34 http://www.amateurphotographer.co.ukTechnique NIK COLLECTION 3
THE KNACK OF NIK: HIGHLIGHTS OF THE COLLECTION
Silver Efex excellence
Silver Efex Pro remains the gold standard for
black & white conversion and editing, with a
huge range of tools and some really powerful
filters. Use Control Points with extra ‘structure’
to bring out bags of texture and detail in key
parts of your image.Analog with attitude
Analog Efex Pro, which we also featured
recently, is great for adding old-school effects.
The interface takes some getting used to, but
you can also add double exposure effects,
create triptychs and much more. The options
are almost endless.En Vogue
Color Efex Pro, along with the other constituent
programs, also gives quick access to the new
En Vogue presets. We particularly like Blue
Monday, which is a quick and effective way to
add mood and atmosphere. Remember that
these presets are just a starting point, though.DxO’s Nik Collection just keeps
getting better. Geo Harris explores
some of the key improvements in the
latest major upgrade, version 3
C
onsidering the future of
the Nik Collection was
in doubt only three
years ago, this
well-loved software suite has come
a long way since it was acquired by
DxO from Google (never a
particularly good fit). There has
been a steady stream of updates
over the past six months and now
there’s another major upgrade in
the shape of version 3. Over the
next three pages we’ll introduce
some of the major changes and
tweaks to the collection. To recap, it
consists of Silver Efex Pro, for black
& white conversion; Analog Efex
Pro for adding vintage/analogue
film effects; Color Efex Pro, fortweaking colours and adding
creative filters; Dfine, for reducing
noise; HDR Efex Pro, for HDR
effects; Sharpener Pro, for
sharpening; Viveza, for fine tuning
colour and tone; and the new
Perspective Efex, for correcting
converging verticals, making other
geometric corrections and adding
miniature or fish-eye effects. That’s
a lot of software for £125.
As well as the ease of use, wide
range of tools and non-destructive
editing for Lightroom users, Nik
Collection 3 has an impressive
range of presets and filters. The En
Vogue collection is particularly
worth trying (it was also
available on previousGet it in
the Nik