Nik Collection

The Nik Collection

The Nik Collection is a popular suite of plug-ins that were rescued from oblivion by DxO. In 2021, they released the Nik Collection 4. The new version sports updated interfaces and improved workflow efficiency. The old version is still available for free (tap here), but is unsupported. By and large, except for some scattered upgrades and compatibility fixes, the new version is pretty much the same as the old one. I continue to use the old version and had only one compatibility issue so far that I easily worked around.

The suite consists of the following:

HDR Efex Pro: An aging HDR processor

Color Efex Pro: Various image enhancement and special effect tools

Viveza: Somewhat similar to Color Efex Pro 4

Silver Efex Pro: World-class color to black-and-white converter

Sharpener Pro: Excels at output sharpening to printers or screen displays

Dfine: Convenient one-click noise reduction filter

Analog Efex Pro: Simulates vintage cameras and film

Perspective Efex: A new addition that corrects for lens and perspective-based distortions

In this Chapter, I’ll only touch on Color Efex Pro, Sharpener Pro, and Dfine. Silver Efex Pro has a steep learning curve and since I’m only a casual user with limited experience, I’ll skip over it.

Color Efex Pro

I was previously a regular user of Color Efex Pro until I switched over to Skylum’s Luminar. Nevertheless, it’s still a powerful plug-in and a worthy competitor to Luminar.

Color Efex Pro consists of 55 filters that perform a myriad of effects and image enhancements to satisfy any type of photographic subjects. What’s particularly useful for landscape work is its scene-based algorithmic filters that improve local and global contrast. The one standout is the Pro Contrast filter, an image-based contrast control that is both global (Correct Contrast slider) and localized (Dynamic Contrast slider). To illustrate, in the next two images below, note the improvement in texture and shadow detail in the Color Efex Pro example.



Edited in Photoshop Only



Using Color Efex Pro: Note improved mid-tone contrast and detail

Luminar or Color Efex Pro?

Skylum’s Luminar can accomplish similar results, especially when using their impressive AI Accent filter. But to be frank, you may achieve similar results within Camera Raw or Photoshop with skillful editing. In any case, I highly recommend either application. Choosing which one depends on a few factors.

I presently use Luminar 4 that was succeeded by Luminar AI and then by Luminar Neo. The newer versions resemble Luminar 4, but have additional emphasis on high-tech special effects. I have all three versions, but prefer Luminar 4 for its better stability (in my experience) and that I don’t need the extra features in the newer versions.

If you want to edit your software outside the Adobe environment, Luminar is a good choice since it also has digital management (similar to Lightroom) and can perform as a standalone image editor. On the other hand, with the Nik Collection you get a world-class black-and-white editor and an effective output sharpener along with Color Efex Pro. The Nik Collection is a little more expensive, but with all the other extra plug-ins it’s a good value if you’re working within the Adobe environment.

Sharpener Pro

A Real-World Perspective on Sharpening

Most observers will notice either a soft or over-sharpened image. Soft may be desirable if the image is a portrait or moody landscape scene, but more often it reduces the visual impact. Over-sharpening is always bad by creating unnatural razor-sharp edges or introducing artifacts. However, between the two extremes is a range of acceptable sharpening where most observers could never tell the difference. In other words, you need only to hit a reasonable midpoint of sharpening and not obsess over minor differences you only see at 200x on a monitor and will never notice on the actual print.

Unfortunately, hitting the “acceptable range” is not necessarily straightforward. Using Photoshop’s Smart Sharpen or Camera Raw’s Detail Panel is essentially educated guessing at best. Since Bruce Fraser took much of the guesswork out in his Real World Image Sharpening book, it became part of my normal workflow. His example for a 300 dpi inkjet print became my standard sharpening routine. However, not all is well when I don’t have a 300 dpi file or I’m outputting to something other than an inkjet printer, such as a print-on-demand book. Fraser’s book provided other step-by-step examples, but they didn’t cover all my situations.

Automated sharpening

For any specific sharpening task, there is a wealth of known information. For example, we know the resolving power of the human eye, the image resolution, the print size and its appropriate viewing distance, paper type, and the type of printer and its resolution. With all that data, we should be able to compute the proper sharpening without having to eyeball it or go through tedious trial-and-error printing.

This is where Sharpener Pro steps in. Sharpener Pro is actually two plug-ins: a pre-sharpener for raw files and an output sharpener for printers and displays. I still use Camera Raw for pre-sharpening per Fraser’s sharpening process. I don’t recommend the Pro pre-sharpener plug-in because, despite its name, it actually outputs a TIFF file, not the original raw file. On the other hand, the Pro output sharpener plug-in has replaced my Fraser’s process.

Output Sharpener Plug-in

Below is the interface panel for Sharpener Pro: Output Sharpener, which is accessed under Photoshop’s Filter menu. On the right are the three main control panels: Output Sharpener, Creative Sharpening, and Selective Sharpening.

Output Sharpener panel

You first select your output device: display, inkjet printer, continuous tone, halftone, or hybrid device. Each device has its own set of self-explanatory submenus. A preset can be assigned for every setup configuration that you use. Normally, this is as far as you’ll need to go before clicking OK.



Output Sharpener Interface Panel

Creative Sharpening panel

This panel contains adjustments for Output Sharpening Strength, Structure, Local Contrast, and Focus. I’ve never found it necessary to change the Output Sharpening Strength. But if you do, any changes should be based on the printed output, not what's on the screen. There is a soft proofing feature, but I was unable to derive much benefit from it. As for the rest of the controls, I recommend you just ignore them.

Blurb settings

If you are outputting to a print-on-demand publisher such as Blurb, the best Output Sharpener Pro settings are: halftone, coated paper type, and a line screen of 175 lines per inch (or 69 lpcm if the measurement units are set to metric in Settings). While this is true for Blurb, other publishers may be different, so check their website.

Why I Recommend a Sharpening App

Any sharpening process with proper settings will yield results that are indistinguishable from each other in normal practice. The reality is the printer is an equalizer due to the slight softening caused by the dot patterns. Even if subtle differences on a magnified screen were noticed, most of it would be irrelevant after the image was printed.

A problem, though, is determining the proper settings when you aren’t sure what a correctly sharpened image should look like on a monitor. Adding to the problem is the many articles on sharpening that caution against over-sharpening to avoid halo artifacts. I think many users sharpen only to what looks good on the monitor and, as a result, often under-sharpen the image. Often in practice, a properly sharpened image will actually look “over-sharpened” when viewed on the monitor. This is due in part to compensate for the printer’s softening effect.

To determine the proper settings in Photoshop’s sharpening filters (either Unsharp Mask or Smart Sharpen), it will take some trial-and-error to find the optimum settings for a particular output job. After a while, you may get the hang of eyeballing the screen to what works for your home printer, but what about print-on-demand books or calendars? How many books or calendars are you willing to pay for until you figure out the best settings?

I recommend you try a sharpening app such as Sharpener Pro since it gets you at, or very nearly at, the correct settings for any print application in a one-click step. If you work in Lightroom, you have the imbedded PixelGenius mentioned back in Chapter-15 that works equally well.

Dfine

Dfine is a plug-in dedicated to noise reduction. I believe that Dfine’s attempt to distinguish itself from other noise filters is by being a one-click operation. It will analyze the image and apply what it determines is the best noise reduction. Nik’s training video touts that this should handle almost all situations. You do have the option of manual control, but I decided to take them at their word and evaluated it strictly on automatic mode.



Dfine Interface Panel

When launched, the filter analyzes the image and then you click OK — and that’s it! Notice the two square outlines in the above interface panel screenshot (circled red). The software looks for a continuous tone area with little or no detail to analyze and, once defined, automatically applies what it determines is the best global noise reduction. In theory, this eliminates the frustration of searching for optimum settings in either the Photoshop or Camera Raw noise filter.

Evaluation

I compared Dfine to Camera Raw’s Noise Reduction and Photoshop’s Reduce Noise. Dfine does a good job, but is a bit more heavy-handed than the others. It would remove a little more noise than the others, but at the expense of softening fine detail a bit more. While this was noticeable on a magnified screen, the printed outputs took careful study to notice the slight detail softening from the Dfine process. As was the case with sharpening, the printer has a way of equalizing minor screen differences due to its own “blur factor." Ultimately, when viewed at a proper distance, I doubt you could tell the difference.

Recommending Dfine boils down to if the convenience of one-click noise reduction is worth the minor softening that is likely unnoticeable in most viewing environments. If you often use high ISO settings or your camera is on the noisy side, then Dfine can improve your productivity. I use it only for the rare time I have a very noise print, such as a nighttime galaxy shot.