Adobe PS CC and Nik HDREfex

[Vixen]

I've just signed up to Creative Cloud with the $9.95/month deal. I use Nik HDREfex a lot. I do my tonemapping in HDREfex and then save my file as smart object 32bit TIFF so I can later open (and maybe PP differently) and save as 8 bit JPG, but now (with PS CC) when I go to save the file as 8bit JPG, PS CC wants to tonemap my image even though I have already tonemapped it. How do you get around this?

I've also asked this question on the Adobe Community discussion board. It may be that I will have to go to LR for using Nik HDREfex. I'm not all that familiar with LR

 

[BackdoorArts]

I mentioned this in your 365 thread. You'll need to reinstall the Nik Collection and it will give you options in both LR & PS for invoking HDR Efex.

Once reinstalled here's how to invoke them.

In LR you highlight the images to merge in the Library module, and then either in the Edit menu or by right-clicking on one of them you choose Export->HDR Efex Pro 2. This will pop up the merge dialog window. One thing I always do before Exporting is go to the Develop module, arrow to the '0' image and apply Lens Correction and CA adjustments and use the spot removal tool (just them, nothing else). Then click the sync button and apply them to the other images in the chain. Then go back to the Library module and Export.

In PS, you'll need to have the images open. The Nik/Google Toolbar should be there, so just click on the Merge option under HDR Efex, which will allow you to then add the images you want to merge from the open images (I usually just "add all" and then remove any if I have extra - though depending on the power of your computer the extra open images can slow you down). The rest should be as before.

In both cases, when you're done, you'll either get a new Tiff or PSD (depending on how you have preferences set up) in your Library in LR, or as a new image in PS.

I suspect your issue with tonemapping has to do with PS running in 16-bit color space when it came back from Nik. If you make that change within the program first (Image->Adjustments->8-bit) it shouldn't ask you to tone map.

 

[Fred Kingston_RIP]

I use LR to launch/manage everything...
In LR, on the Preferences menu, external editors, you can create presets to different editors... PS, HDREfex Pro, etc.
then, in the library, or develop mode, you can select a photo, and from the drop-down top-menu under Photo, you select "Edit In"

You'll be presented with a list of your predefined external editors...

When you select one... LR pops up a menu of options of how you want the external editor to open...

with a Copy of your LR image... with/without any LR settings you've already made...

from this point, LR opens the external editor with the image as you've defined above...

make whatever adjustments you want in PS, HDREfEx, Topaz etc... and when you click the Save/Done button in the editor...

you're returned to LR with the changes/effects you made in the external editor...

from there, you can use LR to print/export your image in any one of a brazzillion formats/sizes etc.


edited to add: I use a Mac, so there may be some minor differences in the above relative to a PC...
If you dig around all the external editors, or read thru the LR setup guides, they all have the suggested settings for the LR Preferences page relative to the file type, Tiff, and suggested compression/settings etc for their respective programs...