How to split tone in Nik Silver Efex Pro 2?

Question

I have Lightroom 4 and Nik Software

I am wishing to create various toning within a photo.

What I mean by this is if I have a photo with a chair with cushions , lamp shade, rug etc I would like to make the cushions a separate brownish tone and the lamp a more mustard tone, rug a more beige tone and leave others parts of the photo in black and white.

Is there anyway to do this within Nik Silver Efex Pro 2

Answer 1

As I am sure you have come to realise, Nik Silver Efex Pro does not support control points for tonal changes. This leaves you a couple of choices:

Upgrade

If you have Photoshop, then upgrade to Photoshop version so that you can use layers.

Your workflow would then be:

• Export to Photoshop
• Run Silver Efex for first layer to tone for specific parts of image
• Select background layer and repeat
• Now use layer masks or eraser tool to blend the resulting images together

Long Workflow

You can achieve the same results as above by using separate images

Your workflow would then be:

• Export to Silver Efex and tone for specific parts of image
• Repeat above steps as required
• Now use an image manipulation tool that supports layers. This could be anything from The Gimp, Photoshop Express to Paint.NET
• And apply the masking/erasing to achieve your composite image

Not Quite Shorter Workflow

You can use the above workflow and then use perfect layers to highlight the generated images with silver effects and then use OnOne Perfect Layers to create the composite.

This allows you to stay within Lightroom to achieve your effex [pun intended]