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DxO has announced Nik Collection 4 by DxO, the latest major release of the company’s photo editing plugin suite. Nik Collection 4 contains the same eight plugins as last year’s Nik Collection 3, but popular plugins Viveza and Silver Efex have undergone major revisions and are vastly improved over previous iterations.
In Nik Collection 4, Viveza and Silver Efex feature revamped user interfaces. The plugins now feature a modern interface that is both simpler and more functional. Users can scroll and filter through all available presets, filter types, and favorites along the left side of the interface. On the right side of the interface are all the sliders and Control Point tools users have come to expect from Nik plugins.
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| Nik Viveza features a new user interface that is more modern and sleek. |
The image you’re working on takes up much of the screen, and Control Points have been improved such that the sliders which used to be onscreen for adjustments are now on the right panel of the interface. This makes it easier to see your image and view adjustments in real-time. You can also rename and group your Control Points, making it easy to keep your adjustments organized.
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The U Point technology underpinning Control Points has been enhanced as well. The technology, which allows users to apply local adjustments without manually creating masks, now includes Color Selectivity sliders. You can adjust the chrominance and luminance of the targeted pixels underneath a Control Point, giving the user much finer control over local adjustments.
Although you can use the Nik Collection 4 as a standalone application or with Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop if you’re using it in Photoshop, you now have access to what DxO calls ‘Meta Presets.’ These are accessible through the Nik Selective Tool and give direct access to 10 Photoshop actions that combine different filters from multiple Nik plugins in a single click.
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Inside Lightroom, a new Last Edit function lets users re-apply a selected preset (or presets) that were recently used on an image onto a second image or set of images. This will greatly improve workflow flexibility inside Lightroom.
Beyond an improved user interface and better U Point technology, Viveza and Silver Efex have undergone additional improvements. In Viveza, there are 10 native presets, all designed by professional photographers.
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| Nik Viveza includes 10 new presets |
In Silver Efex, there are 39 new film grains. These are all realistic and built by hand using real film stocks. DxO says that what sets their film grains apart from the grain in software like Lightroom is that DxO has accurately modeled the size and shape of the grain for different films, something that Lightroom doesn’t do.
Silver Efex also adds DxO’s ClearView technology, which was first seen in DxO PhotoLab, the company’s premier photo editing software. ClearView removes haze and enhances local contrast simultaneously, adding more detail and clarity to your black and white conversions.
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| Nik Silver Efex now includes ClearView technology, first seen in DxO PhotoLab |
Nik Collection 4 by DxO is available now for Windows and macOS. For new users, the software is available for $99.99 until June 30. After that, the price will increase to $149. For owners of existing Nik Collection by DxO software, you can upgrade for $59.99 until June 30. An upgrade will cost $79 after that. A fully functional 30-day free trial is available, too, by visiting DxO.
As a note for M1 Mac users, the Nik Collection 4 doesn’t natively support the M1 version of Adobe Photoshop yet. DxO hopes to have a compatible installer available soon.
Author:
Jeremy Gray
Source: Dpreview
