Nik Color Efex Pro For Mac
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Color Efex Pro 4 has 55 filters that can be applied individually to images or stacked to create more dramatic effects. Control Points are a way to apply any CEP filter to just a portion of an image. This is helpful if you want to (for example) apply contrast to a specific area or color range of your photo. One aspect of control points that make them particularly helpful is that they're essentially smart masks; they are aware of their surroundings and recognize changes in color. More about that in a moment.
Looking at the image in its current state, I have two goals that I am looking to accomplish with this edit. First, as a matter of composition, I want to draw the viewer's eye away from the edges of the image and toward the structure. I also want make the colors pop and warm up the structure without losing any of the sky's blueness.
After opening the image in CEP, my first step is to apply Graduated Filters to darken and intensify the color within the sky. Using the parameters shown in the figure above, I successfully accomplish this goal. But there's a problem: Because this filter works as a standard photography grad would, it has darkened the top of the tower, as well, and I would prefer not to have that happen.
As I mentioned above, the great thing about control points is that NIK uses smart masking to apply their effects. For example, in this case, you'll notice that none of the subtraction was applied to the sky surrounding the tower. This is because the control point is smart enough to know that the sky is a different color from the building and is guessing that I don't want to include the sky in my control point's action.
As I mentioned in the beginning of this process, two of my goals are to increase color saturation and direct the viewer's eye toward the cathedral. To do this, I will rely on one of my favorite tricks: Using a control point to achieve an effect that was likely not what the NIK software engineers had in mind when they designed a specific filter. (I've got a whole bag full of these tricks, and I will share a few of them in future articles.)
Now that the brightness and relative color has been corrected, I want to apply some contrast correction. The easiest way to do this is to use the Pro Contrast filter. Once again, I will use subtractive control points to remove the effect from the sky and the bottom corners. (I'm removing the effect from these areas because Pro Contrast also makes these areas too dark in the process of adding contrast.) Toggling mask mode shows where I added the effect:
The Nik Collection is a legendary suite of photo editing software and many people revere both its black-and-white and color film looks. It has been around since the 90s and, although ownership has changed hands over the years, the collection of image editing tools continue to impress. That's particularly true of Silver Efex Pro, which benefitted from a major update last year. The latest version of the suite, Nik Collection 5 by DxO ($149 for new customers, $79 as an upgrade), modernizes the interface across several of the creative apps and introduces new capabilities to the Analog Efex Pro and Color Efex Pro tools.
DxO has made some changes to the way U-Point controls work. A hallmark of the Nik Collection, U-Points make selective adjustments to color, exposure, contrast, and other settings possible. These localized adjustments are useful when you want to restrict edits to just one area of your image.
The updated U-Point system is easier to manage. For example, you can now rename U-Points; create more accurate masks based on luminance or color value; or even save them as part of a preset. The new functions are available in the four creative apps: Analog Efex, Color Efex, Silver Efex, and Viveza. The technical side of the suite uses the old system, so you can't rename U-Points or use them in presets when you work with Dfine, HDR Efex, Perspective Efex, or Sharpener Pro.
We discuss each app in more detail below. Each has its strengths: Analog Efex is for unique toy camera, motion, and similar creative filters; Color Efex offers color and black-and-white filter looks; Silver Efex mimics the style of many classic film emulsions, including Kodak Tri-X and Ilford Delta; HDR Efex helps you tone map images to get more shadow and highlight detail than you can from a single exposure; Dfine and Sharpener Pro include pre-print tools to enhance clarity; and Perspective Efex offers technical adjustments for correcting geometry as well as creating the artistic miniature effect.
The image already has a bit of a vintage look because of the old glass, but Analog Efex can push that aesthetic further. I browsed through the filter options, working to craft a look. You can roll custom presets by making Basic Adjustments to color or contrast; adding Lens Distortion; creating a Bokeh effect; adding Light Leaks; or choosing other filter effects. They appear in a list in the left panel; once you add a filter, you can adjust its parameters via the panel to the right of your photo.
As with color looks, there are black-and-white presets available for Lightroom. Although I'm typically happy with what they bring to the table for color work, I've yet to find any that match Silver Efex for monochrome conversions. Adobe includes only a basic grain adjustment slider that doesn't come close to what Silver Efex offers.
It's especially useful for editing color selectively. Photographers who capture subjects with extremely saturated color may find it difficult to accurately edit for color when working with Raw files. An image of a red rose, for example, shows too much magenta with Adobe's default colors.
Viveza makes it possible for me to quickly highlight the problem areas of the flower with a U-Point mask. It's adjustable too, because of the new interface. A mix of localized and global color adjustments netted the final image below, one that shows the scene with more realistic colors.
The Polaroid Transfer filter emulates the effect of using Polaroid color peel-apart films and transferring the nascent image to paper before it's fully developed, resulting in low-contrast, low-saturation, with subtle shifts to the colors throughout the image. © 2006, Joe Farace, All Rights Reserved
Wrapping Up Performance of the plug-in on my Mac Pro powered by twin 2.66GHz Dual-Core Xeon processors was perfect. Big surprise there. The plug-in is fully compatible with OS 10.4.11 (see Sidebar "System Requirements") but this version of Color Efex Pro 3.0 is not yet compatible with the newer Mac OS Leopard. It should be by the time you read this but be sure to check the company's website (www.niksoftware.com) for updates. A Windows version is available as well. As before, Color Efex Pro 3.0 is available in three versions: The Standard Edition ($99.95) includes 15 filters that are suitable for a variety of photographic styles. The Select Edition ($159.95) includes all filters in the Standard Edition and adds a set of tools, giving you control over light, color, tonality, and detail. With over 250 effects in 52 filters, the Complete Edition ($299.95) includes the whole magilla for color correction, retouching, and creative enhancements and is the version I tested. You can see which specific filters are included in each package on Nik's website.
Color Efex Pro 4 is Windows and Mac compatible and installs as a 32-bit and 64-bit plug-in for Adobe® Photoshop® CS4 or later, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom® 2.6 or later, Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 or later, Apple® Aperture® 2.1.4 or later and is available in English, German, French, Italian and Spanish language. For more information about Color Efex Pro 4, including video tutorials, feature lists, and special live online preview sessions, please visit: www.niksoftware.com/colorefexpro.
Apply color, light, and structure enhancements to your entire photo with the ability to selectively refine your adjustments later. Viveza also includes levels & curves for even more control over contrast and tonality.
It is the complete collection of plugins from the Nik Collection by DxO companies, using proprietary U Point, which allows you to subtly adjust the photograph's brightness, contrast, color saturation, and other parameters of individual objects.
One of the most popular components of the Nik Collection is Nik Silver Efex Pro, a comprehensive set of filters for creating black-and-white images. With 48 pre-sets, Silver Efex Pro 2 is, in my opinion, one of the best plugins for creating authentic monochrome images from color digital photos.
With its unique algorithms and a flexible set of adjustments and settings palette, Silver Efex Pro draws heavily for inspiration from conventional darkroom techniques, and it can produce some excellent black and white images with exceptional tone and striking appearance. The plugin has adjustments for luminosity and contrast, highlight whites, plus color filters, and plenty more that enables photographers to create a convincing image that looks as if it might have been shot on conventional film stock.
As well as Silver Efex Pro, the complete Nik Collection 2.3 includes Analog Efex Pro, Color Efex Pro, Dfine 2, HDR Efex Pro, Sharpener Pro and Viveza 2. Each of the components that make up Nik Collection range provide a whole range of creative effects as well as the ability to alter colors, produce High-Dynamic Range images, remove noise from photos, and sharpen up images that need a bit more bite. You can read more about the full Nik Collection package here in my piece on the initial launch.
HDR Efex Pro is part of the Nik Collection from DxO. The Nik Collection is an excellent range of editing plugins that allow you to quickly tweak your images and improve their basic quality. Color Efex Pro, for example, provides a myriad of color presets allowing the creation of artistic photos. In this HDR Efex Pro review, we specifically look at this automated HDR editing plugin and see what it has to offer. 2b1af7f3a8
