[daacon]

I was lookig at this software and while it is expensive it looks pretty good. I find myself using LR more than PS these days and try and only use PS when I have to. It should be noted I am a novice at both.

I first heard of this product from a post by Seamuis Here . (oh and in relation to that thread - CS2 purchased Friend's Education discount, CS3 we won't talk about, and I purchased CS4/LR 2 daughters university education discount).

The reviews I have been able to find seem to indicate the software is good.

I was wondering a couple of things
) Personal expereince with the product
2) Upgrade policy
3) Can you run it on more than one computer (I have several).
4) Has anyone purchased it through the Educational Discount ?

Thanks in advance.

[vievetrick]

Interested in your responses as I have been using LR now for a few months as well. I am still learning but know the basics. So I am essentially tagging the thread

[daacon]

Pat here is a nice review Nik Review – A great review of all Nik Software it contains a coupon code that is also good for 15% off (and I checked it was good as of a few minutes ago anyway) - there are some individual reviews of each product. So far I can't find a bad one. I pm'ed Seamuis hopefully he will reply

[séamuis]

I was wondering a couple of things
) Personal expereince with the product
2) Upgrade policy
3) Can you run it on more than one computer (I have several).
4) Has anyone purchased it through the Educational Discount ?

my personal experience is nothing but excellent. it is by far the best option for B&W work.

here is my little description of the program:

it has a whole host of useful and really neat features such as colour filters, various film simulations (the only one that has Kodak Panatomic-X 32 ASA!) using what they call a 'grain engine' that according to Nik 'recreates your image out of grain mimicking the traditional silver halide process.' I have to say that its by far the most accurate and realistic looking film and grain emulation that I have seen (and I am a former user of Exposure2) it has a neat assortment of 'presets' with the ability to modify or create your own through the stylizing options which include toning, vignette and edge burning. this is of course something you would be familiar with if you use Lightroom. and of course it has all the controls and adjustments you would expect such as toning, brightness, contrast, structure (which as far as I can tell is a sharpening tool) shadows & highlights, but the Pièce de résistance is the U-Point system. this is by far the most useful tool in the program. basically it is a selective adjustment tool that allows you to select any part of an image, adjust the size of the effected area and then selectively adjust overall tonality with brightness, contrast and structure. all of this without any masking! photoshop users will be familiar with this hassle. you can have as many separate points as you wish.

I find the layout and use is incredibly well designed and easy to use. would be very familiar to lightroom users regarding layout. I cant say for certain wether its the program or maybe just my computer but I find that it runs much slower in Lightroom than in photoshop (I have it for both) but its not a big deal. I haven't really used the program enough to know all the ins and outs but it is a little sparse in the settings functions (shows its 'plugin' status here as opposed to functioning like a standalone app.) so not much in the way of user customizing the actual program. workflow is rather fast. one thing I have noticed is that everytime I use the program I have to open up the menus such as film types and stylizing ( I really wish it would remember what I opened last) this is annoying because even when using a preset, if you want to make individual changes you have to open the menus and scroll. probably not as annoying on a huge monitor though. the zoom function is a bit lame though as you only get fit to screen 100% and 300% with no scrolling or selecting of intermediate zoom levels.

comparing it to Exposure2, I have to say that it is sparse. not counting the fact that with exposure2 you get film emulation for both colour and B&W. the options and available adjustments really trump Silver Efex Pro. however I find that the results I get from SE Pro far better than what I get from Exposure2. cant really explain why though. the layout and controls of Exposure2 other than having more of them aren't as well laid out (or attractively presented) as SE Pro. I would say for someone who has the time and patience as well as wanting absolute control over everything might be happier with Exposure2. however I dont feel that what SE Pro offers is an any way inadequate and likely is more than what a lot of people will want or need in the way of adjustment. and of course Exposure2 has nothing like U-Point. which again is an incredibly useful tool, for which I use in virtually every photo I run through SE Pro. in fact I feel comfortable in recommending SE Pro for this ability alone.

as for the rest of your questions, I really cant answer. it would probably be best to checkout the Nik software website for those answers.

[daacon]

Thanks Seamuis that was what I was looking for.

[Eigengrau]

I use Nik stuff as a plug-in for Aperture, but I imagine it's similar.

Viveza is nothing short of amazing. It's the digital equivalent of flash - you can brighten certain parts of the pic selectively, and in many cases it has made a huge difference in the final shot.

Their noise reduction software seems to be competitive with Noise Ninja, and does a really nice job cleaning up a picture - some detail is lost, but it really kills the noise. I like the color and black and white effects programs as well.

My only gripe is that even with the plugins, you have to sort of open a new window to use any of the software, and it isn't nearly as fast and easy as the quick "standard" adjustments native to Aperture. So, I only end up tweaking really bad or really good shots - it isn't practical for me to use it on every single image.

[Andrew Faires]

Like Eigengrau, I'm running the Aperture plug-ins, but on a trial basis. However, my impressions are a bit different.

With Viveza, it works miracles to be sure, but when deciding if it was worth it, I found I could get equally impressive results in Aperture. The catch is Viveza is a fair bit quicker. In aperture, I'd have to play with the individual colours, luminessense and range as well as contrast, saturation and vibrance to get there while a couple of sliders in Viveza and I was there.

For Colour Efex pro, my uses for it are limited, and what I would use it for, I can do with LightZone (my main editor outside of Aperture which plays nicely with Aperture). LightZone is pretty quick and tidy so I'm not seeing as much value in the Colour efex pro as you might.

I'm not a huge b&w shooter so I haven't played much with that, but again, when I do need to convert to b&w, LightZone gets the job done. However, I do like some of the styles in Silver Efex Pro. Not enough to buy it, but they are good.

Dfine 2.0 works, but when I ran it head-to-head against Noise Ninja, I found the results and controls of Noise Ninja to be better for my purposes overall. That's a matter of personal preference though and Dfine is effective. NN is just more to my taste.

As for sharpener Pro, I haven't bothered with that as LightZone has a decent sharpener if I choose to go that route. I find I don't bother with the sharpening that much to be honest though.

Overall, I think the Nik software is very capable, and if you have no other editors, you won't be disappointed. And it's brutally simple to use which saves you a lot of time. It also seems to work brilliantly with Aperture and I'd guess it's of the same calibre in LR.

I think my only real dislike is that it's based around control points and circles radiating out from there. On the one hand it allows you some great precision in what you're trying to affect, but I find the circle a bit limiting when I can create a Zone in LightZone and make sure everything I want to affect is covered and with a simple eye-dropper I can isolate the colour just as easily. I'd rather be able to draw a specific zone and if needed, pick a specific colour within the zone than have to work with circles. To be fair though, I've only played with Nik's suite for the last week and I've used LightZone for several months now. However, I was impressed enough with the results of Noise Ninja that I bought it last night after only 2 days using the trial version.

Download the 15 day trial and download a couple of other programs as well. See what makes the most sense for how you work. Nik will deliver great results so it's just a matter of preference.

[daacon]

Thanks Eigengrau and Andrew. I appreaciate the time you have taken to add your comments here.

I know everything Nik does can be done in my existing software (I have PS and Ligthroom). As I mentioned I am trying to stablize my workflow and use Lightroom as my main tool and off to PS when (if) needed. I am looking for tools that will not only help the worklfow , but simplify it as well.

Nik does indeed have a 15 days unrestricted Trial so yes I suppose that is the way to go. I just have to make sure I take advantage of those 15 days and not let it lapse by without giving it a good run (been guilty of that before). Also I hate cluttering my PC with trial ware and then not get it. The uninstalls on most products do not alway clean everything up - but I can just take an image beofe and restore after...

[séamuis]

here are a couple of screenshots to show the interface and some output of both Exoposure2 and Silver Efex Pro. I used the photoshop version of Silver Efex Pro simply because Exposure2 is currently not lightroom supported. (se pro is the same in both lightroom and photoshop)

Exposure2

fullscreen
http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/5556/39902712.png

Silver Efex Pro

fullscreen
http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/29/28641513.png

[DJEZRAJ]

Hi Dave.
For me the Nik Plug ins are among the best i have used. My main reason is the control points which are a way of automatically creating a positive or negative mask on a particular objects color range . This alows you to include or exclude a particular color within the selected circle eg: skin tone. Now while you can easily do this with Lightzone I prefer the manipulation results with Nik. Lightzone however is quite unique in approach and should be tried at least once. I like the masking ability and the tone mapper but the color tools to me did not look natural.

Back to Nik I mostly use Define Color FX pro (a few presets) and Sharpener Pro.
Viveza is great especially for adjusting selective color casts such as faces. I do find Viveza's color to be more extreme than aperture so while Aperture can adjust luminance it is far more subtle which may be your taste. Viveza needs a fine touch to get the best out of it. The sliders could use more resolution as changing the hue makes a big change for a small movement of your mouse.

Define has always given me the best NR results especially when I do custom profiles and use a negative control point (mask) on any details where I want to retail the detail. Again a good example is masking out a face but reducing mainly on a bokeh background.

Color FX pro is my go to for filtered FX. My favorites are the following
ND Grad. Great for darkening skies or brightening the ground. It seems to do this well wthout losing to much micro contrast
Tonal contrast. It is like USM but separate for highlights midtones and shadows. Use with care and you will see contrast detail where once was not
Pro contrast Filter an color casts while restoring overall contrast with some Pop
Bleach Bypass. similar to the old darkroom process very Lightroom IMO use with care.

Silver FX pro as other have said the best B&W simulator I have seen. although my point of reference is probably not the most experience.

Sharpener pro. I use Apertures edge sharpen the most but for print this is a great plug in I read the manual as I could not figure this one out but their methodology helped. Pre-sharpen first (very subtle) and use out put sharpen next with neg mask on backgrounds or solid color or flat areas.

They are a bit pricey so I recommend trying the demo versions first
Cheers
Roger