Silver Efex Pro is for the professional or advanced hobbyist photographer who wants to take black and white processing to the ultimate level. It’s a good idea to either need to backup the older versions first (in case you don’t go ahead and buy the latest version of the Nik Collection) or be certain that you intend to buy the newest version.

A word of warning – when you install it the trial overwrites any previous versions of the plugins installed on your computer. You can download the Nik Collection 30 day trial from the DxO website. In the 2021 release Silver Efex Pro got a new layout (and a new version number, Silver Efex Pro 3). Now there have been several new versions and DxO has added new features. Initially DxO updated all the plugins so they work with the latest versions of Lightroom Classic, Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, and in the latest Windows and Mac operating systems. In June 2018 DxO announced it had completed an overhaul of the Nik Collection and released it for sale. In 2017 DxO bought the rights to the Nik Collection from Google and continued to let photographers download the software without paying.

Google dropped the price of the Nik Collection to $149 and then, after announcing that it was no longer going to develop the software, made it free. In 2012 Google bought out Nik Software to acquire Snapseed, a photo editing app for iOS and Android. You could also buy it as part of the Nik Collection (a suite of six plugins) for around $500. The original version of Silver Efex Pro was created by a company called Nik Software and retailed at $149. It comes as part of a suite of seven plugins that work with Photoshop Elements, Photoshop and Lightroom Classic. It extends the capabilities of Lightroom and Photoshop by giving you tools to emphasize texture, emulate film, apply toning effects and add borders.

Silver Efex Pro is a plugin that converts color photos to black and white. Before I bought Silver Efex Pro my main questions were ‘What can this plug-in do that I can’t do already in Photoshop or Lightroom?’ and ‘Is it worth the money?’ I will answer these for you in this article.

Silver efex pro 3