slimbridge%20%20-%20102.DNG?dl=0

 

Thanks. I have your image now. It was shot with M240.

I will try Nik from PS CS6 now, then from LR5.

 

PS: Your image looks fine after having been processed in SFX2 from PS CS6. No bars or rectangular features in the lower right corner.

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Edited November 27, 2014 by k-hawinkler

[Gibbo]

And on that note, goodnight

[k-hawinkler]

Here is a version that was edited in LR5.7 and SFX2, then cropped and resized with CS6.

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Looks fine to me as well.

 

Which computer are you using?

Which software versions?

[Gibbo]

My computer is an Acer Aspire Z5801. It has 12gb RAM and 1Tb Hard Drive running Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. I upgraded Lightroom to 5.7 this week (I wonder if that is a coincidence) and I am using Silver Efex pro 2 (which I bought last week).

 

This morning I transferred the RAW file to SFX, did a few adjustments and transferred back to Lightroom. The blocks are there again although not as many as in yesterdays effort. Rather than resize it or do any more to it I have put it in Dropbox and here is the link:

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xzq7banke6i3581/Slimbridge%20%20-%20102-Edit-2.tif?dl=0

[wda]

Thanks Gibbo. I have now changed the LR Settings so that I can also invoke SFX directly without going through PS. Is there a way in LR to setup more than 2 external editors?

PS: Forget this question. Unchecking “Store Presets with Catalog” in Preferences did reveal all my plugins in "Edit in"..

K-H, thank you for this tip. I can now go directly to Nik.

[Gibbo]

Ok, I have now tried a different method. Transferred the file from Lightroom to PSE10, transferred it from there to SFX, modified it, transferred it back to PSE10 and there is no evidence of the banding. Transferred it back to Lightroom and, hey presto, no banding.

 

Here is the file which followed this route:

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8xoqv3dnwxo99z8/Slimbridge%20%20-%20102-Edit-3.tif?dl=0

 

It would appear I have a problem working directly from Lightroom to SFX and back.

[k-hawinkler]

How do you transfer the image?

As a smart object, or whatever the label is?

That's what I use.

[Gibbo]

To transfer the image to PSE10, from Lightroom I click on Edit In and select PSE10. In PSE10 I have a little window with all the Nik collection listed and I choose whichever I want at the time. When I have finished adjustments I click on OK and it transfers back to PSE10. I then flatten layers and save the TIF. It is automatically available in Lightroom at this point.

 

OR, what I was trying to do before this cropped up, I right click on the image in Lightroom, select Edit In and then the Nik plug-in that I want to use. When finished I click on save and it transfers the image back to Lightroom. And for the last couple of days, this has been adding the banding as per above.

 

Is that what you mean? I don't know what a smart object is in this context.

[k-hawinkler]

To transfer the image to PSE10, from Lightroom I click on Edit In and select PSE10. In PSE10 I have a little window with all the Nik collection listed and I choose whichever I want at the time. When I have finished adjustments I click on OK and it transfers back to PSE10. I then flatten layers and save the TIF. It is automatically available in Lightroom at this point.

 

OR, what I was trying to do before this cropped up, I right click on the image in Lightroom, select Edit In and then the Nik plug-in that I want to use. When finished I click on save and it transfers the image back to Lightroom. And for the last couple of days, this has been adding the banding as per above.

 

Is that what you mean? I don't know what a smart object is in this context.

 

 

Thanks Gibbo. I am back at my computer now, a Mac, and can answer more appropriately.

 

I open a file with ACR of CS6, then I go into PS proper with this setting.

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When I start with LR5 and open the file with SFX this window opens.

 

So, apparently no Smart Objects in LR for invoking SFX.

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[Gibbo]

Ah ha. I don't have ACR so have never seen that screen for Workflow options

Nor can I justify the expense of a Mac My Acer works fine for me!

 

As my files seem to be ok if I start in LR, go to PSE10 then to Nik then back again, I shall continue this way. The banding seems to have started just after I upgraded LR to 5.7 although that could be co-incidental and a red herring.