Acutally, I sometimes wonder what a NIK approach to a total image editing program would be.
Nik makes Nikon Capture NX2 which gives you a program that handles most (but not all) frequently used editing tools--curves, levels, saturation, white balance, color space, shadow/highlight, exposure, distortion control, warmth, cropping, contrast, etc.,--all with the ability to apply them with control points like Viveza, or apply them selectively as in Photoshop. It's very slick, and once you understand how it works, you can get a lot done very quickly with very nice results. You can add the Nik Color Efex filters to NX2 and they work much more easily in NX2 than in Photoshop, because the filters work natively like any other adjustment in the program. I asked a Nik representative whether the next version of Capture NX2 will have the ability to use SEP2 and other Nik features. His only response was that the Capture NX2 features are determined by what Nikon wants.
Before anyone jumps in and protests...yes, I know there are many features in Photoshop (which I use daily) that are not available in Capture NX2. NX2 has some editing capabilities beyond Lightroom, but it is probably closer to Lightroom or ACR than Photoshop in terms of editing. (And obviously, Nikon Capture NX2 is of little use with Canon RAW files.) I agree...it would surely be nice to see Nik's approach to a complete editing package...NX2 suggests it could be a winner.
