DXO NIK 5

[Tony_B]

I have an older version of them and used it a lot more when I used LightRoom but they don’t have a plug-in for C1 so I haven’t upgraded. I always thought it worked pretty well but I also never really tried it for wildlife. I used silver efex and viveza the most. I found the B&W conversion in silver efex to work really well and viveza worked pretty well for landscapes. It might be worthwhile to try the free trial. I don’t think they are as useful as they were in the past and I honestly forget I still have them. I really need to give them another try.

I use Capture One and I have an old version of the Nik software. I can acccess it directly from C1 and the mono image is returned to C1, just as it is with Adobe products. The original Nik software is still available on-line free to download. Obviously DxO would rather you pay for their latest version, but I suspect the core functionality has not changed much. Certainly, my free Silver Efex Pro does all I need. When the tif or jpg comes back into C1 as a variant, I can refine it as I wish, but the presets of Silver Efex Pro serve as good starting points.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

I bought the first DxO version, but it seemed to be little more than the same utilities with added presets. I don't use the presets, so it seemed less valuable to me.

New versions since then have been reportedly just more presets, but I haven't heard about the most recent versions.

Have the DxO developers made any actual developmental advances with recent versions (added / improved features and functionality beyond just adding more presets)?

PS: I used to use the NIK sharpener, but since using Topaz, I looked back at my old sharpening. Some of it was so bad, I had to replace it with Topaz sharpening and re-rendered / published the output. (Good thing I mostly put sharpening on it's own layer.)

Chris

 

[ButlerKid]

I bought the first DxO version, but it seemed to be little more than the same utilities with added presets. I don't use the presets, so it seemed less valuable to me.

New versions since then have been reportedly just more presets, but I haven't heard about the most recent versions.

Have the DxO developers made any actual developmental advances with recent versions (added / improved features and functionality beyond just adding more presets)?

PS: I used to use the NIK sharpener, but since using Topaz, I looked back at my old sharpening. Some of it was so bad, I had to replace it with Topaz sharpening and re-rendered / published the output. (Good thing I mostly put sharpening on it's own layer.)

Chris

Recent versions have improved the options one can use to select and refine U points. U point selection is a vital part of the s/w allowing me to target specific areas of the image and also adjust opacity of the adjustment.

Watch this video for more information

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Recent versions have improved the options one can use to select and refine U points. U point selection is a vital part of the s/w allowing me to target specific areas of the image and also adjust opacity of the adjustment.

Watch this video for more information

U point selection is indeed one of the strengths of the NIK tools. I recall how the earlier versions (as seen in the old Nikon Capture, where I think U Point tech originated) only had 2 adjustments (3 sliders, one for size, the other two for exposure and contrast) and that newer incarnations added more adjustments. It's a valuable tool.

Chris

 

[sh1209]

U point selection is indeed one of the strengths of the NIK tools. I recall how the earlier versions (as seen in the old Nikon Capture, where I think U Point tech originated) only had 2 adjustments (3 sliders, one for size, the other two for exposure and contrast) and that newer incarnations added more adjustments. It's a valuable tool.

Chris

So far with the trial I find silver efex, color efex to be the most useful. The color correction is hard to beat with annoying color casts. I’m just not sure if I’d rather do photo lab 6 or pure raw 2 for the noise reduction aspect at this point. Pure raw is much quicker but you lose the adjustability of photolab.

 

[Tony_B]

So far with the trial I find silver efex, color efex to be the most useful. The color correction is hard to beat with annoying color casts. I’m just not sure if I’d rather do photo lab 6 or pure raw 2 for the noise reduction aspect at this point. Pure raw is much quicker but you lose the adjustability of photolab.

Check out Topaz Labs software. They do a denoise, sharpen and megapixel appications. Not cheap, but arguably the best on the market. These three have transformed my workflow.

 

[sh1209]

Check out Topaz Labs software. They do a denoise, sharpen and megapixel appications. Not cheap, but arguably the best on the market. These three have transformed my workflow.

I’ve had topaz for 2-3 years but I feel with higher iso images that dxo does better. 4000iso and under topaz does great

 

[Tony_B]

I’ve had topaz for 2-3 years but I feel with higher iso images that dxo does better. 4000iso and under topaz does great

The latest Topaz is very much improved over earlier versions. They are called Ai versions. I will note your point re high ISO images.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Recent versions have improved the options one can use to select and refine U points. U point selection is a vital part of the s/w allowing me to target specific areas of the image and also adjust opacity of the adjustment.

Watch this video for more information

That video caused me to upgrade to v5. There's quite a bit new going on from the version I've been running (v3).

One thing I was reminded of that I think is cool (v3 did this too I think), is that you can come back and edit Control Points later, if you first load your image into PS as a Smart Object. It acts as a filter that can re-open and modify the previously applied Control Points.

Otherwise (with no smart object), the changes are just burned into a new raster layer. If you find something wrong with it later, you have to re-do it, or apply another corrective layer.

And with the new luminance and chroma adjustments, color casts are much easier to correct.

Thanks again,
Chris

 

[AlexY]

So far with the trial I find silver efex, color efex to be the most useful. The color correction is hard to beat with annoying color casts. I’m just not sure if I’d rather do photo lab 6 or pure raw 2 for the noise reduction aspect at this point. Pure raw is much quicker but you lose the adjustability of photolab.

For me, the advantage of Photolab over Pure Raw lies in having the extra processing modules with the accompanying sliders. I don't use a lot of them, but some are particularly useful to my workflow. The DxO Smart Lighting in the spot weighted mode is very useful as is the DxO Clearview Plus function. I like having the ability to adjust various effects when necessary, and once you find some combination of settings that works as a starting point for most photos, you can save it as a preset and call it up easily.
cheers,
Alex
ps...If you can, wait until Black Friday rolls around as the software will probably be on sale. That's when I purchased my Photolab/Nik collection last year.

 

[ButlerKid]

That video caused me to upgrade to v5. There's quite a bit new going on from the version I've been running (v3).

One thing I was reminded of that I think is cool (v3 did this too I think), is that you can come back and edit Control Points later, if you first load your image into PS as a Smart Object. It acts as a filter that can re-open and modify the previously applied Control Points.

Otherwise (with no smart object), the changes are just burned into a new raster layer. If you find something wrong with it later, you have to re-do it, or apply another corrective layer.

And with the new luminance and chroma adjustments, color casts are much easier to correct.

Thanks again,
Chris

I really like the "Previous Edit" option - I think that came with version 4?????

 

[abc123brian]

I use Capture One and I have an old version of the Nik software. I can acccess it directly from C1 and the mono image is returned to C1, just as it is with Adobe products. The original Nik software is still available on-line free to download. Obviously DxO would rather you pay for their latest version, but I suspect the core functionality has not changed much. Certainly, my free Silver Efex Pro does all I need. When the tif or jpg comes back into C1 as a variant, I can refine it as I wish, but the presets of Silver Efex Pro serve as good starting points.

Did you have to download a plug-in for it? I don’t recall seeing one to make it accessible through C1.

 

[Tony_B]

Did you have to download a plug-in for it? I don’t recall seeing one to make it accessible through C1.

As I recall, download and install the app in the normal way, then go to explorer to find a suitable image file. Right click and 'Open With' and scroll down, a couple of pages till you get to Silver Efex Pro. Click on it. It will open, then just close it. Next, when you open C1 you will find the 'edit with' or 'open with' list contains the app. That is as I recall doing it. It works for any app, such as FastTone. I have them all listed. I hope I've remembered this procedure correctly. Let me know through this forum if you are successful, or if my memory is failing me . Good luck...

 

[sh1209]

So I have a question for the experienced NIK users. Can you apply more than one filter to an image?

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

So I have a question for the experienced NIK users. Can you apply more than one filter to an image?

One at a time, yes, I used to use SilverEFX followed by their sharpener quite often. But they're different layers, create the first layer, then load that into the next filter.

That's not a big deal for PS as you can store the layers into one PS document, or merge layers to one if you like. With LR, that would mean saving a TIFF output from the first filter, then loading that TIFF into the next filter to create another TIFF, which is now creating extra documents in your folder (thankfully, LR will number them as being 3 instance of the same image).

Same difference I suppose, but if you use PS, it just seems more tidy to me. Of course, this is all Adobe experience--I don't know about C1.

Chris

 

[sh1209]

One at a time, yes, I used to use SilverEFX followed by their sharpener quite often. But they're different layers, create the first layer, then load that into the next filter.

That's not a big deal for PS as you can store the layers into one PS document, or merge layers to one if you like. With LR, that would mean saving a TIFF output from the first filter, then loading that TIFF into the next filter to create another TIFF, which is now creating extra documents in your folder (thankfully, LR will number them as being 3 instance of the same image).

Same difference I suppose, but if you use PS, it just seems more tidy to me. Of course, this is all Adobe experience--I don't know about C1.

Chris

Thanks and yes all Adobe here. I haven’t tried thru photoshop yet only Lightroom. Layers do make sense and keep things more organized.

 

[Tony_B]

One at a time, yes, I used to use SilverEFX followed by their sharpener quite often. But they're different layers, create the first layer, then load that into the next filter.

That's not a big deal for PS as you can store the layers into one PS document, or merge layers to one if you like. With LR, that would mean saving a TIFF output from the first filter, then loading that TIFF into the next filter to create another TIFF, which is now creating extra documents in your folder (thankfully, LR will number them as being 3 instance of the same image).

Same difference I suppose, but if you use PS, it just seems more tidy to me. Of course, this is all Adobe experience--I don't know about C1.

Chris

Good explanation. I can confirm exactly the same for Affinity Photo, the PS alternative.
For C1, the LR alternative, there are more options for using external apps. C1 has 2 commands: 'edit with' and 'open with'. Edit With creates a new file (tif, jpg, etc as you wish) and sends that (say) tif to the external editor for processing and it returns as a new file after processing, and added to the catalogue. If I am happy with the result, say sharpening or noise reduction, and now wish to convert to mono, I can Open With my Nik software. In this case the same file is converted to mono and returned to C1. If I want a separate mono conversion, I just Edit With my Nik software and a new mono file is created and added to the catalogue. I can have several separate files on screen for comparison, all tifs (say), from which I can select or delete as I wish.
Of course, all the editing facilities of C! can be used on the raw file before external editing, or on the returned tifs. C1, of course, has its own mono conversion facility with presets, noise reduction, sharpening etc.

 

[abc123brian]

As I recall, download and install the app in the normal way, then go to explorer to find a suitable image file. Right click and 'Open With' and scroll down, a couple of pages till you get to Silver Efex Pro. Click on it. It will open, then just close it. Next, when you open C1 you will find the 'edit with' or 'open with' list contains the app. That is as I recall doing it. It works for any app, such as FastTone. I have them all listed. I hope I've remembered this procedure correctly. Let me know through this forum if you are successful, or if my memory is failing me . Good luck...

So I finally got around to checking on this and ran into a new issue. I didn‘t have the Nik collection installed on my MacBook and when I tried to install it, the installer is closing saying the OS isn’t compatible. I had downloaded version 2 from DXO.

 

[Tony_B]

So I finally got around to checking on this and ran into a new issue. I didn‘t have the Nik collection installed on my MacBook and when I tried to install it, the installer is closing saying the OS isn’t compatible. I had downloaded version 2 from DXO.

I'm sorry I can't help. I am a Windows user and have always avoided Macs. Having said that, what you have described sounds rather strange.

 

[SandyW]

So I finally got around to checking on this and ran into a new issue. I didn‘t have the Nik collection installed on my MacBook and when I tried to install it, the installer is closing saying the OS isn’t compatible. I had downloaded version 2 from DXO.

I think you need to check the Mac requirements. It may not run on all mac OS versions and I'm not sure about the M1 chip.

 

[abc123brian]

I'm sorry I can't help. I am a Windows user and have always avoided Macs. Having said that, what you have described sounds rather strange.

I think you need to check the Mac requirements. It may not run on all mac OS versions and I'm not sure about the M1 chip.

It sounds like the issue is with the installer on Nik tools and there could be a technical work around. I haven’t decided if I want to bother with it because I’ve been using this computer for over 1.5 years now and didn’t realize I didn’t have it installed so I haven’t gone looking for it.

Cannot install Nik Collection in MacOS Big Sur

Just where did you find them installed? I thought they would be in Applications, but nay… I can find AnalogEfex and only that.

feedback.dxo.com

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

NIK v2 is a really old. DxO only upgrades from v3 and up. That it doesn't install on modern Mac OS versions is no surprise.

It sounds like the issue is with the installer on Nik tools and there could be a technical work around. I haven’t decided if I want to bother with it because I’ve been using this computer for over 1.5 years now and didn’t realize I didn’t have it installed so I haven’t gone looking for it.

Cannot install Nik Collection in MacOS Big Sur

Just where did you find them installed? I thought they would be in Applications, but nay… I can find AnalogEfex and only that.

feedback.dxo.com

The computer might be 1.5 years old, but NIK v2 is a lot older than that, probably more than a decade (at least under the hood). If you had interest in the NIK tools, you might consider just buying the newest v5 (that is, as long as it has Big Sur listed in it's supported list). But yeah, if you haven't used it for that long ...

Chris

 

[SandyW]

Be very careful with the latest NIK5 update. (as of 12/28/2022) All it seems to do is uninstall NIK then refuses to try a second instillation because "you already have this version". I have no idea what the update version is because it is NOT installed. Frustrated!!

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Be very careful with the latest NIK5 update. (as of 12/28/2022) All it seems to do is uninstall NIK then refuses to try a second instillation because "you already have this version". I have no idea what the update version is because it is NOT installed. Frustrated!!

Sounds like a bug, where it doesn't clean well enough during uninstall. Did you contact DxO support?

Chris

 

[SandyW]

Sounds like a bug, where it doesn't clean well enough during uninstall. Did you contact DxO support?

Chris

It cleaned quite well. There is nothing in the DXO program folder for NIK.

Yes. Mail sent to support, but with the holidays, who knows. I do think they uploaded a buggy or possibly the wrong update. I noticed someone in the forum was inquiring about plugin problems today so I bet it is related. I forgot the golden rule to never update/upgrade before a long weekend!