Nik Collection updated
THE LATEST Nik Collection, version 6, has been released by DxO. The Nik Collection image-editing suite comprises Color Efex, Silver Efex, Analog Efex, Viveza, Dfine, Sharpener, HDR Efex, and Perspective. Nik Silver Efex is a particularly popular tool for black & white photography, offering a range of presets and editing tools.
With version 6, significant changes have been made to U Point or Control Points, DxO’s tool for making local adjustments. For example, Control Lines, a new feature, enable you to use linear gradient filters when making broad adjustments, while new Control Point diffusion features let you regulate the strength and style of adjustments more easily. Control Points and Control Lines can now be inverted, while new sliders enable Control Point and Control Line editing to be tied to specific colours and tones in a shot.
It’s also possible to save local adjustments as Presets, giving you quick access to oftenused edits. The interface is cleaner too – you can choose where local adjustment sliders appear on screen, for example.
Meanwhile, Color Efex gets a new Hue/ Saturation/Luminance tool, designed to give more accurate control of colour and tone, while Nik Perspective now includes a ReShape Tool, enabling users to warp and shape local areas with more precision. All the Nik Collection tools can be used as plug-ins for Photoshop, Lightroom, DxO PhotoLab and Affinity Photo, as well as stand-alone programs (though most photographers tend to use them as plug-ins for speed and convenience during their editing workflow).
Nik Collection 6 costs £135, while users of version 4 and 5 can upgrade for £69. Visit shop.dxo.com/en/nik-collection-6.html