NIK Software

[rpcrowe]

I attended a very interesting seminar last night at the corporate headquarters of NIK Software in San Diego, California. The seminar was sponsored by my local camera group and was presented by Daniel Hughes who is the Webinar Trainer for NIK. He demonstrated the various NIK Software which was quite capable and very fast for image editing.

I don't know which of the NIK modules impressd me the most but, SHARPENER PRO was certainly up there among the most impressive. However their noise reduction system DEFINE 2.0 and their black and white conversion program: SILVER EFEX PRO were also exciting.

Their VIVEZA 2 plug-in for precise photo editing is highly recommended by Scott Kelby, author of many Photoshop and other digital photography books.

They also have a new module HDR EFEX PRO which is certainly a neat way to create HDR images which range from the most realistic to the most creative. You seem to have a lot more control using this program than when you merge HDR images using Photoshop CS5.

The NIK Software is used as plug-ins for Photoshop and for Lightroom or Aperture. They had a drawing for one of their programs which, unfortunately, I did not win. I don't think that I will be buying their programs because they are rather expensive. The complete collection for Lightroom or Aperture was offered at the seminar for $240 (USD), but the Photoshop version is more expensive at ($480). These are discounts from their list prices. You can buy the individual modules separately and their prices vary.

NIK presents free educational webinars each day at: www.niksoftware.learn and has video lessons at www.niksoftware.com/lessons...

I think that if I were shooting professionally, I might very well purchase at least some of the NIK Software because it seems like it would speed up post processing greatly and for a professional; time is money!

I was also impressed with the decor of the corporative headquarters. Perhaps the days of geeks inventing post production software in their bedrooms with the hope that Adobe will purchase these programs and add them to Photoshop is over. NIL seems like they are here to stay as third party plug-in innovators.

[Hansm]

Hi Richard,

I use NIK Color EFEX PRO and SILVER EFEX and am very happy with it.
As you say it can save you some time in doing fine-tuning your images.
To be honest I was never capable to produce as good good black/white digital images as with Silver Efex.
I can recommend this plug in. They work in PS and also in LR and Aperture.

Where I'm not so happy with is that I have two products and there is no discount offer to buy also Shapener Pro and Vivesa.
Still waiting to see if they change their mind.

[carregwen]

I've had Silver Efex Pro for about two months now and find it very good. I think I could get the same result with CS5 alone, but it would take me a lot longer.

Here's one I did earlier!

[Eric M]

Long time user of Nik Silver Efex, Color Efex and Viveza checking in... Nik ROCKS!

[rpcrowe]

I am guesing that anything you can do with NIK products you could do with CS5 alone, given enough expertise and time. Being retired, I have enough time... it is the expertise that I am short on...

[Kana]

Brand new to the site! Aloha to everyone...

I have CS4 Design Premium, and am considering additional HDR software. Can anyone tell me the difference or recommend one over the other, of using CS4, Topaz, Photomatix, or NIK?

Thanks!

Kana

[Pebal]

I have CS4 Design Premium, and am considering additional HDR software. Can anyone tell me the difference or recommend one over the other, of using CS4, Topaz, Photomatix, or NIK?

The SNS-HDR Pro for natural-looking HDR images.

[AlanP]

Brand new to the site! Aloha to everyone...

I have CS4 Design Premium, and am considering additional HDR software. Can anyone tell me the difference or recommend one over the other, of using CS4, Topaz, Photomatix, or NIK?

Thanks!

Kana

Topaz does not tone map the image. Topaz adjust is usefull for adding additional effects to an already tone mapped image or for adding a "HDR effect" to a non HDR image.

Photomatric and NIK have different tone mapping algorithms (NIK has 4). I have used both and found NIK much easier to use. When you bring up the NIK screen it gives you over 30 thumbnails to choose from. You use the initial values as a starting point to do additioanl tweeking. NIK's strong point is the use of "control points". They allow you to make additional targeted adjustemets easily.

Photoamtrix and NIK both have free trial versions. I suggest you download both and then decide.

Alan