#Google nik collection cost software

A few menu items in PhotoShop and there you go, done, but it’s not right. Silver Efex ProĬonverting colour to black and white looks easy. You can also add control points, meaning you can apply the filters to specific parts of the image rather than the whole picture. If gives 55 filters which can be stacked to give you an almost unlimited pallette to work from. This tool is ideal for correcting colours, retouching images and adding creative effects to your images. On the left, the original, on the right, 1970s Watergate style. Using a range of filters, it can make your photos look like they were taken with classic lenses, giving that ‘analog’ look and feel. This filter aims to bring back the look and feel of classic cameras. The collection has seven main parts to it, each tuned to provide specific enhancements to your photographs. You can now get one of the most efficient and powerful photo editing packages for free, assuming, that is, you have access to PhotoShop, which in itself is quite an expensive package. Updates were restricted to bug fixes, usually when PhotoShop was updated and things broke, but there did seem to be some effort to keep things running along.Īnd then Google dropped a bombshell by giving the whole suite away for free. The Nik team seemed to disband, and the whole package got absorbed into the Google empire. The acquisition didn’t go down well with many in the industry, though. Way back in 2010, this would have cost you $500.

#Google nik collection cost software

Google bought Nik Software in 2012 and very soon later reduced the price for the entire software suite to $150. The price was an issue, though, with only the really dedicated photographer wanting to fork out hundreds of pounds to invest in either package. However each had fans, so they competed pretty healthily with each other. These were Nik and ON1 Photo.īoth of these packages had their advantages and disadvantages. You can buy a lot of them as single plugins, but two companies provided entire suites of software that aimed to provide everything you needed in order to enhance your photos quickly. They simplify the sometimes huge number of steps required in order to get a dull picture looking great, but they usually come at a cost. Put simply, plugins allow you to do things that would usually take a lot of effort. But there are shortcuts.įor a long time now there have been two big contenders in the world of PhotoShop plugins. Its massive array of settings it’s almost limitless editing power, a wide range of filters, and the steep learning curve put many people off.

For a start, PhotoShop can be hideously complicated to use. Of course, it’s not without its problems. Let’s ignore the naysayers though and remember that photography is an artform and therefore benefits from the artist’s eye.Īnd one of the best tools to enhance any photography is PhotoShop. And it’s this ease of use that has probably led to the widespread distaste for software enhancement in general amongst some photographers. Over the past decade, though, there has been a glut of software that aims to do all of this with even our bad photos and turn them into masterpieces.Īpps such as Instagram mean that anyone can highlight, adjust and enhance images to make them appealing with just the flick of a finger. Again, this is what photography is all about. On other occasions, it may be necessary to filter out a particular color, or increase the ‘warmth’ of a picture to make it more appealing. When photographing landscapes that contain a lot of sky, water or foliage, these give impressive results and are relatively cheap.īut they’re altering the image, and that’s fine. One of the most common, and probably one you have on your camera now, is a polarizing filter that reduces glare and improves the saturation of an image. Since photography began, people have been using filters to alter the finished product.

However, nearly all imagery is enhanced, edited or adjusted in some way.

It’s used mostly in a derogatory sense, usually by purists who think that the only way to present photography is in its original “no filtered” look. I’m sure you’ve heard the term “that’s been PhotoShopped” in reference to a photograph that perhaps doesn’t look entirely real. Enhance Your Photos with Nik Collection – Now for Free!