Nik Collection now free

[peterm1]

Need to just be aware of what host programs the package supports. For example it no longer supports Corel Paintshop Pro which I use (I use an older version of Nik product suite with that host).

https://support.google.com/nikcollection/answer/3000889

But I must say the offer is so attractive that I am considering buying a copy of Lightroom specifically so I can also run the extended package of new Nik products and keep my Corel software for the times that I need some of its specific capabilities.

 

[mani]

Google have abandoned the products:

"As we continue to focus our long-term investments in building incredible photo editing tools for mobile, including Google Photos and Snapseed, we’ve decided to make the Nik Collection desktop suite available for free, so that now anyone can use it."

Something of a pattern within Google - they purchased the suite to get hold of Snapseed, and now it's orphaned.

 

[Nowhereman]

That's really too bad, as Silver Efex could have benefited from further development.

 

[Sarcophilus Harrisii]

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=155146

 

[sevo]

Need to just be aware of what host programs the package supports. For example it no longer supports Corel Paintshop Pro which I use (I use an older version of Nik product suite with that host).

https://support.google.com/nikcollection/answer/3000889

But I must say the offer is so attractive that I am considering buying a copy of Lightroom

I suspect that they merely do not automatically install the Nik suite for Corel - if you manually add the plugins or external filters to Corel, it ought to work. The suite Photoshop (.8bf) plugins do not appear to depend on anything recent - they positively do work in Photoshop CS3 here. Besides, all filters are also provided as stand-alone programs - indeed, that is the way they are attached to Lightroom (whose non-destructive paradigm means it cannot work with image altering plugins unless they limit themselves to the Lightroom engine), where they are invoked with "edit file in ...". Can Corel use external editors? If so, there is no reason at all why it won't work - and even if it cannot, that merely means an extra side step to the desktop.

 

[greyelm]

Since this doesn't work as a stand alone is there an older version of cs/lr/elements for windows available for free/cheap/non subscription?

SFX etc works stand alone on my Mac. I don't know about Windows but you can often drag a jpg to the program icon to open it up.

 

[peterm1]

I suspect that they merely do not automatically install the Nik suite for Corel - if you manually add the plugins or external filters to Corel, it ought to work. The suite Photoshop (.8bf) plugins do not appear to depend on anything recent - they positively do work in Photoshop CS3 here. Besides, all filters are also provided as stand-alone programs - indeed, that is the way they are attached to Lightroom (whose non-destructive paradigm means it cannot work with image altering plugins unless they limit themselves to the Lightroom engine), where they are invoked with "edit file in ...". Can Corel use external editors? If so, there is no reason at all why it won't work - and even if it cannot, that merely means an extra side step to the desktop.

I thought of that myself. It used to be that manually pointing Corel Paintshop Pro at the directory holding the Nik files worked just as you state, (in fact I did it myself with earlier versions of the two products as Corel allow you to nominate the directory (ies) holding plugins in its preferences). But I read a couple of threads today, in which posters claim this no longer works and that when they wrote to Nik its staff confirmed in writing that its software no longer supports the Corel host at all as there are technical incompatibilities. This seems to have something to do with the later versions of Corel now being 64 bit products although why this should be so is not known to me given that Nik also supports 64 bit processors as I understand it.

But something you said in your post is intriguing. Is it correct that the Nik software can be invoked as a stand alone program form the desktop (ie not as a plugin)?. If so this is new as earlier versions did not allow this and operated as a plugin in for Photoshop, Paintshop Pro etc.

 

[ruby.monkey]

And they are refunding money (the full amount) to anyone who bought the software this year! 😱

Indeed. I just received notification of my refund this morning. 🙂

 

[mani]

OK I understand people who've never owned or used the software are glad about this, but Google have terminated these apps now - anyone who's ever read dozens of these announcements before understand what's effectively being said.

Instead of the universal jubilation, we should be writing to beg them to either sell the suite to another company who can continue developing it, or preferably open-source it.

Within a couple years these apps won't be working with existing operating systems or imaging applications. Come on guys, don't get blindsided by 'free' - you should all know by now, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

 

[sevo]

But something you said in your post is intriguing. Is it correct that the Nik software can be invoked as a stand alone program form the desktop (ie not as a plugin)?. If so this is new as earlier versions did not allow this and operated as a plugin in for Photoshop, Paintshop Pro etc.

Yup, they can. Indeed, they could ever since they made it "Lightroom compatible", as Lightroom does only support that kind of manipulation through external (standalone) image editors.

 

[peterm1]

OK I understand people who've never owned or used the software are glad about this, but Google have terminated these apps now - anyone who's ever read dozens of these announcements before understand what's effectively being said.

Instead of the universal jubilation, we should be writing to beg them to either sell the suite to another company who can continue developing it, or preferably open-source it.

Within a couple years these apps won't be working with existing operating systems or imaging applications. Come on guys, don't get blindsided by 'free' - you should all know by now, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Sad but most likely true.

 

[sevo]

Within a couple years these apps won't be working with existing operating systems or imaging applications.

They probably will. I still have Photoshop plugins from the early 1990's that I occasionally use (mostly to deal with old Alias Wavefront files). And even Photoshop 3.5 still works fine in Windows 10.

You might however be SOL if you use Apple, as these are quite unusually nasty regarding backward compatibility. They killed both M68k and PowerPC emulation support few years after switching architecture (plus a couple of changes to their bus architecture that invalidated pro photo, video and audio hardware far more expensive than the top Mac), so I have to keep several ancient Macs around just to be able to access parts of my back catalogue - the one reason why they permanently lost me (and any employer of mine where I had the power to decide that) as a customer.

 

[user237428934]

Instead of the universal jubilation, we should be writing to beg them to either sell the suite to another company who can continue developing it, or preferably open-source it.

That would be the best but......

Problem could be that the Nik-collection contained the u-point technology for selective adjustment. I don't know if they patented it or if only the name "u-point technology" is a registered trademark. Now google owns this and uses it in their mobile software.

Would some other company buy the source code without the u-point-functionality?

Would google make the software open source so that anyone would be able to build mobile software with the u-point functionality?

 

[Fraser]

Nice heads up!
Just installed into CC works a treat, maybe Alienskin will go free!

 

[mani]

Posted this over on LUF, maybe people here could also add their voices to help keep the Suite alive:

Oh well, not many people seem to be bothered. I wrote my own ineffectual little mail to Google about it. Seeing as they've abandoned software and services with far, far larger user-bases in the past without blinking, I don't think it'll make any difference. But if you use Silver Efex or one of the other apps, then maybe it might be worth adding your voice. Here's my mail anyway:

"The Nik Suite of applications is an integral part of very many photographer's workflow - both pros and amateurs. The announcement today is a pretty obvious signal that the applications are abandoned. At the very least, please continue to develop them to the extent that they can continue to be used for the long-term future, and remain compatible with host application upgrades and new Operating Systems.
This is yet another very sad example in the lengthening list of Google abandonware, and gains the company no real fans in the long-term."

I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Disappointed_Horse]

Since I'm still using Apple's abandonware Aperture, I went ahead and downloaded Google's abandonware NIK Collection for it. Risks you take with commercial software. I'll continue to use both until they stop working. Then I'll be sad and probably move to FOSS alternatives like darktable and GIMP.

 

[f16sunshine]

For those who want to use it stand alone.
I installed the collection in my applications folder.
Silver efex opened fine.
I don't have an image on my little 11" laptop to open if you can believe it.
Will try from the desktop later although I will likely host it in aperture there.

Too bad It can not be hosted with Affinity which has become my main RAW processor. 😱

 

[willie_901]

The NIK tools are extremely useful.

It is certainly true a highly skilled and well-experienced Photoshop user could implement everything in the NIK modules. Fortunately using Nik is many orders of magnitude more convenient.

While SilverEfex is often discussed here on RFF. Viveza has extremely powerful dodge and burn tools. I often use HDR Efex Pro 2 to blend (not tone map) bracketed exposures when the dynamic range of the scene exceeds the dynamic range of my camera's data stream.

 

[jarski]

And they are refunding money (the full amount) to anyone who bought the software this year! 😱

my decisive moment to buy the collection was last December :bang:

I thought I'd use Silver Efex most, but turned out Color Efex tonal contrast has been my most used tool. its bit like Clarity slider in Lightroom, but with more control.

 

[raid]

I may be doing something wrong when doing the downloading.