NIK collection now free

donsullivan

donsullivan

Premium Member
I fear this is likely the final death knell for this software at this point. There have been no significant updates since Google acquired Nik. Now that they are giving it away, it seems to reinforce that it is end of life.
 
M

maxairmike

Well-Known Member
wdwmagic said:
At this point they should open source it and see if anyone wants to take it over.
Click to expand...

Probably not that far off. I'm sure someone is already trying to dig at the code and build/improve on it in anticipation.

I've played with the HDR software, but never got to try the others, so I'm kind of excited to finally get to use everything.
 
Jahona

Jahona

Well-Known Member
Someone beat me to it. I went ahead and purchased NIK a few weeks ago and woke up this morning to an email saying I was being refunded.... No explanation on why. Went to the google NIK website and was like oh wow it's gone free. While they didn't have to, it was nice of Google to refund those that purchased it this year.
 
fractal

fractal

Well-Known Member
Spent some time yesterday playing around with my new Nik software.

I decided to edit a photo I previously edited just in LR.

Here is the original RAW image...

i-f6Fb5jj-X2.jpg


Here is how I edited this image only using LR.

looking up by Chris Dikos, on Flickr



and here is taking the RAW image, applying a few filters in NIK Color Effects PRO then making a few small adjustments in LR...

i-ZcdpFm4-X3.jpg


A few observations;

Using the NIK Color Effects at first was a bit exciting. The various filters are an amazingly easy way to good a quick dynamic look for you files. I had fun playing around and really just scratched the surface.
The downside I observed was noticeable IQ degrading in the file as you applied filters; especially in the shadows. In the SSE image I could not "settle" for the final result from Color Effects because of color bleeding in the shadows. However, to get rid of the color bleeding I had to settle from some CA in the bottom left trees. I think detail in the shadows also suffered - doesn't look nearly as "clean". I'm anxious to see how the other programs work for me.
 
s8film40

s8film40

Well-Known Member
fractal said:
Spent some time yesterday playing around with my new Nik software.

I decided to edit a photo I previously edited just in LR.

Here is the original RAW image...

i-f6Fb5jj-X2.jpg


Here is how I edited this image only using LR.

looking up by Chris Dikos, on Flickr



and here is taking the RAW image, applying a few filters in NIK Color Effects PRO then making a few small adjustments in LR...

i-ZcdpFm4-X3.jpg


A few observations;

Using the NIK Color Effects at first was a bit exciting. The various filters are an amazingly easy way to good a quick dynamic look for you files. I had fun playing around and really just scratched the surface.
The downside I observed was noticeable IQ degrading in the file as you applied filters; especially in the shadows. In the SSE image I could not "settle" for the final result from Color Effects because of color bleeding in the shadows. However, to get rid of the color bleeding I had to settle from some CA in the bottom left trees. I think detail in the shadows also suffered - doesn't look nearly as "clean". I'm anxious to see how the other programs work for me.
Click to expand...
One of the things I really like about the Nik plugin is when you use it in Photoshop it creates the effect in a separate layer. I usually like the effects in one part of the photo but not in others (much like you described) so I can simply mask it out as needed to get the effect I want in a certain portion of the photo.

For example I really like the color that Skylight brings out but it usually makes the skies a little more purple, so I usually apply that filter and mask out the skies. Then detail extractor does a great job with clouds and some surface textures and then I usually mask out the rest.
 
s8film40

s8film40

Well-Known Member
Here's an example of what I'm talking about I edited your shot but masked out the effect. I used Skylight except for the sky. I used detail extractor and masked out the SSE supports the foreground and people and the trees as well as some portions of SSE. Great shot by the way!
fM35EIV.jpg
 
fractal

fractal

Well-Known Member
s8film40 said:
One of the things I really like about the Nik plugin is when you use it in Photoshop it creates the effect in a separate layer. I usually like the effects in one part of the photo but not in others (much like you described) so I can simply mask it out as needed to get the effect I want in a certain portion of the photo.

For example I really like the color that Skylight brings out but it usually makes the skies a little more purple, so I usually apply that filter and mask out the skies. Then detail extractor does a great job with clouds and some surface textures and then I usually mask out the rest.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I knew I'd get some tips here. I do like the treatment of the sky so if i could mask the rest out it would be helpful. I may also need to spend some more time watching @NowInc 's videos.
 
donsullivan

donsullivan

Premium Member
They are no longer available on the Nik website but they used to have a bunch of pre-made 'recipes' (sort of like Lightroom presets) that can be really useful as quick starters for a shot. I found a link to them on Web Archive and encourage anyone installing the Nik Software to download and install these recipes as well.

http://web.archive.org/web/20120211074716/http://www.niksoftware.com/addons/index.php that gives you a sense of what they do and you can download individual ones, or all 90 in one package. BTW, since it's WebArchive, not all of the links in the pages work but you can just download the whole lot at once.

What I've often done is sample through them until I find one that might suit what I was after with the shot and then I can go back and fine tune to exactly what I want. They are great for finding a look for a shot you might not even have considered.
 
Last edited:
PhotoDave219

PhotoDave219

Well-Known Member
fractal said:
Thanks! I knew I'd get some tips here. I do like the treatment of the sky so if i could mask the rest out it would be helpful. I may also need to spend some more time watching @NowInc 's videos.
Click to expand...

Yeah, his videos are pretty spot on.

Whether you use masks or the history brush, definitely learn how to use one of the two. You can go back in and paint in whatever you want applied wherever.
 
PhotoDave219

PhotoDave219

Well-Known Member
fractal said:
Spent some time yesterday playing around with my new Nik software.

I decided to edit a photo I previously edited just in LR.

Here is the original RAW image...

i-f6Fb5jj-X2.jpg


Here is how I edited this image only using LR.

looking up by Chris Dikos, on Flickr



and here is taking the RAW image, applying a few filters in NIK Color Effects PRO then making a few small adjustments in LR...

i-ZcdpFm4-X3.jpg


A few observations;

Using the NIK Color Effects at first was a bit exciting. The various filters are an amazingly easy way to good a quick dynamic look for you files. I had fun playing around and really just scratched the surface.
The downside I observed was noticeable IQ degrading in the file as you applied filters; especially in the shadows. In the SSE image I could not "settle" for the final result from Color Effects because of color bleeding in the shadows. However, to get rid of the color bleeding I had to settle from some CA in the bottom left trees. I think detail in the shadows also suffered - doesn't look nearly as "clean". I'm anxious to see how the other programs work for me.
Click to expand...

+1 for actually having people in your photo.
 

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