Nik Collection is now *FREE*

[Pictus]

https://plus.google.com/+NikCollection/posts/AFGsG2Di7EK
Today we’re making the Nik Collection available to everyone, for free.

Photo enthusiasts all over the world use the Nik Collection to get the
best out of their images every day. As we continue to focus our long-term
investments in building incredible photo editing tools for mobile, including
Google Photos and Snapseed, we’ve decided to make the Nik Collection desktop
suite available for free, so that now anyone can use it.

The Nik Collection is comprised of seven desktop plug-ins that provide a
powerful range of photo editing capabilities -- from filter applications
that improve color correction, to retouching and creative effects, to image
sharpening that brings out all the hidden details, to the ability to make
adjustments to the color and tonality of images.

Starting March 24, 2016, the latest Nik Collection will be freely available to download:
Analog Efex Pro, Color Efex Pro, Silver Efex Pro, Viveza, HDR Efex Pro, Sharpener Pro and Dfine.
If you purchased the Nik Collection in 2016, you will receive a full refund, which we’ll
automatically issue back to you in the coming days.

We’re excited to bring the powerful photo editing tools once only used by professionals
to even more people now.

Download:

WIN https://dl.google.com/edgedl/photos/nikcollection-full-1.2.11.exe

OSX https://dl.google.com/edgedl/photos/nikcollection-full-1.2.11.dmg

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[Mark D Segal]

Thanks for the heads-up. They did this once before when they first acquired Nik Software. One wonders why. Maybe it's a marketing inducement which would make sense if they had upgrades or new stuff coming out later on - that won't be free!

[TonyW]

I strongly suspect that they will not be developing anything more for the desktop and will concentrate on mobile devices as stated below

If you have bought this year you should qualify for a refund
https://plus.google.com/+NikCollection/posts/AFGsG2Di7EK

[luxborealis]

Thanks for the heads-up. They did this once before when they first acquired Nik Software. One wonders why. Maybe it's a marketing inducement which would make sense if they had upgrades or new stuff coming out later on - that won't be free!

Mark - You're sounding (perhaps understandably) skeptical. But, remember, it's Google. About a year ago, they made Google Earth Pro available for free. I think it was a $399 app previous to that.

Maybe I'm naive, but Google continues to amaze me at what they are offering for "free". I don't use Picasa, but am aware of how extensive its capabilities are. Google Earth (the original version) has revolutionized my geography classes. I realize they are collecting and selling my data but so far, after using Google since the day it arrived online, it's been a very positive experience.

[Mark D Segal]

Terry, I'm not the least bit skeptical - I downloaded the software the first time it was free on an older OS and just downloaded it again on a newer OS. And I'll play with it. There's usually a reason or more why people do things, so I was just speculating a bit. There's really not much to lose or be skeptical about when the price is $0.00, huh?

[kencameron]

Thanks for the heads-up. They did this once before when they first acquired Nik Software. One wonders why. Maybe it's a marketing inducement which would make sense if they had upgrades or new stuff coming out later on - that won't be free!

As far as I can make out from the release notes, they have't done anything to the software since May 2014, except bug fixes and compatibility updates. Hence anyone who took advantage the last time it was free (as I did) shouldn't expect anything new. Upgrades etc would be nice but I am not overly hopeful.

[Lesley]

I bought the software about three weeks ago and received an email today that said that the price I paid had been refunded. 

[Osprey]

This would seem to be the official announcement of end of the line for development of the Nik Plugin. Kinda sad after all these years of my using it, but nothing has happened with the collection for years already.

[stamper]

Why look a gift horse in the mouth? It is an outstanding collection of tools that was worth the previous price. The refund is for 2016 but some people will want it to go back even further.

[Simon Garrett]

This would seem to be the official announcement of end of the line for development of the Nik Plugin. Kinda sad after all these years of my using it, but nothing has happened with the collection for years already.

You may well be right that they are no longer developing it, but it's not true to say that "nothing has happened with the collection for years".  Since Google bought Nik, there have been 14 new releases (https://support.google.com/nikcollection/answer/4400822?hl=en&ref_topic=3001406).  These releases included new features and one new package as well as bug fixes.

[keithcooper]

Whilst I'm concerned that they have been pretty much untouched for a while, I know a lot of people will be exploring them anew.

Over time, I've written up details of how I use many of the plugins. There are also reviews of earlier versions - useful for a bit more info if you find something particularly useful

For a detailed look at them see:

Silver Efex Pro
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/reviews/plugins/silver_efex_2.html

Sharpener Pro - Still a regular in my print workflow
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/reviews/plugins/sharpening_nik3.html

Viveza
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/reviews/plugins/viveza-2.html

Color Efex filters
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/reviews/plugins/color-efex-pro4.html

Noise reduction
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/reviews/plugins/dfine_2.html

HDR image processing
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/reviews/plugins/hdr-efex-pro2.html

Some other aspects:

Silver Efex halo reduction
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/photo-tips/sfx-halo.html

Using Silver efex to enhance dull colour images
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/tutorial_pages/sfx-colour.html
and
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/stuff2/?p=1493

I hope it's of some help for people just finding them for the first time?

[jamiemphoto]

Thank you for those links! That will help me figure this stuff out, for sure.

I am so glad I didn't buy these a few months ago, though it seems like I'd have been bailed out, at least.

I'm pretty surprised by Silver Efex so far. I'm so picky about black and whites that I generally just prefer shooting film or not doing black and white photos. This might help me get over that ...

[ButchM]

Why look a gift horse in the mouth?

Well, if the gift horse in question is likely to keel over dead on the next version update for Ps/Lr or your OS du jour ... what good is learning and becoming dependent upon a tool that has reached it's end of life cycle as far as further development is considered?

I am in no way upset, annoyed or otherwise concerned about anyone downloading this freebie ... just cautioning about the future.

[Mark D Segal]

I can't help but think freebies are inducements and inducements usually indicate there will be something going forward that is the object of the inducement. Only his/her hairdresser knows for sure :-).

[ButchM]

I can't help but think freebies are inducements and inducements usually indicate there will be something going forward that is the object of the inducement. Only his/her hairdresser knows for sure :-).

Inducement? Just exactly what has Google done with the Nik plugins since they bought them? Other than lower the price, of course.  Updates/improvements have been very sparse and relatively uneventful. If Google wanted to 'induce' prospective customers to prep for something new, they could likely have created a much more enthusiastic following by pushing the envelope on something other than price point.

[Mark D Segal]

I'm not interested in arguing about what an inducement is, but in my books when something that used to cost $160 is now free, that's an inducement. It's not as if they have inventory on the shelf that they need to get rid of. This is computer code. Sometimes there is no need to update or upgrade applications. Maybe they are leaving well enough alone. I wish some other software firms would do that too. Or maybe they do have new and improved stuff in the works we don't know about yet. It's a waste of time further speculating. Download, enjoy and let's see what comes - or doesn't. Nothing to lose.

[Rhossydd]

what good is learning and becoming dependent upon a tool that has reached it's end of life cycle as far as further development is considered?

It's hardly a difficult suite to learn. Once you've understood the idea and application of control points, maybe half an hour on You Tube, all the modules work in a pretty similar way.
I've played with the Nik suite a few times and I never found any of it a compelling purchase, but as a freebie it might get the occasional use rather than going the hair shirt route with PS.

I can't see many people being "dependant" on this suite.

I also don't see it getting broken on my system anytime soon. I'm not planning to upgrade Win7 for a very long time and PS CS4 does everything I need.

[Rhossydd]

but in my books when something that used to cost $160 is now free, that's an inducement.

It may be that sales have recently been so small that it's more cost effective to give it away and refund recent purchases, so that they can close down the overheads of support and promotion.

[Mark D Segal]

It may be that sales have recently been so small that it's more cost effective to give it away and refund recent purchases, so that they can close down the overheads of support and promotion.

I don't understand the logic here. If you give something away free it attracts more users, so there could be, if anything, MORE requests for support. If you want to shut down a product line, you either discontinue it or jack-up the price enough so that no one buys it, then phase it out. They don't seem to be doing either.

I agree with your previous comments on the relative importance of these plug-ins in an overall workflow. I don't use Photoshop very often, as I find Lightroom does most of what I need. I have a slew of these plug-ins in my Lightroom set-up but hardly ever find much wanting in the LR toolset that encourages me to deploy them.

[Rhossydd]

I don't understand the logic here. If you give something away free it attracts more users, so there could be, if anything, MORE requests for support.

If it's free you don't have to support it at all.