http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk 35
Withdozensof
qualitypresets
andfilters,youare
spoiledforchoiceMagic miniatures
Using Perspective Efex, you can easily replicate
the effects of tilt and shift or toy lenses.
Specifying the area to remain in focus takes a
bit of getting used but there are lots of options,
and Perspective Efex is a great addition to the
Nik Collection.
Take back control
Easily overlooked, the Viveza plug-in seems a
bit superfl uous, as other constituent programs
also use the control point system for local
adjustment. It is well worth spending some
time getting used to control points, however, as
it’s a key part of the Nik offering.Keep the noise down
Again, the Dfi ne noise reduction tool might get
overlooked if you mainly use Photoshop or
Lightroom to reduce noise in your images, but
it’s well worth trying, with plenty of options.
The Loupe tool is not the most intuitive but you
get used to it.Accessing the
Nik Collection
While the collection works fi ne as a standalone package, to
get the best results it is best to use it as a set of plug-ins for
your main image editor, such as Adobe Lightroom or
Photoshop, or as part of DxO’s PhotoLab 3. I mainly use it as
a plug-in when working on raw fi les in Lightroom Classic, and
you simply right click on an image to access the collection’s
programs. A key improvement in version 3 is the ability to
make non-destructive edits in Lightroom Classic, via the TIFF
Multipage fi ll format. In other words the original image is left
unchanged, and you do this by ticking the ‘Save and edit later’
box in the bottom right corner of the screen (Multiple TIFF
fi les are quite large, however). A new box, called the Nik
Selective Tool, now appears in Photoshop too.Non-destructive editing is now available for Lightroom Classic users