My favourite image processing software in action - the Nik Collection

This is an independent look at the Nik Collection - a software package I've used for over 10 years.
If you'd like to learn more about the Nik Collection, please click this affiliate link:
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[@Simonsutak]

Here are time links to different sections: <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="0">00:00</a> Introduction <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="123">02:03</a> The image processing software packages I use <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="211">03:31</a> The processing challenge (for accentuating/reducing effects) <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="318">05:18</a> The Nik Collection <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="412">06:52</a> Accentuating bokeh highlights and bubbles <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="618">10:18</a> Processing images with swirls <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="667">11:07</a> The power of darken/lighten adjustments <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="789">13:09</a> Producing low key and high key images <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="902">15:02</a> Some of the best other creative effects <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1015">16:55</a> Thank you for watching!

[@mitjalunder]

Nice to see a video from you after a long time! :)

[@Simonsutak]

Thank you! How time flies!

[@stephenreynolds6414]

I have been using the Nik Collection for 10 years or so too. An excellent piece of software, and have moved from Adobe to DXO Photolab for a few years.

[@Needacreate]

Have used and loved the Nik Collection for quite a few years now, but after your demonstrations, I definitely want to explore more of it than I have so far. Super-instructive and fun video, Simon.

[@Simonsutak]

Many thanks!

[@damsjs6866]

Outstanding video. I have been using the Nik collection, but almost exclusively Silver Effects Pro. I appreciated learning about the other options in the other Nik elements. Thank you for another great and educational video.

[@iancxxx]

Awesome video thank you for shining some much needed light on the NIK photo processing software.

[@kingpossie]

Love this Simon- wishing you all the best from the Netherlands 🇳🇱

[@Simonsutak]

Thank you!

[@godzillasuzuki2374]

I remember when this software was free

[@Simonsutak]

Yes, my old versions, were free, given away by Google, before DxO took over. It was a steal!

[@reyjes]

I had never thought to use the Nik Collection until watching this video. I had seen it, but as you know there are so many things out there. The link you provided helped a lot. It also happens that yesterday I took photos of a friend, for her graduation. So it comes at an opportune time. Thank you!

[@Simonsutak]

You're welcome!

[@jasonlacey5979]

Absolutely first class, you are the first presenter from Nik that I have been able to understand... Bravo

[@geoffreymee7671]

That was a really nice presentation, interesting throughout. Thank you.

[@marcusoutdoors4999]

I’m blown away, a superb masterclass.

[@davidatkinson1413]

Brilliant Simon. Very practical and insightful. I have been using SilverEfex Pro for a while but you have whetted my appetite for using the rest of the collection. Thank you so much.

[@vijayu12]

I am viewing your videos for a long time. I have purchased many vintage lenses and enjoying them on my Fuji camera. You are doing a fantastic job. Vijay Singhal New Delhi

[@barrycohen311]

Hell yeah brother!!!

[@Simonsutak]

Many thanks for kind words! Cheers, Simon

[@digipak07]

Greetings from Pakistan 🇵🇰 . I have been a silent follower for many years. Here i am thanking you fir your work that has helped me immensely in my photography. Great video on Nik collection 👍

[@Simonsutak]

Hello! Many thanks for you kind words - great to hear from you.

[@rayrayg9]

Love Nik Collection! My key takeaway from this video is that each filter should not be judged by their deault settings, each can be used in various ways/purposes. Fun fact: Nik Software co-developed Nikon's raw editor and was the innovator (or maybe one of the..) of the selective area tool that's become ubiquitous in many photo editing software.

[@jasonlacey5979]

Excellent reminder... Great presentation thank you

[@bcostin]

Nik Collection is excellent. Each app is really packed with features. Your demonstration has reminded me to explore some of filters and effects I may have not used to full potential. It's also nice to hear FastStone mentioned. It's a really handy and lightweight app for quick edits and basic file management.

[@trinityharbour7054]

I enjoyed watching something different from you. A whole other side to the magic. Well done!

[@Simonsutak]

Thank you! It was a fun video to put together.

[@photochop9657]

Very useful and easy to understand, thankyou.

[@jelbo64]

Great video. You commented on my Flickr question the other day. I agree with all your points and use Nik software too. Subtlety is the key!

[@rninnim]

Hi simon, i too have been using the nik collection for about ten years when it was first part of google, i use color pro 4 still and mainly use it inside lightroom as a plug in so i dont effect my originals. The pro contrast in dynamic is my go to with my night shots of cars, but i find all the filters have a use and i think everyone should use this software in some way, your advice and tips are really helpful too thanks.

[@NullStaticVoid]

I used to have a very tedious method using Photoshop and Camera raw. First knock down the saturation to black and white. Then use highlights/shadows, contrast, sharpening etc to make that look good. Then bring the saturation back up and work with color mixer and hue/color temp to bring out the right balance. Then at some point they updated Camera Raw and Texture/Clarity and Dehaza become my go to's. Much faster. I usually only hve to tweak color temp a little and maybe knock down highlights. Way faster. One in 100 images I do need to do actual photoshop stuff to punch up something that isn't coming across the way it could. Usually a mask applied to one channel of color is all. Though I am partial to duping an image and using the overlay compositing rule to punch up the whole image absurdly hard.

[@robertmcgee6853]

love this video, Thanks.

[@ianharper6015]

Very useful. Thank you.

[@neilcousineau4956]

Thnaks for the tutoroial I am planning to buy DXO 7 soon and wasnt sure if I would add Film Pack or the Nik Collention. This has been very helpful. Thanks

[@marcstaples9930]

Ihave only been using Lightroom, Photoshop and Silver Efex Pro 2 for B&W and now will be using also Color Efex Pro4 after seeing your video with my vintage exposures. Amazing what I can get additionally when using Color Pro as well - thanks.

[@rodcummings3606]

Thanks so much for providing this insight into your post processing. I’ve often wondered what software and techniques you were using to bring out the Bokeh and fine tune the look. I own some of the same lenses as you have - and just wasn’t seeing the same results. Now we know. It’s invaluable to learn your workflow from using Nik Collection for 10 years. I’ve just downloaded the trial from your link and are installing the LR plug-in as I type this message.

[@Simonsutak]

Many thanks Rod, hope you enjoy the trial!

[@kemerthomson]

A very welcome discussion/demonstration. I have used many of the Nik tools for years, but I know I underutilize many of them. For example, I had never thought of using Bleach Bypass the way you did. One thing you didn’t discuss is the use of control points to selectively apply various filters: a big topic because the possibilities are endless, but I’d love to see how you might use this.

[@Poludioskroz]

Love Nik collection,I'm using PsCS5 and NC as a plug-in...mostly silver and color efex

[@anamorphicalan]

Amazing

[@johndwilliams]

Hi Simon. I've just 'discovered' vintage lenses and love the potential results. Now starting to understand them and their characteristics. Benefits and disadvantages of coatings. Already have Nik but only used it for black and white so far. Looking forward to trying these tips.

[@Simonsutak]

Have fun!

[@RS-Amsterdam]

Using NIKs suite from almost DAY-1 but not so much the Color Efex anymore. In the beginning it was fun but I got bored with it after a while. Try Exposure X7 for a change, for your film simulations and as a starting point for your edits, color as well as black and white. Very powerful Thanks for sharing.

[@Simonsutak]

Thanks for this recommendation.

[@MD-wk3gj]

As always, your videos are appreciated Any suggestions for those who use vintage lenses and make videos?

[@Simonsutak]

I'm also looking for good video processing software!

[@joystickmusic]

I still use snapseed on my phone and ipad. It's bought by google and they are now neglecting it. But it is made by the same folks as Nik, I believe. It is very creative too. The downside being it exports only as jpg. Photomator is also very nice on the iPad. It offers debanding, which can occur in gradients after processing, especially if there was little noise in the image.

[@0_Edgar_Allan_Poe]

I use Exposure X6 and Silver Efex. I shoot mostly black and white. I even use Silver Efex to process my film images.

[@scrptwic]

Simon I use Photosccape X Pro to process my images I tried it and found it does what I need to adjust my photos

[@MrFreakwent]

Very interesting. I still use the old Google branded Nik collection that Google gave away - v 4.0 I believe. It is still useful and works to this day on Windows 10 PC. I'd like to compare the difference to DXO's offering.

[@Simonsutak]

I've got the old free Google version as well. The DxO version has sorted out some glitches (in my old version anyway) - for example, saving processed files. My old version used to shut down the app. each time I directly saved a file from the save button, and also assigned random new file names if I "saved as". That's sorted now. But more importantly, there are new filters and sliders that I find useful too.

[@giklab]

Out of curiosity, have you ever tried Filmulator? (I use Affinity, but Filmulator seemed neat when I tried it a while ago)

[@markielinhart]

Fabulous vid, I’ve been looking for PP software beyond Apple Photo for a while and the Nik collection appeals. Particularly Silver Efex, as a mostly bnw shooter. All the AI progs don’t work for me at all. Also it’s very reasonably priced and there’s no subscription involved. Thanks again✌️🌻🇦🇺

[@Simonsutak]

You're welcome!

[@paulwardropper9579]

google lost a gold mine when they sold this to dxo , i love my nik software on version 6 now

[@ЭтоДрючинский]

What's very inconvénient with all these software such as Photoshop and dedicated raw converters is a separation of cataloguing and editing into completely different workflows. More than that - you have to perform casting and editing one after another. It makes the process painful and ineffective. So to quit this I bonded myself to LR at first. But it (as well as CameraRaw) has some awful colour problems! So, with pain again (as I had to wait for some basic-most functionality for years) I moved to C1. And despite I can't call it as handy and nice as I wish it could be, and also can't call PhaseOne support any good, but this is my place to settle - colour and editing tools are one of the best. Despite still lacking some things such as selective recolouring other than g-m shift.

[@markawilliams4860]

Does the Nik collection have a good answer to Lightroom's new masking tools? I desperately want to get away from adobe software, but lightroom and photoshop are my last holdout. Those AI and object recognition masking tools are just so frickin good at batch processing.

[@cvijax]

I like very much the results you get with your approach. Unfortunately (or luckily) a Linux geek like me has very limited choice for making his workflow. A bit more involved I'd say.

[@philosophicalphotography]

DxO's stuff ROCKS. Have yet to find one of there pieces of software that does not impress!

[@photosinneighborhood]

You may use a script for more efficient communications. There’s much talk with less information

[@epostbuoyebuoy8974]

"stand alone collection" (<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="344">5:44</a>)? Well, not anymore?

[@Nik-6675]

Hmmm

[@alexandrorodrigez]

I was thinking you are goiing to tell about Darktable... But again Adobe is here.

[@AI3Dorinte]

Tried this software, have to say the only reason I would use it is if I couldn't afford Lightroom...

[@Simonsutak]

I think it depends on what you want to use it for. For me, it can do some tasks easily very well that Lightroom cannot.

[@AI3Dorinte]

@@Simonsutak dehaze, texture, highlights/shadows.

[@user-zk4cq6ck2h]

incredibly useless not to transfer the mask to photoshop.

[@chrisloomis1489]

Amazing ; I shall order this as soon as I finish paying some huge bills !! 😄 Been buying Leica M cameras.

[@Simonsutak]

Good for you! I seem to recall that at least one of the Leica Monochrom cameras came with NIK Silver Efex Pro software.

[@maxfalconforever]

Hello! Does anybody have free torrent of the app?