DxO has revealed a major update to its Nik Collection software suite, with Version 4 promising a range of interface and usability improvements. Indeed the firm claims that this is the biggest update for a decade, with highlights including significant enhancements to the unique U-point technology that allows precise local adjustments without the user having to build complex masks. This gains a clearer user interface along with a more accurate colour tolerance setting. Control points can also be grouped together and included in presets, which should make it easier to apply the same adjustments to multiple images.
There’s also a more user-friendly design, with brand new interfaces for the Viveza plug-in that provides precise colour and tonal adjustments, along with Silver Efex that’s used for making black & white conversions. Silver Efex also gains DxO’s ClearView control for cutting though haze and enhancing local contrast.
Photographers who work with Adobe software get various workflow improvements, with Lightroom users now able to replicate adjustments from one image to the next using the Last Edit command. Photoshop users gain new Meta Presets, which combine settings from multiple Nik plugins into a single action. This allows a set of filters to applied to multiple images with a single click.
You can see full details of Nik Collection 4 by DxO here. It’s available now for an introductory price of £86.99 for new users, and £49.99 for those upgrading from the previous version. At the start of July, these prices will increase to £125 and £69 respectively. A free one-month trial is also on offer.
