Digital Photographer's Software Guide - Bertemes - Net

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The Digital Photographer's Software Guide
Once you have selected the part of the image to be enhanced (or perhaps the whole
image on some occasions), you can invoke any of the filters provided. What are they?
For this you really need to visit the vendor’s Website because they are listed with mouseover
pop-ups that show the effect in each case. They range from Skylight Filter, Classical
Soft Focus, and Bleach Bypass to the self-explanatory Darken/Lighten Center, High
Key, Low Key, and Graduated Neutral Density. Film effects include Solarization,
InfraRed, and the distinctly spooky Midnight (shades of François Truffaut’s Day for
Night ). Recently added effects include Polaroid Transfer, Film Grain, and Glamour
Glow for dreamy, soft effects in wedding and portrait photography.
Nik Color Efex Pro comes in three editions. There’s a Standard edition with 15 filters.
There’s a Select edition with 35 filters and a core set of tools for what the vendor calls
“absolute control over light, color, tonality, and detail” across a wide variety of photographic
styles. Finally, there’s the all-singing-dancing Complete edition with 52 filters,
described by the vendor (a little solemnly) as “the most comprehensive set of filters for
color correction, retouching, and creative enhancements available today.”
Comments
Having included Nik Software’s excellent Viveza package that controls color and light,
as well as the same vendor’s sharpening software Nik Sharpener Pro and noise reduction
software Dfine 2.0, I was intending to leave this product with a mere passing mention.
However, my technical editor insists otherwise, and on reflection I have to agree with
him. Professional photographers love this product both for its stunning effects and its
speed of operation. The U Point interface is very effective and speeds the workflow significantly.
The filters themselves allow you to stylize your images in dozens of ways, most
of them using analogies from the world of traditional film filters and processing. Although
they need practice and good artistic judgment if you are to get the best out of them, the
Nik filters give you superb control, unmatched convenience, and fully professional results.
Version: Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 (2008)
Plugs into: Adobe Photoshop 7–CS3, Adobe Photoshop Elements 2–6, and compatible applications
OS: Windows 2000 Professional, XP Home Edition, XP Professional, and Vista; Mac OS X 10.4
and later
RAM: 256 MB
Supported file formats: As host program
Price level: Standard edition approx. $100, Select edition approx. $160, Complete edition
approx. $300
Address: Nik Software, Inc., 7588 Metropolitan Drive, San Diego, CA 92108, United States
www.niksoftware.com