I love what DxO has done with the new Color Grading filter in Nik Color Efex 9

Nik Collection 9 is a major update to DxO’s popular plug-in suite. The new Color Grading filter in Nik Color Efex 9 is just one of four brand new filters in this update, and works alongside other new features including AI masking and blend modes.

Check the main news story about the Nik Collection 9 update for a full list of all the new features and what they mean. For now, though, let’s just see what the new Color Grading filter can do.

How color grading works

Color grading is a well-known process in video editing software that’s used to create a distinctive look and color palette for cinematic images. It’s also becoming common in photo editing software too, and if you use Adobe Lightroom as your launchpad for the Nik Collection plug-ins, you’ll see that Lightroom has its own Color Grading panel.

But the new Color Grading filter in Color Efex 9 goes further, with the potential to adjust and blend color grading effects in different ways, not least because of Nik Collection 9’s new support for Photoshop-style blend modes.

The principle of color grading is quite simple. The image is split up into three tonal regions – shadows, midtones and highlights – and you can adjust the hue, saturation and lightness of each region. It takes a little experimentation and practice to produce good-looking results, but it’s worth the effort.

What makes the Color Efex 9 Color Grading filter so clever?

First of all, the filter shows just a single color wheel (other programs show three), with dots to represent the shadows, midtones and highlights. You can move the dots individually around the color wheel to change the hue for that tonal range and move them further towards the outside to increase the saturation of the effect.

A button below reveals a set of sliders for each zone, including the Hue and Saturation values you can control directly on the color wheel, but a third Luminance slider for making each tone range darker or lighter. In my sample image, for example, I’ve pushed the Luminance value for the shadows right down to zero to give them real depth and intensity.

So far, the new Color Grading filter does just the same as the Lightroom version, and there’s also a Balance slider for shifting your hue adjustments further up or down the tonal scale. But in the Color Efex Color Grading filter, there’s more.

If you take a look up at the top of the panel you’ll see a blend mode menu – another new feature in Nik Collection 9. In Photoshop, you need a layer below the one you’re adjusting for the effect of the blend mode to be visible; in Nik Color Efex 9, changing the blend mode changes its interaction with the original image, so that if I choose the Relight blend mode, I get a much more vibrant and contrasty image. Note that there’s also a gadget alongside for changing the opacity of the blend mode, so you get even more control over the outcome.

Down at the bottom of the Color Grading panel is a new Local Adjustments section. This is where you see another major addition in Nik Collection 9. If you’ve used AI masking tools in other programs, you’ll recognise the types of subject and area selection tools you can use here. In the Nik plug-ins, the local adjustment tools are used to shield specific areas from the adjustment, or to confine the adjustment to those areas only.

All in all, the new Color Grading filter, in combination with blend modes and new AI masking, offers a very powerful set of controls for creating your own vintage/cinematic looks, and I think DxO has done well to present the controls so clearly in a compact filter panel.

Where to get DxO Nik Collection 9

You can get all the pricing information from the main DxO Nik Collection 9 news article, but do note these two things:

• You don’t have to pay anything up front. DxO offers a full and unrestricted 30-day trial, which should be ample to see what it can do and make your mind up
• New DxO customers save 15% with my exclusive LAP15 discount code at the checkout when they decide to buy from the DxO store at www.dxo.com

• DxO Nik Collection 9 announced with major updates
• More Nik Collection articles