Luminous Landscape Forum
Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Digital Image Processing => Topic started by: john beardsworth on October 25, 2017, 09:29:29 am
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See https://www.dpreview.com/news/1675836798/dxo-acquires-nik-collection-from-google-and-will-continue-to-offer-it-for-free-for-now - DXO bought Nik and say a new Nik Collection 2018 Edition is planned for mid-next year
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Alleluia!
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The new version of DxO Optics Pro, now called PhotoLab, will also incorporate Nik's U-Point masking technology.
kirk
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Music to my ears
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This is wonderful news, really made my day!
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Great news! I'll be interested to see how the new release is.
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I wonder what the subscription fee will be!!!! ;D
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I wonder what the subscription fee will be!!!! ;D
(Hush, Alan. We don't need yet another thread to devolve into a discussion about another company's products. ;) )
I think this is very good news. I've owned and used Nik plugins for a long time...yes, I paid for them...and I've been looking closely at Optics Pro 11 as my primary raw editor. When I get back to my desktop, I'm going to look at the upgrade price, if there is one, from OP11. And regardless, I'll download the new editor just to try it.
Tom Frerichs
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I wonder what the subscription fee will be!!!! ;D
Ugh, I didn't even consider that. :(
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Your only previous choice was to use the free Nik until either Adobe or your computer’s OS rendered it inoperable.
Now your choice is that, or to pay DXO some money and continue using it in a new form.
So I’d say your (and my) situation has improved. I’d prefer free, but my second choice is not-free and affordable. One can only hope that DXO is not short term greedy, but long term greedy - they want to keep selling many copies at an affordable price.
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Excellent news!!!
U point is still by far the most powerful way to mask images automatically. It was years ahead of its time and still is.
DxO has a real opportunity to do something pretty amazing combining their image correction technology, their expertise with film emulation and the U point technology.
Cheers,
Bernard
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Your only previous choice was to use the free Nik until either Adobe or your computer’s OS rendered it inoperable.
Now your choice is that, or to pay DXO some money and continue using it in a new form.
So I’d say your (and my) situation has improved. I’d prefer free, but my second choice is not-free and affordable. One can only hope that DXO is not short term greedy, but long term greedy - they want to keep selling many copies at an affordable price.
Actually I bought the Nik Suite when it was commercially available, before Google acquired them.
But it's not the possibility of paying for it that makes me groan but he possibility of subscription vs. a traditional license.
I'm just hoping for the more traditional license model, purely to suit my own preferences. I hadn't considered the model might change.
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It seems that Photolab is already available.
Even better news.
Cheers,
Bernard
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Actually I bought the Nik Suite when it was commercially available, before Google acquired them.
But it's not the possibility of paying for it that makes me groan but he possibility of subscription vs. a traditional license.
I'm just hoping for the more traditional license model, purely to suit my own preferences. I hadn't considered the model might change.
And why should you have considered it? Other than Alan (who might, for all I know, have been being merely mischievous), has anyone suggested there might be a subscription charge? Does DxO have subscription charges for anything else? (PhotoLab is a one-off purchase, so far as I can see from the web site (https://shop.dxo.com/us/photo-software/dxo-photolab).)
Don't groan, Matt. Be happy that some excellent software (I'm thinking particularly of SFX) won't wither and die. I'm very happy; and, like you, I paid for the Nik suite. I don't regret a penny of the cost.
Jeremy
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And why should you have considered it? Other than Alan (who might, for all I know, have been being merely mischievous), has anyone suggested there might be a subscription charge? Does DxO have subscription charges for anything else? (PhotoLab is a one-off purchase, so far as I can see from the web site (https://shop.dxo.com/us/photo-software/dxo-photolab).)
Don't groan, Matt. Be happy that some excellent software (I'm thinking particularly of SFX) won't wither and die. I'm very happy; and, like you, I paid for the Nik suite. I don't regret a penny of the cost.
Jeremy
I don't regret it either and I am happy they will live on.
I'll just hope Adobe maintains their monopoly on that price model in this marketplace. :)
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And why should you have considered it? Other than Alan (who might, for all I know, have been being merely mischievous), has anyone suggested there might be a subscription charge?
I was! ;) I actually purchased Silver Efex as I do a lot of B/W and was happy when it went freeware by Google. That's the only one of the NIK programs that I've ever been interested in. Again, it boils down to whether it will add value to the stuff I do. I really am agnostic about subscription models (after all I subscribe to LuLa). We'll see what happens with the NIK programs in the future.
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It seems that Photolab is already available.
Even better news.
I have upgraded to Photolab last night and just played with it a little bit.
What they have done in terms of U-Point integration is very powerful. In my view this makes DxO the most powerful raw converter on the market. Simply put, it tops Photoshop in terms of local adjustements and does it on raw data.
The ability to tune WB with U-Point will make correction for mixed lighting situations child's play.
Now I need to check if they have improved their color rendering that I thought so far was behind C1 Pro.
Cheers,
Bernard
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I met with the folks at DXO today. They are very excited to carry on with the NIK products and make it even better and more compatible. S you know parts of the technology is in their lab software already. I did a short interview with them that will appear in my show video that will be published next week once we can all the material edited. I'll be kept in the loop and we will report on DXO's progress as they share it. For me, NIK has been a powerful tool, especially Silver Efex and Viveza. The new interface that DXO has already shown in the use of the U-Point technology in their lab product is I believe a glimpse of what we can expect.
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Are they going to carry on the Nik plugins or are they just interested in integrated the technology into their own software?
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It would be nice if DXO got their raw converter to handle Fuji X-series files. I would definitely update my old version then. Kevin, maybe you can mention it to them and see what they have to say if you are still in contact with them.
Alan
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DXO has maintained that they're only equipped to handle Bayer sensors. They don't do reviews of X-Trans sensors or Fuji XF lenses.
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Which is why they should add the coding to handle the Fuji sensors as well. Originally they did not make the effort because they did not have as big a consumer base as they do now. The Fuji's are lot more popular and with the latest Adobe position it makes a bigger market for them.
Alan
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One can hope, Alan.
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Question - does PhotoLab integrate into Photoshop via a plugin interface, such as ACR, or is it a Lightroom type of raw converter? I had a copy several years ago, can buy it at a discount, but I'm only interested if I can use it per the same workflow as with ACR.
Richard Southworth
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Warning: wet-blanket mode on> :o
I've been playing with Photolab a little and have found their implementation of U-point to be sorely lacking at this point. Clearly, Photolab's selective edits are a big improvement over DOP (which was none). But there is currently no way to see a grayscale view of the aggregate mask as there is in Viveza and the old Capture NX2. This makes it difficult to work with multiple points and/or points mixed with brushes and grads. I've also noticed that if you push up exposure, say in clouds, the effect seems to be too localized to the immediate area of the pin and not even covering the selection circle.
Not being able to view the aggregate mask is a fundamental flaw and must be fixed ASAP IMO. DxO support has been very responsive and that this info would be forwarded to the developers.
Lloyd
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Warning: wet-blanket mode on> :o
I've been playing with Photolab a little and have found their implementation of U-point to be sorely lacking at this point. Clearly, Photolab's selective edits are a big improvement over DOP (which was none). But there is currently no way to see a grayscale view of the aggregate mask as there is in Viveza and the old Capture NX2. This makes it difficult to work with multiple points and/or points mixed with brushes and grads. I've also noticed that if you push up exposure, say in clouds, the effect seems to be too localized to the immediate area of the pin and not even covering the selection circle.
Not being able to view the aggregate mask is a fundamental flaw and must be fixed ASAP IMO. DxO support has been very responsive and that this info would be forwarded to the developers.
Indeed, this is definitely an area of improvement.
Cheers,
Bernard