Nik Collection 8 Is a Big Upgrade That Adds Masking and More

The Nik Collection has been a formidable and great tool for picture editors since DxO rescued the instrument from Google in 2017.

The instrument is utilized in Photoshop and has numerous colour and black-and-white results that experience confirmed in style.

This model 8 of the gathering is a large jump over earlier upgrades.

Boris Oliviero, the product director, says:

With Nik Collection 8, we needed to give a boost to each creativity and potency. We’ve reimagined the Photoshop workflow, making it more straightforward than ever to use tough results, refine native changes, and transfer seamlessly between plugins.

Photographers can now import mask at once from Photoshop into any Nik Collection plugin, making complete use of Photoshop’s tough variety gear. A brand new characteristic within the Local Adjustments panel additionally shall we customers switch mask without difficulty between plugins. And when in a position, photographers can ship mask created in Nik Collection directly again to Photoshop for additional refinement.

With Nik Collection 8, your mask stay available at each step of the workflow, whether or not they originate from Photoshop or a Nik Collection plugin. 

Users can now:

• Convert edits right into a Smart Object for non-destructive enhancing

• Apply adjustments to the present layer or create a brand new one

• Generate a brand new layer with a masks, offering further flexibility

This interplay between the Nik Collection and Photoshop lets in customers to check more than one concepts for a picture with out breaking their ingenious glide, and feature all in their edits right away to hand as soon as again inside of Photoshop.

The Nik keep an eye on panel has additionally been up to date, changing the standard Nik palette. This new design lets in photographers to avoid wasting display screen house by way of opting for which plugins to show, and release any plugin with a unmarried click on for a extra fluid workflow. Plus, all the crucial controls for managing layers and mask are right away available.

There’s a forged replace to Nik Silver Efex, together with:

• Color Reference Image: Users can now view their authentic colour symbol whilst running in black and white. This makes it more straightforward to make adjustments which might be dependent at the authentic symbol, comparable to making use of Color Filters or adjusting the Sensitivity sliders within the Film Types filter out.

• Streamlined Interface: The good judgment of the interface now fits that of Nik Color Efex and Nik Analog Efex, protecting filters at the left-hand facet till they’re used to edit a picture.

• Better Logic When Applying Presets: Only the related filters seem at the right-hand facet when a preset has been decided on.

• New Local Adjustments: ClearView and Selective Tones can now be carried out in the neighborhood.

• New Filter Looks: Each filter out now contains more than a few pre-defined choices for fast software

And the Nik Collection 8 makes it faster to change to TIFF layout when the usage of the Quick Export button. Plus, the export choices are actually in an instant available in order that customers can tweak the Quick Export configuration at once somewhat than having to navigate the menu.

Using Nik Collection 8

Overall, I discovered this replace tough and it appeared to paintings as marketed. The protecting backward and forward with Photoshop is strong and a time-saver.

As a long way as presets cross, I’m satisfied to peer the ones are retained within the new model, and as standard with the Nik Collection, they’re by no means excessive or unnatural.

I believe the largest unfavourable is that virtually the whole thing has modified. The desktop software seems other and takes up extra table house. Below you’ll see the brand new panel at the left and the previous panel at the appropriate.

You will have extra settings to be had on the most sensible degree, however individuals who had been on earlier variations of the Nik Collection can not simply set up the brand new model and get started running. There is a studying curve to model 8, however that is the cost of larger energy within the gear. I discovered the adjustments had been price the additional effort, however be ready to hit the books.

Getting the Nik Collection 8

The instrument is to be had lately from the DXO web page. It woks on macOS and Windows.

Pricing for brand spanking new consumers is U.S. $159.99. Upgrades for present makes use of is $89.99. DxO gives a unfastened 30-day trial that may be downloaded right here.

What I Like

• Includes all of the options of earlier variations

• Adds tough protecting gear that engage with Photoshop in each instructions

• The new panel is extra environment friendly, however see my unfavourable underneath

• Exporting is now a lot more straightforward

What I Wish Could Be Improved

• The onscreen panel is bigger than the previous one, taking on extra actual property

• Upgrading customers will likely be confronted with an overly other GUI, which should be discovered

Final Thoughts

DxO makes some world-class instrument that gives prime worth for cash. I do not even start enhancing till I run my uncooked information thru DxO PureRAW, and I in finding myself the usage of the Nik Collection in lots of my enhancing periods. Version 8 brings much more options to the desk, which must make your paintings sooner and extra compelling. I call to mind the Nik Collection as crucial native adjustment software that enhances my enhancing, and this new model makes the method even higher.