OnOne Perfect Effects 9 for free

Hminx

Senior Member
Excellent value for money, the full Photo suite 9 I think also represents good value. I use this as a stand alone along side CS5, and they seem to work well.
 

Vixen

Senior Member
Isn't it a 30day trial? or did I read wrong?

Or maybe it's that they offer it as a 30day trial all the time and this is a freebie for a limited time
 

J-see

Senior Member
It's a free version but only has a limited range of effects you can apply compared to their other software. It says 30 but keeps working. I have the 8 too, they release one each year. I like the borders, the rest is a bit slow to work with.
 

Lawrence

Senior Member
I downloaded this and tried working with it 3 times - each time it "quit unexpectedly"
Not a very good advert for onone
 

J-see

Senior Member
I downloaded this and tried working with it 3 times - each time it "quit unexpectedly"
Not a very good advert for onone

I had the same problem with their Perfect Layers trial. Not only could I read the newspaper between processes, it did decide it was enough work for the day without asking my opinion on the matter.
 

Vixen

Senior Member
I have just taken a look at what it does and to be honest, I think I have all that it does in my Nik software. Took me a while to work out how to access it in PS ;)
 

Lawrence

Senior Member
I have just taken a look at what it does and to be honest, I think I have all that it does in my Nik software. Took me a while to work out how to access it in PS ;)

It keeps coming back to NIK software ... are the pp gods trying to tell me something?
 

sonicbuffalo_RIP

Senior Member
It keeps coming back to NIK software ... are the pp gods trying to tell me something?

I'm not looking to start an argument, but I tried Nik Tools, and I have a different opinion. The only case where I think it does something that LR or PS may not be able to do is to HDR a picture. Other than that, it may do a few things I haven't figured out, but it looks simplistic and not very exciting to use for $150 + tax. That coupon does not work any longer as I tried. I asked for and got my money back on Nik Tools. Just not worth the money IMHO. But do what you like, some love it. I think LR does way more and combined with the CC Photoshop, you can't go wrong that way even though I hate paying a rental fee.
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
I'm not looking to start an argument, but I tried Nik Tools, and I have a different opinion. The only case where I think it does something that LR or PS may not be able to do is to HDR a picture. Other than that, it may do a few things I haven't figured out, but it looks simplistic and not very exciting to use for $150 + tax. That coupon does not work any longer as I tried. I asked for and got my money back on Nik Tools. Just not worth the money IMHO. But do what you like, some love it. I think LR does way more and combined with the CC Photoshop, you can't go wrong that way even though I hate paying a rental fee.
I certainly see your point and I think you are probably correct in that just about anything NIK can do you can probably duplicate in Photoshop. Probably... That being said, it would take me years to learn to do with PS what NIK does in a few clicks. Not too mention NIK would still be able to do in seconds what would take hours in PS. Finally, we come to "Control Points", which Adobe Software does not have; they have nothing even remotely similar, and Control Points are "The Game Changer".

I'll admit it took me a while to appreciate just how big a deal CP's are, and, simply put: There's no way I could do in PS what I can do with a few Control Points in NIK. Even if I could it would involve numerous Layer Masks and wow but masking in PS is a time-suck like nothing else. Even then, in my opinion, the results are often shaky. NIK takes the mind-boggling power and complexity of PS and makes it not just accessible, but easy and fast to use. The amount of control it gives, the speed at which I can work with it and the outstandingly smooth, natural looking results it renders are why Viveza is now my go-to editing tool. Like @Vixen, NIK touches pretty much every shot I consider worthy of putting on display.
....
 

Lawrence

Senior Member
Interesting that Chris has had this experience and the first time I have heard anyone say NIK is not worth the money.

The interesting thing for me is that it confirms what I always suspected; that I haven't yet mastered PS and LR. Until I do I think it is worth holding off buying anything else.
And a bummer that the coupon doesn't work anymore.
 

adox66

Senior Member
I love the Onone software. Use it in conjunction with Lightroom. I now do the majority of my post processing using it and have still to learn most of it.

There re are some excellent tutorials for it on YouTube which will give you an idea of what it's capable of.
 

Lawrence

Senior Member
I love the Onone software. Use it in conjunction with Lightroom. I now do the majority of my post processing using it and have still to learn most of it.

There re are some excellent tutorials for it on YouTube which will give you an idea of what it's capable of.

I've seen some of them and it does seem a very comprehensive software programme but you have to buy the whole package to get all the benefits. The free portions are lacking in many aspects and because they keep bombing out on me I wouldn't buy the entire bundle. Now if the free ones worked better I may have considered it ...
 

Vixen

Senior Member
Interesting that Chris has had this experience and the first time I have heard anyone say NIK is not worth the money.

The interesting thing for me is that it confirms what I always suspected; that I haven't yet mastered PS and LR. Until I do I think it is worth holding off buying anything else.
And a bummer that the coupon doesn't work anymore.

You may die waiting Lawrence. PS is soooooooo complicated. I have to admit I am starting to find that it comes easier to me to use certain of it's functions but there is still so much to learn.
I made myself a "recipe or preset" in Nik, just simple changes sorta like in camera developing so I can make 1 click on certain shots and it is done. Too easy!! :D We don't all like the same stuff, some of us find some software easier to use than others but that is the first negative for Nik I've ever heard too ;)
 

Pretzel

Senior Member
To be honest, I've tried the 30 day trial of the NIK tools a couple of times, and haven't really been all that impressed either.

DISCLAIMER: I have not messed around with the control points much at all, nor have I gone through the tutorials and learned all of the in-depth capabilities, but I can say this - 1) I haven't found it's noise reduction to be superior to what I can accomplish in LR, as many say it is, but then again, I don't really shoot a ton of HI-ISO shots. 2) I really don't like how it handles the HDR process as compared to some other progs out there (like Perfect Effects 8). Although I liked the HDR look it created, it wasn't enough to overcome the import/export for HDR before you could test any other edits over the top.

Given time and training, perhaps I've only skimmed the surface of what it offers, but I have given it a chance. I *ALMOST* pulled the trigger on it until I found that they no longer have any working 15% off codes... perhaps when they have those out there again, I'll jump.
 

Rob Bye

Senior Member
A free version of Perfect Effects 8 was how I got hooked on onOne products. I now use the full version of Perfect Photo Suite 9. Although Perfect Effects is the module I use most, the entire suite is useful to me. It started as a plug-in, used in conjunction with Aperture, but it may become my default photo editor, when Aperture goes by the wayside. A huge plus to purchasing the full version is access to the online training, and the free monthly preset offers. Some of those presets have proved to be absolute Godsends! Start with the free offer. You have nothing to loose and much to gain.
 

Michael J.

Senior Member
NIK touches pretty much every shot I consider worthy of putting on display.
....

Since I have got LR5 I never used my NIK Tools. After reading in this thread I tried

LR pp



flower-blossoms-1.jpg



NIK Viveza2 used. Just the greens darkened and the whites a bit down saturated

flower-blossoms-v-1.jpg
 

Lawrence

Senior Member
A free version of Perfect Effects 8 was how I got hooked on onOne products. I now use the full version of Perfect Photo Suite 9. Although Perfect Effects is the module I use most, the entire suite is useful to me. It started as a plug-in, used in conjunction with Aperture, but it may become my default photo editor, when Aperture goes by the wayside. A huge plus to purchasing the full version is access to the online training, and the free monthly preset offers. Some of those presets have proved to be absolute Godsends! Start with the free offer. You have nothing to loose and much to gain.

hey Rob glad to hear you had a good experience with OnOne.
Like you I was pretty impressed with the free version of PE 8. I was tempted to buy the full version and had been for some time but something held me back and i think it was that PE 8 also occasionally bombed out for no reason. When this happens and you are 7/8th of the way into finalising an image it is very frustrating.
Now having downloaded the free version of 9 I find the same thing happening all over again.
The result is I have uninstalled it.
And ...
I simply have no confidence or guarantee that the same thing won't happen with the full version. My pea brain tells me if a condensed version quits on me then the full version is even more likely to do so. I am open to persuasion but so far have had no response from the company to my e-mails. That too is a concern
 
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