Originally posted by loco Yeah, the control points are really useful.
Those with experience dodging and burning in the 'wet' darkroom will find Nik's
Control Points very familiar and useful - even to the extent of manipulating color. Many of the plug-ins will also work as
stand-alone tools if you simply click on the .EXE files after installing them in a discrete folder -- try it.
Those that use
Faststone Image Viewer for modest JPG processing can add .EXE files into the "
Edit With External Program" option (in the right click menu) to preview the possibilities possible with other software of your choice or you could work directly in the plug-in after right-clicking an image in the browser. Easy access to
Vivesa for local/spot Color and Levels corrections can quickly tweak a dull JPG image.
The tutorials on the Nik site are instructive and the presets in various plug-ins offer insight into many image manipulations you might never try otherwise. For instance,
Color Efex and
Analog Efex are easy graphic introductions to film characteristics and glass filters of that era.
I've used Nik plug-ins with Corel programs and FsIV since their introduction and IMO you'll miss an opportunity to acquire a respected set of once-expensive PP tools for free if you don't take advantage of this offer.