Nik Collection 7 brings a major overhaul to masking, presets, color controls, speed, workflow and the plug-in line-up itself
(Image credit: DxO)
DxO describes this as the Nik Collection’s biggest update ever, as the Color Efex plug-in takes center stage, DxO’s U-point masking technology becomes massively more powerful and one plug-in is dropped from the line-up completely.
It's a substantial upgrade to what is already one of the best photo editing software tools on the market, as DxO both rationalizes the Nik Collection line-up and improves its features and workflow.
Color Efex is one of the oldest Nik plug-ins and has perhaps been under-appreciated in the past, but with the Nik Collection 7 update it suddenly takes on a lot more importance. It now incorporates three Nik Viveza filters that previously formed the heart of the separate Viveza plug-in. This seems a logical home for these tools since Viveza did seem like a rather narrow and specialized outlier in the Nik suite.
Color Efex also gets a change to some core tools. The HSL, ClearView and Grain tools which were previously global adjustments now become dynamic filters that can be used multiple times and with local adjustments.
Some of the biggest changes are to the masking tools, though, which apply across the suite, and the biggest upgrade is to control points. Previously, these were circular, but they can now be reshaped as ellipses or you can use a brand new polygon tool for precise masking shapes. The ‘self-masking’ capability remains, but you can now move the target point for the adjustments within the masked area so it no longer needs to be in the center.
There are workflow enhancements too. DxO claims images now load 30% faster and has introduced a new plug-in switcher to go from one plug-in to another without having to go back to the host software, and an Export button to output a processed image straight from the plug-in – again, without having to go back to the host. Preset management has been given an overhaul too, and it’s now possible to search for presets and create your own presets category.
DxO has dropped Perspective Efex from the suite, however. This does make some sense as there was a lot of crossover between this and DxO’s ViewPoint software. Besides, host programs like Lightroom, Capture One, Affinity and others have perfectly effective perspective control tools of their own which you can apply before or after launching the Nik plug-ins. DxO does say that any Perspective Efex fans can still use the older Nik Collection 6 plug-in alongside a new Nik Collection 7 installation.
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Rod is an independent photography journalist and editor, and a long-standing Digital Camera World contributor, having previously worked as DCW's Group Reviews editor. Before that he has been technique editor on N-Photo, Head of Testing for the photography division and Camera Channel editor on TechRadar, as well as contributing to many other publications. He has been writing about photography technique, photo editing and digital cameras since they first appeared, and before that began his career writing about film photography. He has used and reviewed practically every interchangeable lens camera launched in the past 20 years, from entry-level DSLRs to medium format cameras, together with lenses, tripods, gimbals, light meters, camera bags and more. Rod has his own camera gear blog at fotovolo.com but also writes about photo-editing applications and techniques at lifeafterphotoshop.com
