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January 21, 2010
[REVIEW—NIK COLOR EFEX PRO 3.0]
Price: $400
Amazing Photoshop filters tool
The low-down: This image manipulation software installs itself under the Filters menu in Photoshop and provides an astonishing array of tools for conversion to black and white, enhancing warmth and brilliance, adding a glamour glow and softening skin detail, soft focus, adding film-like effects and grain, applying fog (both flat and graduated), adding a graduated colour filter, or graduated neutral density. It will add reflector effects, tones to black and white, remove colour casts, simulate a polariser and, as they say in the ads, many many more. The appearance of every effect is controlled with sliders for colour, contrast, brightness, strength and so on. There is a loupe section of the screen to show a small part of the original and the retouched image side by side.
Like: The effects are subtle and are added as a new layer in Photoshop so the intensity of the effect can be varied with the opacity slider. Parts of the effect can be erased if necessary before flattening the image. Since installing the software there has not been one photo of a female that has not had the skin softening filter applied. It takes away the relentless hardness of detail that is characteristic of a sharply focused digital image, leaving a softer, film-like final photo.
Dislike: At this stage there is no version for 64 bit Photoshop, although Nik promised on its web site that it would be available before Christmas.
Verdict: The price is going to be a major deterrent. This is not for the happy amateur snapper, but for the serious photographer -- particularly anyone interested in the art of portraiture -- this is a remarkably comprehensive Photoshop plug-in. Recommended without reservation.
[Go to www.niksoftware.com.au for more information about the Nik products.]
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Posted by terry at January 21, 2010 08:14 AM
