John Howard Loc: SW Florida and Blue Ridge Mountains of NC.

I have done books before but not in BW. I am trying to prepare images to print a black and white book in 11,13 size, so the images will print at least 8x10 with white border on each page. I am using Blurb and their Book Wright software, and the upload file size limit is jpg 30mb. I am processing DNG files in Lightroom and then using Nik Silver Effects to convert to BW. I think I am either over sharpening or I am using a bad sequence. Some of the images seem to be over sharpened. I attach one for review. This was shot with D850 and a Zeiss 85mm lens on a good tripod so the original color is pretty sharp. What am I doing wrong? What other info do you need. Would I get better results using LR for the BW conversion?

(Download)

Fred Harwood Loc: Sheffield, Mass.

Screen views may look oversharpened, but printed, maybe not. That's why proofing prints help.

Curmudgeon Loc: SE Arizona

I use Silver Efex plugin for PS for all my conversions. I adjust a preset I like before loading into PS.

John Howard Loc: SW Florida and Blue Ridge Mountains of NC.

Is there a best sequence to processing? IE, I process the color version including some sharpen and noise adjustment, then go to NIK Silver Effects, then back to LR. When I export from LR if have it set to "sharpen for glossy paper" as the book will have a semi gloss paper. If NIK is doing some sharpening also, then that is 3 sharpen processes. Too much?

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

It is possible to simply use the book program from within LR, which then sends it to Blurb. I've done this many times creating coffee-table size books. You can use the print to pdf feature to review the book first, then print a page or two on your printer, then when ready send the book to Blurb and go to Blurb and review the book from their site online prior to printing. Might be easier. Just a thought.