M11 Monochrom editing

[ccg5657]

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Hi all-Many year absent in photography but strong passion for B&W. Have M11 Monochrom and want to update to best/easiest editing software. Worked with PS, LR, and Silver EP in the past and liked the SEP best. Shooting all in DNG but see that SEP requires TIFF. Is the standalone SEP software easy to use (convert to TIFF) or will I need to have an updated PS and use the plug-in addition of SEP to get the best results? I'd rather not pull the trigger on the PS if it's not necessasy but don't want to skimp on the initial set-up if that is the better approach. Thanks for letting me ask some rookie questions- been out of the loop a bit and just enough dusty info to make myself confused. 

[jaapv]

When you get Photoshop you get Lightroom at the same time for your subscription. Silver Efex Pro works as a plug-in on both.
Silver Efex Pro is fine but lacks many  of the tools Lightroom or Photoshop offer. 
If desired you can download Adobe Camera Raw for free and use it as a stand-alone converter. Personally I prefer DXO Pure Raw for the purpose.

[bdolzani]

These days you have an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription...I use LR with the Silver Efex plug in and love it. I use photoshop for any light cloning as I find the clone tool easier than the clone tool in LR which (as far as I know) guesses where to grab the clone from. 

Edited May 3, 2024 by bdolzani

[250swb]

It makes sense to integrate everything you need, so I use Adobe Bridge (free) as my photo browser and organiser with a subscription for Photoshop and have Nik Suite as a plugin. Given you should be converting your .dng files to TIFF anyway it becomes a smooth process to open them in Photoshop and then in SEP. And it's well worth editing your Monochrom files in SEP, the controls add a lot of subtlety to the process or allow you to go wild, each to his own. When you come out of SEP you can then use any Photoshop tools for final tweaking such as the 'traditional  Dodge and Burn etc, resize, convert to JPEG, and then post them on the forum. Also don't forget, within Nik Suite you have a decent sharpening tool and Color Efex and there are some useful tools in there that can be used on a monochrome image.

Edited May 3, 2024 by 250swb

[Luke_Miller]

6 hours ago, 250swb said:

And it's well worth editing your Monochrom files in SEP, the controls add a lot of subtlety to the process or allow you to go wild, each to his own. 

Absolutely, this is why Leica bundled SEP with the original M9M.  SEP has adjustments not found in Lightroom, C1, etc.

[bdolzani]

1 hour ago, Luke_Miller said:

Absolutely, this is why Leica bundled SEP with the original M9M.  SEP has adjustments not found in Lightroom, C1, etc.

just so I'm clear is SEP Silver Efex? 

[jaapv]

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Silver Efex Pro.

[bdolzani]

1 hour ago, jaapv said:

Silver Efex Pro.

thanks I've always called it SE and never noticed the P I guess. 

[andybarton]

On 5/3/2024 at 3:07 AM, bdolzani said:

These days you have an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription...I use LR with the Silver Efex plug in and love it. I use photoshop for any light cloning as I find the clone tool easier than the clone tool in LR which (as far as I know) guesses where to grab the clone from. 

You can move the “guessed” correction area manually if you wish. 

[bdolzani]

2 minutes ago, andybarton said:

You can move the “guessed” correction area manually if you wish. 

yes...and sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't :-). 

[andybarton]

I’ve found the dust spot function in Lr to be excellent. 

[jaapv]

On 5/3/2024 at 4:07 AM, bdolzani said:

These days you have an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription...I use LR with the Silver Efex plug in and love it. I use photoshop for any light cloning as I find the clone tool easier than the clone tool in LR which (as far as I know) guesses where to grab the clone from. 

Photoshop uses content aware technology for its spot removal tool. Cloning is only needed if spot removal does not work 

[250swb]

Yes the content aware tool in Photoshop is a breeze to use and it’s not the only tool in the same armoury. If that doesn’t work use the Remove tool instead of cloning.

Edited May 14, 2024 by 250swb

[algrove]

OP

Many software can be trialed for say 30 days without purchase these days. You might want to even try C1 for 30 days since PS plugins also are available for C1 as plugins too.

[digiuser]

SE is sometimes helpful, but normally you don't need it.  Much more important is to use B/W filter such as yellow, orange and red for your photography. Thereafter only  a few adjustments in C1, PS or Lightroom are necessary as you can see in my link below: 

 

 

Edited May 28, 2024 by digiuser

[stewartlogie]

On 5/2/2024 at 5:04 PM, jaapv said:

When you get Photoshop you get Lightroom at the same time for your subscription. Silver Efex Pro works as a plug-in on both.
Silver Efex Pro is fine but lacks many  of the tools Lightroom or Photoshop offer. 
If desired you can download Adobe Camera Raw for free and use it as a stand-alone converter. Personally I prefer DXO Pure Raw for the purpose.

I don't believe that DxO supports the Leica monochrom cameras for raw processing.