Nik Collection 3 introduced a new 'multipage TIFF' format which allowed non-destructive editing with the Nik Collection plug-ins. You can use them as external editors within any program that offers an external editor feature and you can even launch them directly as standalone programs. You can also launch the Nik plug-ins from within DxO PhotoLab 4, DxO's flagship photo editing/raw processing/image enhancement tool. It's like an automated series of actions and opens up even more possibilities – although at this stage there are just ten Meta Presets included and you can't currently create your own. Nik Collection 4 adds a Meta Preset feature which can combine results from two or more Nik plug-ins. With this, you can not only launch each plug-in directly, but you can choose a processing preset too. If you open images in Photoshop you can launch them from here too – though DxO installs its own Nik Collection Selective Tool Panel which offers a lot more control. If you use Lightroom Classic as your digital hub, all eight can be used as plug-ins. You can fit these plug-ins into your workflow in a variety of ways. These do now seem somewhat past their sell-by date, as you would probably carry out these jobs in raw processing software these days. Perspective Efex fixes converging verticals and other perspective issues, while Viveza offers powerful global and local color adjustments – like dodging and burning for color images rather than black and white.īringing up the rear are Dfine and Sharpener Pro, which offer noise reduction and creative/output sharpening respectively. Perspective Efex and Viveza are more for image correction and enhancement. (Image credit: Rod Lawton/Digital Camera World)ĭxO Nik Collection 4 consists of eight plug-ins, some of which are for creative image effects and some for more everyday image corrections and enhancements.Īnalog Efex Pro, Color Efex Pro, HDR Efex Pro and Silver Efex Pro are the chief 'creative' plug-ins, offering analog film and darkroom effects, a myriad of different photo treatments, filters and adjustments, HDR merging and tonemapping tools and powerful black and white image editing and conversions respectively. You just need the patience to try different things and learn what you like.DxO Nik Collection 4 brings major improvements to Silver Efex Pro (shown here) and Viveza, but there are workflow improvements across the board for Adobe users too. What I love about NIK’s software editing tools is that many different types of photographers can use them according to their own tastes. Sometimes after I apply a film effect, I want to go back and re-adjust contrast or brightness, because of what the film effect has done to my original adjustments. I zero out the grain settings on the film types and don’t use dust and scratches… What I did here was simply apply the plate effect and balance the film type adjustments with the basic adjustments. Almost everything degrades image quality in some way. Since I spend so much time (and money) trying to get excellent image quality, a piece of software like this is hard for me to use. Lens distortion and vignette, dust and scratches, film types, light leaks, motion blur and bokeh, the list goes on. But the vintage look adds something that I really like.Īnalog Efex Pro has a lot of effects that can make photos look older, or like they were taken with old film cameras. It just wasn’t that great as a straight travel photo. It was taken in September 2014 with the EOS 6D and EF 35mm f/2 IS. I did a similar edit on this photo of the West Point Lighthouse near Seattle. So after running it through NIK Software’s Analog Efex Pro 2, does it have more to offer? Well, the “wet plate” effect adds some detail to the sky and the old sepia film effect helps create a vintage look. Nothing wrong with the composition or image quality, it just didn’t catch my eye. I never did anything with it because I didn’t see anything eye catching about the photo. I shot this photo with the Canon EOS 7D in May 2013 from a ferry heading to Seattle.
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