You Knew it Was Going to Happen: Google Abandons NIK Collection

Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
gustafson said:
I noticed Control Points in the plugins' GUIs and wondered what they are for. Could you enlighten me? Thanks in advance!
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The best way I can explain them is by saying Control Points are sort of like Masking, or making a Selection in Photoshop, if you're familiar with those techniques; but it's Masking/Selecting on steroids! And control points are sooooo much easier to do and so much more flexible. If NIK' has a Super Power, it's Control Points and if you're not using them you're missing out on probably half of what makes NIK' so amazing.

To try and explain what they do, Control Points "select" an area based on RGB values, saturation and brightness as well as location. You can adjust their size, move them around, use multiple points and group those multiple points. Once in a group, adjusting a slider for one Point communicates any changes made to every other point in that same group. They also "feather" edges of the selection automatically, so you get a smooth gradient automatically.

Watch this short video to get a much better understanding of what they are, and how they work: Understanding Control Points. If you use NIK, you need to watch this video.
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G

gustafson

Senior Member
Horoscope Fish said:
The best way I can explain them is by saying Control Points are sort of like Masking, or making a Selection in Photoshop, if you're familiar with those techniques; but it's Masking/Selecting on steroids! And control points are sooooo much easier to do and so much more flexible. If NIK' has a Super Power, it's Control Points and if you're not using them you're missing out on probably half of what makes NIK' so amazing.

To try and explain what they do, Control Points "select" an area based on RGB values, saturation and brightness as well as location. You can adjust their size, move them around, use multiple points and group those multiple points. Once in a group, adjusting a slider for one Point communicates any changes made to every other point in that same group. They also "feather" edges of the selection automatically, so you get a smooth gradient automatically.

Watch this short video to get a much better understanding of what they are, and how they work: Understanding Control Points. If you use NIK, you need to watch this video.
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Click to expand...

Holy moly! That is pretty amazing. Thanks, Paul and Don!
 
Eduard

Eduard

Super Mod
Staff member
Super Mod
Now that Google has announced that they will no longer update or support the Nik Collection, an online petition has started at change.org to ask them to reconsider. You can view the petition here.
 
Eduard

Eduard

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Staff member
Super Mod
I doubt they would release the source to the public domain as they use some of the technology in the iOS app Snapseed. But I'd love to see them license the Control Point feature to someone like Macphun.
 
BackdoorArts

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
I've largely weeded myself off of most of the Nik Collection, but I use Dfine 2.0 and Silver Efex Pro all the time, and a couple filters in Color Efex Pro (Tonal Contrast, in particular) have become invaluable over time. If I was still shooting HDR I'd be pissed about HDR Efex as well.

All that said, as has been discussed you can open these as standalone apps, but I would caution you when you do to use a copy of the file as all changes are destructive. My planned technique will be to export a full-res TIFF file from Photoshop, open it in the Nik app of choice, and then open the updated file as a new layer in the old document. A bit of a PITA, but better than nothing.

I also expect that there may be some folks creating actions or tutorials that mimic some of the more popular Nik filters, so I'll be on the lookout for them.
 
R

RocketCowboy

Senior Member
Eduard said:
I doubt they would release the source to the public domain as they use some of the technology in the iOS app Snapseed. But I'd love to see them license the Control Point feature to someone like Macphun.
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I suspect you're right, but agree that a commercial license deal might give them reason to continue one of the key benefits that NIK provided.
 
hark

hark

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BackdoorHippie said:
All that said, as has been discussed you can open these as standalone apps, but I would caution you when you do to use a copy of the file as all changes are destructive. My planned technique will be to export a full-res TIFF file from Photoshop, open it in the Nik app of choice, and then open the updated file as a new layer in the old document. A bit of a PITA, but better than nothing.
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I had no idea that it would be destructive when used alone. Haven't done it myself, but it's good to know. Thanks. :encouragement:
 
Fred Kingston

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
Lightroom always asks "if you want to work on a Copy" whenever you right-click an image and select "edit in..."

In fact, I just tried to load a NEF image in a standalone Nik tool, and it won't even see/load a NEF image

It isn't destructive at all.
 
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BackdoorArts

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
FredKingston said:
Lightroom always asks "if you want to work on a Copy" whenever you right-click an image and select "edit in..."

If you load a NEF image, the Nik Tools will only save the file in its own proprietary format, NOT as a NEF, and/or "Save as..." one of the selectable formats... none of them a RAW format.

It isn't destructive at all.
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At some point you will not be able to interface the Nik plugins with Adobe products, including Lightroom. It could be in the next release if Adobe wants to kill it off quickly, or they could string it along. When that happens, if you want to continue to use the Nik Collection with the most up-to-date Adobe CC software then you will need to open the image directly in the product from either Windows Explorer or Finder by right-clicking on it and selecting "Open in...", or dragging and dropping (which only works in Windows). When you do that you are operating with the original, and there is no "Save As" operation available, so I am recommending that you create a copy specifically to edit with Nik and then merge that back into the old file if you're using layers.

The other option would be to keep the last working version of the CC software on your computer and use that to do your Nik work (I currently have the current CC version plus the last 2 and CS6 on my laptop, just in case).
 
Fred Kingston

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
BackdoorHippie said:
At some point you will not be able to interface the Nik plugins with Adobe products, including Lightroom. It could be in the next release if Adobe wants to kill it off quickly, or they could string it along. When that happens, if you want to continue to use the Nik Collection with the most up-to-date Adobe CC software then you will need to open the image directly in the product from either Windows Explorer or Finder by right-clicking on it and selecting "Open in...", or dragging and dropping (which only works in Windows). When you do that you are operating with the original, and there is no "Save As" operation available, so I am recommending that you create a copy specifically to edit with Nik and then merge that back into the old file if you're using layers.

The other option would be to keep the last working version of the CC software on your computer and use that to do your Nik work (I currently have the current CC version plus the last 2 and CS6 on my laptop, just in case).
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I rarely load/use the NIK tools at this point... The Luminar add-ins from MacPhun are better
 
Fred Kingston

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
Nope... They're still useable... just don't get too dependent on them because at some point, they won't work... And of course, you'll only discover they don't work at mid-night on a Sunday when you have a deadline at 6am. the next morning... ;)
 
Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
FredKingston said:
I rarely load/use the NIK tools at this point... The Luminar add-ins from MacPhun are better
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Do the Luminar add-ins have Control Points, or some kind of similar technology? Because to my way of thinking, CP's are what set NIK apart. Waaaaay apart. Filters, Presets, Actions... Those are a dime a dozen, but Control Points are not.

I believe there is something like them in some of the Nikon software, but... heh... Then I'd have to use Nikon's processing software.
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