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nik Color Efex Pro! Photographic Filters – Complete
Collection Maureen Shannon, NJPCUG
This is the second nik
Multimedia product that I have reviewed. This is a line that is completely
new to me, and I must admit, I have been very impressed with both of the
products I have reviewed. This application is a set of photographic filters. It
is the complete collection which contains the Photo Classic Set, the Photo
Design Set, the Photo Artistic Set, and the Photo Abstract Set - 55 filters in
all. I not only like the variety of
effects that come in this set but the ease with which they can be applied to an
image. Individual sets have been created according to how the
filters are used and how they can be combined. This gives you the best
enhancement possibilities. It also offers you the opportunity to purchase one,
two, or all of the sets. The filter set is a Photoshop compatible plug-in which means
it will install into Adobe Photoshop or any other image editor that accepts
Photoshop plug-ins. If you are using Photoshop as your image editor most
applications will find it and install it to the plug-in folder. If you use other
applications as image editors, you will have to tell it where your plug-in
folder is and install it into that location. The filters must be in the plug-in
folder for them to work properly with the image editor. As I have mentioned
before, I use one folder and install all my plug-ins to it and then point all of
the image editors I use to that specific plug-in folder. This saves me a lot of
hard drive space since I have a large amount of plug-ins. It also saves time
since I don’t have to do numerous installations into the various image editors
I use. It installs very easily and I had no problems accessing it once it was
installed.
These filters are very easy to work with. Open an image with
your editor, go to the plug-ins or effects list and choose nik Color Efex, choose a filter, experiment with the slider
settings, when you find a setting that you like, apply it. The most difficult
part of working with these filters is choosing one! I love what they did to the
images I applied them to and it was really difficult to decide what effect I
liked best. I did find several that became immediate favorites but it really was
hard to settle on just one. For example: the first image is the original, the
second has the “ BiColor Moss” filter which enriched the green levels, the
third Graduated 220h blue makes it look like evening colors, the fourth
In the second image above, the colors in the original are
deepened and brought to life by adding the BiColor Moss filter. Then in the
bottom two, the day colors shift to evening and night tones creating an entirely
new look. Three variations of the same photo were enriched and changed by the
addition of color filters. For an artistic effect, I chose a photo of a tree taken at
night. It had dark coloration and was quite pretty in its natural state. Other
than changing the coloration of the night color there wasn’t too many things
to do with it to improve or alter it. I decided to try one of the filters from
the Photo Abstract Set. Examples below are the original and I added Solarization
combined with a soft focus effect to the second photo. Now the tree takes on an
eerie or alien world look.
Here’s another example of adding a color filter to a photo.
The first photo of our Filters:
Filters are something that you really do need to have and
experiment with if you are seriously interested in adding professional touches
to images. Aside from the kinds that make improvements to images, you also want
to use filters that add creative and artistic enhancements. Go beyond the basic
effects that come with most image editors. The effects in Color Efex Pro are
great. They offer the user an excellent selection of effects combined with ease
of use. You will find that an investment in good filters is well worth it. I
can’t stress enough how much of a benefit it is to have a good tools to work
with. And I wouldn’t recommend a filter if I didn’t think was worth the
investment. This set has impressed me and I would recommend it to anyone who is
looking for a set of very good color enhancing filters. nik Color Efex Pro is available in the complete collection, which is
reviewed here, and in individual sets. These sets contain filters that are
grouped according to how they are used and work together (as mentioned above).
You many find that the entire set is not something that you need but that a
smaller set will offer you exactly the combination of filters that your are
looking for. I will have a demo or slide show on our web site, in the Graphics
SIG section, that will have more examples and they will be in full color so you
can see for yourselves just how they work. A final example is the redwood tree below. The first image is
the original. It’s a very nice photo of a redwood tree. In the second photo, I
masked the tree trunk and inverted it, and added the BiColor Moss filter to the
greenery. This preserved the color of the trunk and color enhanced only the
areas not masked. The green colors of the leaves and branches became lush
looking and appear fuller. The photo colors are vibrant and the branches have a
richer texture. In the last photo, I
added the Quick Sun filter. It added some bright sunshine effects to the greens
and added warmth to the photo. The simple addition of a filter, or combination
of filters, changed the photo from “nice” to fabulous. Now it draws you in
and you feel like you are in the forest and it’s serene and beautiful.
The use of color is very important. It sets the tone, the
ambiance of the subject. How you use color will affect what the people who view
the images will feel when looking at them. Using filters of this caliber gives
us the ability to set the mood and create the perfect setting to view our images
in. nik Color Efex Pro offers a set
of filters that blend color beautifully with your images, add excellent tonal
features, or completely change the coloration according to what you want to
convey. (There are also a few that do some very wild effects!) They have made
the filters easy to understand and use. There are no difficult settings and
massive adjustments to work with. It has a nearly zero difficulty level but the
outcome is nothing short of professional quality. Whether you want to add
warmth, cool down the coloration, or turn day into night, you’ll find the
perfect filter to do it with in this set. With the advantages of working with
such professional tools, is it any wonder that I am enthusiastic about using
these filters on my images? I also like the fact that the enhancements can be so
natural looking that you wouldn’t realize that the image has had something
done to it. More often than not, the understated, natural effect will be what
you are aiming for. In the current Adobe Photoshop CS Creative Studio book they
show an example of color-tinting an old photo. Before seeing this book, I
created this photo example with nik Color Efex:
For more information about nik Multimedia products, including Color Efex, please visit the nik Multimedia web site. www.nikmultimedia.com Click
here to view flash demo & image examples The collections are available in the following configurations
and prices:
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