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“We are very pleased to offer for Lightroom users two of our most popular products, Viveza and Color Efex Pro 3.0,” said Michael J. Slater president and CEO of Nik Software. “Now photographers using Lightroom can utilize our unique Color Efex Pro filters and take advantage of our U Point® technology to selectively apply enhancements without the need for any complicated masks.” Color Efex Pro 3.0 installs as a plug-in for Lightroom 2.3, itself a free update from earlier versions and available for download at www.adobe.com/downloads/updates.
Once installed, Color Efex Pro 3.0 is accessible via the Lightroom PhotoEdit In menu. Edits made using the plug-in within Lightroom are non-destructive in nature, with edits applied automatically to a newly generated TIFF file and not the original.
It also takes advantage of Lightroom and its efficiencies for every day tasks, like the ability to edit multiple images in one session, saving time for photographers. Color Efex Pro 3.0 filters are the leading photographic filters for digital photography. Widely used by many of today's professional photographers, the award-winning Color Efex Pro includes U Point technology for precise selective control and offers 52 traditional and stylizing filters that let users quickly and easily perform high quality retouching, color correction and creative enhancements. For more product information including video lessons visit:. All Nik Software plug-in products now feature Nik Software’s patented U Point technology which revolutionizes the way photographers edit. U Point powered Control Points give photographers precise selective editing functions without the need to create complicated selections and layer masks. This innovative technology is easy to use and works directly on the image, empowering photographers to make selective enhancements in a fraction of the time needed by using other methods.
Nik Software also announces that all of its remaining photographic filter products are being updated to support Lightroom. The next plug-in will be Silver Efex Pro.
As these Lightroom-compatible versions become available, current owners will receive updates free of charge. All products are expected to be available by the end of the second quarter of 2009. Pricing and Availability The fully compatible Color Efex Pro 3.0 product, offering support for Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, and Apple Aperture, is available immediately for electronic delivery directly from Nik Software or through specialty camera retailers. A complete list of resellers may be found. Current owners of Color Efex Pro 3.0 may download a free update.
Color Efex Pro 3.0 comes in three versions at different price points: The Complete Edition retails for $299.95; the Select Edition retails for $159.95; the Standard Edition retails for $99.95. Customers interested in purchasing all 5 Nik Software products for Lightroom or Aperture only may pre-purchase the Nik Software Complete Collection for Lightroom or Aperture for $299.95. Customers may also pre-purchase the Ultimate Complete Collection, which adds support for Adobe Photoshop in addition to Lightroom and Apple Aperture and retails for $599.95. Customers pre-purchasing the Complete Collection will receive email notification for each product as they become available.
For more information about Color Efex Pro 3.0, including video tutorials highlighting the software running within Lightroom and free 15-day fully functional trial versions, please visit. About Nik Software Nik Software, Inc. Is a privately held company that develops software solutions for the growing digital imaging and photography markets.
Established in 1995, Nik Software has become the recognized leader in digital photographic filter development and produces award-winning technology and software products for digital photography and imaging professionals including U Point® technology , Dfine®, Viveza™, Color Efex Pro™, Silver Efex Pro™, and Sharpener Pro™ software.
Nik Software’s Color Efex Pro 3.0 is a bundle of filters designed for use with digital photography software. If you are thinking about buying Color Efex Pro 3.0, you are probably asking yourself three questions: I’ve already laid out a bundle for Lightroom or Photoshop—how can I justify going out and buying an expensive add-on? Why do I need this software when Photoshop already comes with filters? There are literally squint-million add-ons for Photoshop and Lightroom—how do I decide which one to buy? I’ll get to these questions in a moment.
But first let me cover the commercial details. Color Efex Pro 3.0 is available as either a download or boxed software. The various edition options, number of filters, and software compatibly are shown in Table 1. Each of the Color Efex Pro 3.0 editions will run on either Windows or Mac OS X operating systems, but you need to specify your operating system before you purchase or download the software.
This review refers to Color Efex Pro 3.0 Complete edition when used with Photoshop running on Mac OS X 10.6. Where to Buy Photo.net’s partners have Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 available. Their prices are fair and you help to support photo.net. nikcolor-efex-pro. Download a Editions Number of Filters Price Compatibility Standard 15 $99.95 Photoshop, Aperture, Nikon Capture NX2 Select 35 $159.95 Photoshop, Aperture, Nikon Capture NX2 Complete 52 $299.95 Photoshop, Aperture, Nikon Capture NX2, Lightroom Table 1: Color Efex Pro 3.0 comes in three different editions; only the Complete edition works with Lightroom as well as Photoshop.
By the way, don’t worry about the “Pro” tacked on to the end of the name of this product. Probably someone in marketing thought the whole thing would sound better with one more word in the software name—but this is software for serious amateur photographers and professionals alike. Should You Buy Color Efex Pro 3.0 Complete? I won’t keep you in suspense until the end of this review. My answer to this question is a resounding, “Yes, if you are a serious digital photographer using Aperture, Lightroom, or Photoshop—Color Efex Pro 3.0 Complete is worth its cost.” I use Color Efex Pro 3.0 Complete every day that I use Photoshop, and on almost every photo that I process. I find its value unbeatable in terms of both image enhancement and the creative effects it provides that can be applied to images.
There’s nothing in the filters that come with Photoshop that compare in usefulness to many of the Color Efex Pro filters. I’ve evaluated a number of other Photoshop filter add-ons While many of them are unique and have considerable value no other third-party filter collection provides the extensive variety and consistently high quality of Color Efex Pro 3.0. Let me run through how Color Efex 3.0 works, and you’ll begin to see what I mean. Running Color Efex Pro 3.0 Complete After you’ve installed Color Efex Pro 3.0 Complete, you’ll find a Nik Software item towards the bottom of your Photoshop Filter menu.
Color Efex Pro 3.0 Complete is on a fly-out menu that appears when your mouse hovers over the Nik Software item. To open the Color Efex Pro filter set, click on the Color Efex menu item as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1: To open Color Efex Pro, choose its menu item, found under Nik Software on the Photoshop filter menu. This is a good time to strongly suggest that you take a couple of preliminary steps before you open Color Efex Pro. First, it is always a good practice to make sure you save your work before taking this step. Depending upon your software and hardware configuration, Color Efex Pro does occasionally cause Photoshop to crash.
Second, I suggest you duplicate the layer you would like to work on, and apply your choice of Color Efex Pro filter to the duplicate layer. This will give you the opportunity to use the Color Efex Pro filter effects at reduced opacity by cutting down the opacity of the duplicate layer to which the filter was applied. You can also use a layer mask to selectively display the duplicate layer with the effects. Color Efex Pro does provide a mechanism for painting in selective application of its effects, but I find the interface for this clunky.
Since you can use Photoshop’s layer masking features, why do this in yet another interface—and one that in my opnion is not intuitively obvious? If you’ve taken my advice, and duplicated your layer before opening Color Efex Pro, be sure to set Color Efex Pro so that it doesn’t add yet another layer. My experience has been that letting Color Efex Pro do layer duplication has led to some issues with software stability. To do this, once Color Efex Pro has opened, click Settings in the lower left of the Color Efex Pro window, and in the Settings dialog choose apply the filtered effect to the current layer as shown in Figure 2. Figure 2: I suggest duplicating the layer yourself in Photoshop, then having Color Efex Pro work directly on the duplicate layer using the Color Efex Pro settings dialog.
I’m putting the cart a little bit ahead of the horse here, because I’ve shown the Settings window before the primary Color Efex window, which is shown in Figure 3. Figure 3: The main Color Efex Pro window. Color Efex Pro loads with the first filter in its list, B&W Conversion loaded. This is a decent monochromatic conversion filter, but not as powerful as Nik’s Silver Efex Pro (which is, in fairness, an entire product devoted to black and white conversion) or as flexible as the Black & White adjustment layer feature available in Photoshop itself. All 52 filters are shown along the left-hand side of the window, as you can see in Figure 4. Figure 4: The Color Efex Pro Complete filter list. Obviously, figuring out what each filter does takes a bit of time.
The name of each filter as shown in Figure 4 and Table 2 helps somewhat, but in some cases these names don’t mean that much. What exactly is a Monday Morning filter? If you think of struggling to work with a grainy and grim cup of nearly monochromatic coffee, feeling hung over and blurry you are about right in my opinion.
This is one filter I don’t use much—but it may be right for you. One of the strengths of Color Efex Pro is that there is surely something for every photographer. To truly play with all these filters could take many Photoshop-person years before you internalized what they are all for, and what they could do. Many of the filters themselves—for example, Cross Processing—come with extensive sub-options. Essentially, Cross Processing is an entire world of filters within a single filter. But more on that in a moment.
Nik makes organizing and keeping track of the filter collection a little easier by dividing them onto separate tabs. Color Efex Pro opens with all the filters showing, but you can click the Traditional, Stylizing, Landscape, or Portrait tabs to see a smaller cross-section of filters. Of course, not all effects are so easily categorized—or confined to one category. For example, Glamour Glow is considered a portrait effect, but I often use it on images that are not portraits.
Divided into categories, Table 2 shows the 52 Color Efex Pro 3.0 filters (some filters appear in more than one category. The sheer numerical quantity of the filters gives you some idea of what a workhorse this filter pack is—and almost all the filters are both robust, and come with many sub options that can be chosen. May 21, 2010 at 6:13 pm. I really enjoyed the review of the latest version of the Nik software, but am a bit disappointed that it was never mentioned how effective Color efex Pro is when used in conjunction with Capture NX2. Capture is, in my estimation, an excellent program and is often overlooked in this arena.
Thanks for letting me speak my peace. Enjoy the monthly newsletters and the website tremendously.
Michael. To post a reply. May 21, 2010 at 7:03 pm. Color Efex has an option to automatically create a layer and apply the desired filter to it. If I remember right, this is the default option; or at least it somehow ended up set that way when I installed it.
To post a reply. May 21, 2010 at 11:43 pm. I am eager to know how it works for Capture NX2 users. To post a reply. May 22, 2010 at 2:07 am. The Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 works great in Nikon NX2.
It's great to have all those filters, but you must learn what they can do. You can use several filters together. I also have my favorite filters in Color Efex - The full package is recommended. Www.flickr.com/steenheilesen. To post a reply. May 22, 2010 at 6:34 am.
Did they fix the bug where Photoshop crashes if you apply an effect to a selection, instead of the whole layer? This happens if Color Efex tries to create a new layer with the effect. To post a reply. May 22, 2010 at 7:15 am. i have been using color efex pro for a while now. I had never changed the settings, as suggested in your review. Will do this and start duplicating the layer first.
Thanks for the info!. To post a reply. May 22, 2010 at 5:32 pm. I really like the personal quality to this review. From my perspective the real issue is price of the pro vs the select edition. I would like to see some critical comment on whether the additional pro filters are worth the extra $$$ ed.
To post a reply. May 22, 2010 at 10:53 pm. @Ed - This page shows the comparative composition of each of the editions: Bottom line: for my money, most of the filters I use regularly are in the Complete Edition, and not the Select Edition, so the Complete Edition is worth the extra money in my opinion. To post a reply. May 24, 2010 at 4:27 pm. Unfortunately these Nik filters are not compatible with Aperture 3 in 64-bit mode right now. Maybe one day they will be.
To post a reply. June 1, 2010 at 12:38 am. I have used Color Efex Pro Complete almost since it came out.
I know that if I had to apply the filters I use regularly by hand in Photoshop, if I could, it would take forever. The time saved by this program is well worth the cost of it. In a very short time, it will have paid for itself. I often take a photo I'm working on and just run it through the list of filters just to see what some possibilities are. The program has contributed greatly to the uniqueness of my photography.
I use it both in NX2 and in Photoshop. I have never had Photoshop crash when working with only a portion of a photograph, by the way. If you're still deciding whether or not to get the program.use the trial version first. Warning.very, very addicting!. To post a reply.
June 3, 2010 at 9:22 am. I have this collection and I don't regret buying it.Love love this program,I also have the other Nik Software and all wonderful filters as well. Nik can also be used with Paintshop Pro X2 that's what I'm using it with.They had a demo with PSP and that's how I got hooked:). To post a reply. June 17, 2010 at 11:21 am. Hi, I dowloaded the trial just to check if it is worth to buy it or not, I'm running CS5 on a MacBookPro, when I installed Nik Color Efex 3 the installer couldn't find the right path to install the files so i manually selected it (HD/applications/adobe photoshop cs5/plug-in) everything looks working fine but when I open PS cs5 the nik subfolder is not there, does anybody know about this?. To post a reply.
June 24, 2010 at 2:28 pm. The Capture NX2 version of PRO 3.0 is priced at $179.99. To post a reply. June 25, 2010 at 11:27 am. If it is of any help for the owners of CS5 I found out what was the problem,these plug-ins are not compatible with the 64bit structure of PS CS5 yet, therefore you need to run photoshop at 32 bit and not 64 bit(which is the default setting). To post a reply.
From the moment I downloaded the trial version from their website, I was hooked. Sure, you could probably duplicate these effects in Photoshop, but with this product it's done in seconds - and it's a lot more fun too. I was surprised by how powerful this tool is, and how easy it is to use. Sure, I was skeptical at first, and didn't think I was going to like this tool. I was addicted and HAD to buy it as soon as my trial period expired. Oh, and if you've notice noise in your images, try Dfine® 2.0.
It works like magic. I have had the entire Nik Products Suite for several years now and admittedly have a love-hate relationship with the software. Yes, it can do neat things - but on the other hand, it's time consuming (NOT a time saver) and so you have to ask yourself it is really is worth it for the massive time sink in your workflow. First, 3.0 cleared up nearly all the program-crashing bugs that plagued a lot of Nik's software with Photoshop and version 2.0. The program runs cleanly when invoked and very rarely has it crashed on me.
That stability is important: if Nik crashes, so too does your Photoshop. You will lose all work done to that point. What Nik does is bring some creative effects to the table. The default of the effects (you can download a free demo to try them) always starts to strong.
But you can create your own presets within the interface so you can always achieve consistent color effects. That's important since the program goes back to default settings once Photoshop is closed. But with effects from the ever-popular Bleach Bypass, Cross Processing, and color toning, there is a lot to like here. As well, you can control clipping in the lights and darks with many of the effects (or, if you have copious amounts of time, fiddle with the vaunted U-Control points). So, in all, what it does, it does well. But here's the problem: this program is expensive AND a HUGE time sink.
If you don't mind spending 10-20 minutes on each image you create (i.e., you do NOT have a life and don't mind sitting in front of the computer all day/night), this program will give you great images! But most of us, especially those with professional portrait studios, don't have the time. Honestly, almost all of Color Efex effects can be done in LR if you unlock the right combination.
And in LR, unlike Color Efex Pro, your images are non destructively edited. Color Efex has a huge Achilles Heel (in both the PS and LR versions): you can only do ONE effect at a time. Which means you invoke the program, select your effect, play around with the sliders, then exit out. Then you have to invoke it again for each new effect. Just doing a simple toned bleach bypass effect with Color Efex Pro is 10 minutes already - before any retouching is even started. I've come to realize over the last year that as neat as the program is, it's not worth having sessions take 8 hours to process instead of 1 hour with a straight Lightroom edit that doesn't invoke the program. So here's my assessment: if you are a hobbyist with a lot of time to lavish attention on one single image for 30-60 minutes (or you want to make portfolio images special), then you will like what this program gives you (though I always encourage people to learn LR better anyway).
If you are a professional or plan to become a professional who goes through large sessions, then I don't recommend the program. It's just too much of a time sink spent tinkering around with images (and losing consistency throughout as a result). My time is worth too much to spend with a program that won't even allow you to layer effects at the same time. From the moment I downloaded the trial version from their website, I was hooked.
Sure, you could probably duplicate these effects in Photoshop, but with this product it's done in seconds - and it's a lot more fun too. I was surprised by how powerful this tool is, and how easy it is to use. Sure, I was skeptical at first, and didn't think I was going to like this tool.
I was addicted and HAD to buy it as soon as my trial period expired. Oh, and if you've notice noise in your images, try Dfine® 2.0. It works like magic. I love what this does to reduce time in photoshop but it just makes you want more, I do believe that you will probably save money by buying the complete set because they all work together and so far I have bought 2 other programs to go with this, Define 2.0 and Viveza. They each do something different and they can work alone but i am finding that as you get into the details of the touchups you have a tendency to go back and forth between programs. They just make a really nice set. My only problem with the whole set is I am not into HDR and that is one of the programs and I believe it is the most expensive.
I digress, This is a fun and very creative program and I'm glad that I bought it. I am sure that in the long run it will save me many hours behind the computer which will free me up to spend more time behind the camera. I have had the entire Nik Products Suite for several years now and admittedly have a love-hate relationship with the software. Yes, it can do neat things - but on the other hand, it's time consuming (NOT a time saver) and so you have to ask yourself it is really is worth it for the massive time sink in your workflow.
First, 3.0 cleared up nearly all the program-crashing bugs that plagued a lot of Nik's software with Photoshop and version 2.0. The program runs cleanly when invoked and very rarely has it crashed on me. That stability is important: if Nik crashes, so too does your Photoshop.
You will lose all work done to that point. What Nik does is bring some creative effects to the table. The default of the effects (you can download a free demo to try them) always starts to strong. But you can create your own presets within the interface so you can always achieve consistent color effects. That's important since the program goes back to default settings once Photoshop is closed.
But with effects from the ever-popular Bleach Bypass, Cross Processing, and color toning, there is a lot to like here. As well, you can control clipping in the lights and darks with many of the effects (or, if you have copious amounts of time, fiddle with the vaunted U-Control points). So, in all, what it does, it does well.
But here's the problem: this program is expensive AND a HUGE time sink. If you don't mind spending 10-20 minutes on each image you create (i.e., you do NOT have a life and don't mind sitting in front of the computer all day/night), this program will give you great images! But most of us, especially those with professional portrait studios, don't have the time. Honestly, almost all of Color Efex effects can be done in LR if you unlock the right combination. And in LR, unlike Color Efex Pro, your images are non destructively edited. Color Efex has a huge Achilles Heel (in both the PS and LR versions): you can only do ONE effect at a time. Which means you invoke the program, select your effect, play around with the sliders, then exit out.
Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 Download
Then you have to invoke it again for each new effect. Just doing a simple toned bleach bypass effect with Color Efex Pro is 10 minutes already - before any retouching is even started.
I've come to realize over the last year that as neat as the program is, it's not worth having sessions take 8 hours to process instead of 1 hour with a straight Lightroom edit that doesn't invoke the program. So here's my assessment: if you are a hobbyist with a lot of time to lavish attention on one single image for 30-60 minutes (or you want to make portfolio images special), then you will like what this program gives you (though I always encourage people to learn LR better anyway). If you are a professional or plan to become a professional who goes through large sessions, then I don't recommend the program. It's just too much of a time sink spent tinkering around with images (and losing consistency throughout as a result). My time is worth too much to spend with a program that won't even allow you to layer effects at the same time. While there is no doubt that photoshop CS5 is feature packed, If I could have only one additional thing, it would be this suite.
Whle all the effects are to numerous to go into depth here, let me just say that Tonal Contrast, and Pro Contrast alone make this worth the price. In addition Color Efex pro will let you accomplish with one step (maybe 2) many multi step Photoshop tasks. This product is about streamlining your workflow. Everything it does you can do in photoshop already, but what Color Efex pro does, it let you do it faster and easier. Try it out, you won't be disappointed.
Free Download link: The purpose of Nik Software's Sharpener Pro 3.0 is to sharpen an image according to certain criteria. You don't just choose an overall sharpening adjustment, but you do it according to the intention of the output. Some programs for enlarging images also use similar types of criteria.
This program incorporates special algorithms designed for digital photography. It is geared toward photographers. It offers two types of sharpening, Raw Presharpening and the Output Sharpening. It is designed for Output sharpening; Display (what you see on the screen) is a type of Output. It is very exact as to type of paper, printer dpi, etc.
I will go into this in the review. Nik Software advocates either a 1 or 2 step process. They state that most photographers will only use Output Sharpening. They advocate using this method or, for finer results, adding Presharpening to it. If you are starting with Presharpening, which you can only do with camera raw images, you turn off the sharpening in Camera Raw, for example if using Adobe Photoshop, as well as in your digital camera. Then, you and apply a small amount of sharpening to the image after converting the RAW file and after any noise reduction has been applied.
The greatest amount of sharpening is applied right before output using specific criteria. Nik plug-ins share a basic uniformity of interface and type of controls.
This lessens the learning curve a lot although it doesn't eliminate it when using the different programs. I will be treating each of my reviews on Nik Software plug-ins individually so there probably will be some repetition of features. One of the basic features is U Point® Technology which relies on Control Points.
Using these Control Points, you can determine how much or little you affect the localized area.
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