Amazing deal.

Nik Collection

Edit: Using the coupon code 'DZISER' brings it down to $126.65.

[kenafein]

A few posts down, some members speculated that Google bought Nik to use their technology on their android smartphones and perhaps tablets. That sounds reasonable to me since it does seem to allow quicker results than other software i have mentioned.

They have a program called Snapseed, which is an instagram competitor. The Nik Software suite is probably baggage for them, but I hope they stay committed to development.

[zdwagner]

Is there any reason to get this if you already own the Topaz Suite? I'm sure some Nik software does a better job than some Topaz software (and vice-versa), but is there anything that really makes it worth it?

I am currently using both. Nik's interface is simpler and quicker than Topaz, IMO. You can dial in a look that you like very quickly and it is easy to duplicate that look again and again. Topaz is more involved and in the end, a bit more powerful. But I honestly prefer using Nik at this point for the quick interface.
The detail enhancement in Topaz is FAR superior to Nik though, this needs to be said. In my opinion, Nik doesn't even come close to resolving as much (or bringing out as much) fine detail as the Topaz products do.
Because Nik doesn't work on as fine a level though, it seems more resistant to the edge artifacting that you get popping up in Topaz after a certain level of applied detail. Of course, this is because Nik isn't revealing the same level of detail, so perhaps this point isn't relevant, but I like not having to worry about artifacts as much.

They both have pretty great vignette features (speaking of Topaz Adjust and B&W Effects, and Nik Color Efex), but Topaz's is better and more precise. They both blow Lightroom away in this regard.

Finally, the highlight and shadow recovery is better/does more in Topaz (speaking about Topaz Adjust/B&W Efex vs Nik Color Efex/Silver Efex), though I've not used Viveza much and that might work better in this regard.

Overall, I'm glad I have them both, and $149 is an amazing price for the Nik plugins. It's almost a no-brainer.

[civiletti]

I'm seriously not trying to start any arguments, but just trying to understand the trade-offs between different software.

My perception, right or wrong, is that Nik offers some useful shortcuts in getting to an interesting/attractive image. While Lightroom offers a more manual and comprehensive approach (especially when linked with Photoshop). Nik's point technology seems an awful lot like LR's Adjustment Brush. Sure, in Ver 4, the number of adjustments one could make in that brush have been largely expanded from Ver 3 LR - perhaps in response to Nik's software. One thing for sure, when software brands compete, the customers generally win.

I have to admit enjoying playing with Silver Efex Pro and Color Efex Pro, not sure about what Viveza offers that the former 2 don't, perhaps someone can enlighten me as to what advantages Viveza offers.

I also have the Topaz versions of Nik's plugins and have successfully used it for several pictures that have sold well. LR, Topaz and Nik ALL have localized toning capabilities. The ones in LR and Topaz can be dragged like brushes while the Nik one can't. Yet the Nik implementation of localized toning seems attractive to me and i can't precisely explain why (Maybe the breakthru concept is to consider points in the picture rather than the dragging more linear process)

A few posts down, some members speculated that Google bought Nik to use their technology on their android smartphones and perhaps tablets. That sounds reasonable to me since it does seem to allow quicker results than other software i have mentioned.

What matters with any software, IMO is whether one gets an end result that they are happy with.

No argument going on here; just conversation about point of view and appraisals. I don't use Photoshop, so I don't have access to Adobe's layers function. NIK's control points, for me, are simpler and faster than layers and faster and more precise than the LR adjustment brush. If I can't get the adjustment I want with LR graduated filters, I go to viveza to use control points. Viveza 2 has similar exposure, contrast, micro-contrast, and color functions to LR. I have tinkered with Color Effects a bit. It's functionality seems centered around the choice of filters. There's much interesting stuff, but I have not found much use for them in my photography.

[civiletti]

Yet the Nik implementation of localized toning seems attractive to me and i can't precisely explain why (Maybe the breakthru concept is to consider points in the picture rather than the dragging more linear process)

I am impressed by NIK's control point system accuracy in finding the edges I want as the boundaries of adjustment areas. Also, the characteristics of NIK's adjustment's are different enough from LR's that one or the other is sometimes a better choice for a particular image.

[daacon]

Damn you people and your hot links to great downloadable instant deals ha! Having a bit of issue getting the plugins to show up in Corel PS X5 but I'll start a google search. LR, PS, Bridge no issues. ( I also have a few Topaz plugins - Adjust, Detail , BW and Denoise)

Edit: They may not be compatible (google NIK Suite and Corel PSP X5) - may have to wait for an update from Corel. Not a big deal for me - they are accessible elsewhere.

[philbaum]

I am currently using both. Nik's interface is simpler and quicker than Topaz, IMO. You can dial in a look that you like very quickly and it is easy to duplicate that look again and again. Topaz is more involved and in the end, a bit more powerful. But I honestly prefer using Nik at this point for the quick interface.
The detail enhancement in Topaz is FAR superior to Nik though, this needs to be said. In my opinion, Nik doesn't even come close to resolving as much (or bringing out as much) fine detail as the Topaz products do.
Because Nik doesn't work on as fine a level though, it seems more resistant to the edge artifacting that you get popping up in Topaz after a certain level of applied detail. Of course, this is because Nik isn't revealing the same level of detail, so perhaps this point isn't relevant, but I like not having to worry about artifacts as much.

They both have pretty great vignette features (speaking of Topaz Adjust and B&W Effects, and Nik Color Efex), but Topaz's is better and more precise. They both blow Lightroom away in this regard.

Finally, the highlight and shadow recovery is better/does more in Topaz (speaking about Topaz Adjust/B&W Efex vs Nik Color Efex/Silver Efex), though I've not used Viveza much and that might work better in this regard.

Overall, I'm glad I have them both, and $149 is an amazing price for the Nik plugins. It's almost a no-brainer.

Thats the best assessment i've seen. I was expecting the same detail being pulled out of Nik that Topaz provides, and you're right, its not there. I usually have to pull back on Topaz, but with Nik, you can't dial it up if its not there. Different programs, different formula. And it irritates me that LR can't do vignetting right. I still haven't seen Nik do much in shadow and hilight recovery. But it is fast. Kudos on the observations!

[zdwagner]

Thats the best assessment i've seen. I was expecting the same detail being pulled out of Nik that Topaz provides, and you're right, its not there. I usually have to pull back on Topaz, but with Nik, you can't dial it up if its not there. Different programs, different formula. And it irritates me that LR can't do vignetting right. I still haven't seen Nik do much in shadow and hilight recovery. But it is fast. Kudos on the observations!

Thanks! Yeah I've noticed that the 'Detail Extractor' in Color Efex Pro 4 doesn't really do much past a certain point. While it will give you more of an HDR type look, it seems like it's merely raising the shadows and washing out the photo, which is why, I think, they stuck the Contrast slider in there with it, because you need to up the contrast to contradict the washout from the 'detail extraction'. With Topaz, however, you can enhance detail completely apart from exposure, and it does an excellent job at this, for the most part. Obviously you have to be careful of artifacting (and I've run into an unfortunate problem with Topaz and my K-5 iis files, wherein you have to be careful how far you push the file, else you get white dots popping up all over the shot, especially in shadow areas. No matter how hard I push the same files in Nik, this issue does not appear, which I can only attribute to Topaz working on a more micro level with the detail.).
On the whole I think that for the products I've used the most (Nik Color Efex 4, Nik Silver Efex, Topaz Adjust, Topaz B&W Effects), Topaz in general provides more powerful plugins.
One thing on the 'point' system in Nik in comparison to the local adjustments in Topaz; Topaz is better here as well, imo. While it might be quicker to select a point and make your adjustments, as long as they work, Topaz's brush tool for local adjustments is superior, as there is no guessing, and the edge aware in Topaz works extremely well. Doing selective color/detail can really become an artistic process with Topaz, producing an extremely detailed result. Of course this process is more involved and takes longer, but in the end I would think it more rewarding (it is for me anyway).

This all said, I've been using Topaz for about 2 years, and just started with Nik a little less than 15 days ago (my free trial is almost up... gotta pay... ugh!), so my contribution here certainly means less than someone with more extensive experience.

[philbaum]

Thanks! Yeah I've noticed that the 'Detail Extractor' in Color Efex Pro 4 doesn't really do much past a certain point. While it will give you more of an HDR type look, it seems like it's merely raising the shadows and washing out the photo, which is why, I think, they stuck the Contrast slider in there with it, because you need to up the contrast to contradict the washout from the 'detail extraction'. With Topaz, however, you can enhance detail completely apart from exposure, and it does an excellent job at this, for the most part. Obviously you have to be careful of artifacting (and I've run into an unfortunate problem with Topaz and my K-5 iis files, wherein you have to be careful how far you push the file, else you get white dots popping up all over the shot, especially in shadow areas. No matter how hard I push the same files in Nik, this issue does not appear, which I can only attribute to Topaz working on a more micro level with the detail.).
On the whole I think that for the products I've used the most (Nik Color Efex 4, Nik Silver Efex, Topaz Adjust, Topaz B&W Effects), Topaz in general provides more powerful plugins.
One thing on the 'point' system in Nik in comparison to the local adjustments in Topaz; Topaz is better here as well, imo. While it might be quicker to select a point and make your adjustments, as long as they work, Topaz's brush tool for local adjustments is superior, as there is no guessing, and the edge aware in Topaz works extremely well. Doing selective color/detail can really become an artistic process with Topaz, producing an extremely detailed result. Of course this process is more involved and takes longer, but in the end I would think it more rewarding (it is for me anyway).

This all said, I've been using Topaz for about 2 years, and just started with Nik a little less than 15 days ago (my free trial is almost up... goe'tta pay... ugh!), so my contribution here certainly means less than someone with more extensive experience.

We've had similar experiences - i've been using the same two Topaz products (BW and color) for about the same length of time. And only recently, I had the little white blemishes show up on a portion of a small canvas print i made. I was convinced they were from my printer, but finally traced them back to the Topaz product. But it only happened once, and after i redid the image in Topaz with less aggressive toning, they disappeared (thats what so great with LR= it keeps all iterations)

I"ve had several instances last year of having sold some prints that were processed in Topaz. I don't use it for a lot of things but maybe i use it 25% of the time. One of the frustrations i have with it is that sometimes its difficult to undo things without losing overall progress. So it'll be interesting by the end of the year which product, Topaz or Nik, i will be using the most.

[zdwagner]

We've had similar experiences - i've been using the same two Topaz products (BW and color) for about the same length of time. And only recently, I had the little white blemishes show up on a portion of a small canvas print i made. I was convinced they were from my printer, but finally traced them back to the Topaz product. But it only happened once, and after i redid the image in Topaz with less aggressive toning, they disappeared (thats what so great with LR= it keeps all iterations)
I"ve had several instances last year of having sold some prints that were processed in Topaz. I don't use it for a lot of things but maybe i use it 25% of the time. One of the frustrations i have with it is that sometimes its difficult to undo things without losing overall progress. So it'll be interesting by the end of the year which product, Topaz or Nik, i will be using the most.

Interesting. I've been trying to investigate this white dot problem in my free time, and I've never had anyone else say they've experienced it, even people who use Topaz. That led me to believe it was my camera. I've been in a conversation with Topaz about it (and have a thread here dedicated to it), who claim they can't reproduce the issue, even though I sent them a DNG, and example jpegs processed with and without Topaz. I have a lot of raw files from many different cameras on my photo drive, from Olympus to Panasonic to Nikon to Canon, etc, and NONE of the other files exhibit the same behavior, no matter how hard I push them. Only the Pentax files. Finally today a friend suggested I try finding other K-5 IIs raw files on the internet to try processing them. So I did. Even found a regular K-5 II raw file (I kinda figured the lack of aa filter maybe had something to do with it), and bang. I can reproduce the issue with all the files. So for whatever reason, Topaz doesn't seem to play nice with, at the very least K-5 II/IIs files. That is THE reason I downloaded Nik in the first place; to see if it would do the same thing. It doesn't.
It's a real bummer for me, as unlike you, I use Topaz for almost every shot. I love B&W Effects. I even tried dialing back the adjustments, which I thought worked, but then one day my background changed to a pic I'd taken recently and processed in Topaz (only about 1.6-1.7 on the detail slider and 1.06 on the boost), and I noticed that the dots were there, ever so slightly. But 'ever so slightly' ruins the ability to ever blow up that photo. I reprocessed the same shots in Nik, but they just didn't come out as nice. Good, but not as good. Was really too bad.

Eh, oh well, I've since (and especially since I processed other files today and they did the same thing) come to some semblance of peace with the situation. I should probably apologize for hijacking this thread too. Oops. Really sorry everyone.

Back to talking about how great a deal $149 is for Nik! (off to actually buy the keys now, in fact)

[twitch]

I've got Topaz adjust and really don't like the results or interface at all compared to the Nik products. I think Google is going for the jugular with this pricing, now what are topaz and onone going to do, they'll have to cut their prices to compete.

[Andi Lo]

I use the Nik Silver alot and love it. This package is the best deal going around right now, especially if you own lightroom. You might just get away not having photoshop.

However I do fear for the Nik future. Google has this habit of buying shiny toys, and spend zero effort on them, and then abandon it. I really hope that the old nik team is all still gainfully employed and producing things. :/ Would really be a sad day when Lightroom (which I think will always exist in some form until the day of my demise) does not work with a discontinued Nik.

Until that day comes I will use Nik Silver religiously.

Package purchased. Thanks OP and for the coupon (yes it still works)

[Rondec]

I think Google continues to update Nik Software behind the scenes. I have been made aware of this a couple of times when it stopped working suddenly and I had to reinstall a file that it had apparently deleted during the update.

[Andi Lo]

Interesting sidenote - I find it rather humorous that Leica touts its bundling Silver Efex with its Monochrom camera as a great bonus when using the package with already-monochrome images cripples its biggest strength - its flexible and powerful color channel mixing - and renders the package nothing more than a glorified contrast adjuster!

A great contrast adjuster though I always find myself looking for the Silver FX contrast options when using the normal Lightroom.

I think Google continues to update Nik Software behind the scenes. I have been made aware of this a couple of times when it stopped working suddenly and I had to reinstall a file that it had apparently deleted during the update.

Good news and I hope my fear really is unfounded when it comes to this excellent software.

[clackers]

It uses the Nik technology to enhance photos you upload to Google Plus, so hopefully it bought the company for more than the intellectual property rights to do that.