HDR Efex Pro and Perspective Efex are self-explanatory, the latter now able to fix distortion on a lot more camera and lens combos. Meanwhile Viveza enhances and corrects colours and tones, Dfine is a noise-reduction tool, and there are also sharpening tools. You also get DxO PhotoLab 5 Essential, a pared-down raw editor which employs DxO’s Optics Modules for lens correction and U-Point technology for local adjustments. Color Efex works in a similar way with colour images and effects, while Analog Efex is where you go for old-school film stylings. Perhaps the best known is Silver Efex, which for many photographers remains the gold standard for black & white conversion, or adding a huge array of mono effects. To recap, the Nik Collection suite includes eight plug-ins, which integrate with Photoshop, Lightroom and DxO’s PhotoLab, while also working as standalone applications. More classic analogue presets and other filters have also been added. That said, there are some significant new additions, including ClearView, which reduces the effects of fog and haze.
‘If you’re new to Nik, it does take a while to work out where everything is’
Version 5 builds on the many virtues of its predecessor, including updates to the Color Efex and Analog Efex plug-ins, improvements to the suite’s local adjustment/U Point technology and interface tweaks. As with the Gallagher brothers, it’s never out of the spotlight for long, and the latest version offers some key updates. Having passed through several owners since appearing in the late ’90s, it’s now in the hands of imaging specialist DxO. The Nik Collection has been around since the days of Britpop, so it’s lasted longer than Oasis and Blur. Yes, the original free version is a dated version, that's what DxO stated on their website.īut for those of us who can still use it, really cannot beat the value of this "free" version.Whatever your genre, Silver Efex is a tool that black & white fans can trust – I love using it for portraits At a glance More, tools for the year 2000, and less, tools for 2020. The net result, in my eyes, is that NIK tools seem a bit dated. And the Topaz plugin tools seem to work with pretty much everything, not just Photoshop. (I know, Topaz seems to be having some QC issues lately, but that doesn't negate the brilliance of the overall technology). And Topaz's selective masking, along with the whole "AI" concept for sharpening and Noise control are significant improvements in those fields. And as a result, I find other software more compatible with my workflow.Ĭertainly, ACDSee's Light EQ and Pixel Targeting are major improvements in lighting control and color masking. It's not a "BAD" product, but over the years, the other software publishers have sought new ways to do those unique things that NIK did so well, and improve upon those old things that all software does.
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