Verdict: 5 stars Only a modest amount has changed here from Nik Collection 4, but it was already so good there was little room left for improvement. If your photography needs an injection of inspiration, style, or creativity, this is where you’ll find it. Even if you already have version 4, the new Color Efex Pro 5 and Analog Efex Pro 3 could make it worth upgrading.
DxO Nik Collection
Now up to Nik Collection 6, the Nik Collection consists of eight different plug-ins, including four of the best creative tools for photographers you can buy today. Silver Efex is still unrivalled for its black and white photography effects, Color Efex has a dazzling array of photographic effects, Analog Efex is superb at evoking classic analog film and darkroom effects and HDR Efex makes HDR merging and editing easy enough for anyone to get great results straight out of the box. The latest plug in, Perspective, corrects perspective distortion and more.
Preset picks: Analog Efex Pro Double Exposures
Analog Efex Pro’s double exposure tool is one of the features that makes this program unique. Here’s a breakdown of how its Double Exposure presets work and how they combine double exposures with other effects.
Recreating Kodak HIE black and white infra-red film digitally
Kodak HIE infra-red film was one of my favorite films, delivering dense black skies, dreamy soft highlights and heavy grain. Can I get the same effect digitally?
Dramatic skies and silhouettes with Silver Efex Pro
I love Silver Efex Pro. It’s a black and white photography plug-in developed by Nik Software and now part of the DxO Nik Collection. What makes it great is that it recaptures the look and feel of traditional darkroom black and white in a way that other plug-ins don’t. The preset effects down the left […]
Color Efex Pro’s B/W Conversion filter is surprisingly good
Color Efex Pro might not be your first choice for black and white conversions when the Nik Collection also has Silver Efex Pro and Analog Efex Pro, but if you want strong results fast, it might be just what you need.
Volume distortion: this is what it looks like and this tool can fix it
Volume distortion (or volumetric distortion) is not a familiar term to most photographers, but it’s what makes ultra-wide shots look distorted at the edges, and it can be fixed… by the right software.
The best photo editing software for organizing, editing, RAW and effects
Choosing the best image editing software can be complicated. It all depends on what you look for most in your photo editing software. Here are 12 programs with their own distinct strengths.
DxO Nik Collection 4.2 update tackles compatibility and responsiveness
With this Nik Collection 4.2 update, DxO says it has improved the responsiveness of the U-point adjustment tools in Silver Efex Pro 3, fixed a compatibility issue with Capture One and made the Nik plug-ins work with Photoshop in native M1 mode on new Macs.
Viveza 3 review
Verdict: 3.8 stars Viveza is a great tool for making fast and effective adjustments to colour images, but even with the improvements in version 3 it still feels less useful than the other Nik plug-ins.
The Detail Extractor in Analog Efex Pro is like a magic bullet for contrast issues
Analog Efex Pro, part of the DxO Nik Collection has an excellent tool that’s easily missed but lies at the heart of many of this software’s striking analog film effects.