Ever industrious French photo-editing and lens correction specialist, DxO, has released the latest Nik Collection, version 7. The Nik Collection will be familiar to many readers as it includes Silver Efex, still regarded as the gold standard for black-and-white editing by many photographers.
As well as Silver Efex, there is an array of other constituent programs (or plug-ins, as they are also compatible with Photoshop, Lightroom, Affinity Photo, and DxO PhotoLab).
The main updates apply to Nik Color Efex. This now features an extended HSL (Hue Saturation Luminance) filter for extending colour range selections, along with a new Vibrancy slider. Dynamic Filters now enable you to stack and reorder filters and create local adjustments, and you can access Nik Viveza plugins as filters from within Color Efex to simplify your workflow (Viveza helps with tone and colour correction and enhancement).
Get to the U-point
DxO’s U Point tools for local adjustment also get three new tools for making more precise selections, which can be used with all plug-ins. The Polygonal Tool expedites the selection of irregular shapes, while Control Points can now be modified into any elliptical form and Luminosity Masks can be used for faster selections by targeting levels of brightness.
Nik Collection gets a speed bump, too
There are also interface and usability improvements; images now launch up to 30% faster, according to DxO, while a Switch To makes it easier to move between Nik Collection programs. Quick Export lets you output images without leaving the plug-in, allowing you to make fast comparisons of image versions, while the Quick Search and other organisational tools have been added to the library.
Finally, Nik Perspective has been removed from the collection, though there was no explanation why. ‘With parallel installation, owners of Nik Collection 6.3 will still be able to continue to use Nik Perspective,’ DxO confirmed.
The Nik Collection 7 for MacOS and Windows is available now for £145 (new users) or as an upgrade for existing users (£79). See www.dxo.com
Further reading
Best subscription-free photo editing software
Nik Collection 6 review – versatile photo editing plug-in software
