Editing Silver Efex 2 Smart Filters after installing Silver Efex 3

[TheNinth]

I am a big fan of Silver Efex Pro and have in the past used it extensively as Smart Filter in Photoshop, before DXO took over and introduced their own non-destructive workflow.

So, I was pretty bummed to find that installing the current DXO NIK Collection 4 with Silver Efex Pro 3 forcefully removes the older versions, and Silver Efex Pro 3 cannot edit the Smart Filters created with Silver Efex Pro 2.

According to DXO there is no solution to that and the older and newer versions cannot coexist.

However, I was happy to find that this is not true for the older NIK Collection version from the time Google was in charge. After installing version 1.2.11, Silver Efex Pro 2 is again available as Photoshop plugin and those old Smart Filters are editable again.

I wrote a short blog article on where to find the older version and how to install it:

https://www.the-ninth.com/blog/silver-efex-pro-2-3

Hope this maybe helps anyone here encountering the same issue …

Regards, Robert

[chez]

I am a big fan of Silver Efex Pro and have in the past used it extensively as Smart Filter in Photoshop, before DXO took over and introduced their own non-destructive workflow.

So, I was pretty bummed to find that installing the current DXO NIK Collection 4 with Silver Efex Pro 3 forcefully removes the older versions, and Silver Efex Pro 3 cannot edit the Smart Filters created with Silver Efex Pro 2.

According to DXO there is no solution to that and the older and newer versions cannot coexist.

However, I was happy to find that this is not true for the older NIK Collection version from the time Google was in charge. After installing version 1.2.11, Silver Efex Pro 2 is again available as Photoshop plugin and those old Smart Filters are editable again.

I wrote a short blog article on where to find the older version and how to install it:

https://www.the-ninth.com/blog/silver-efex-pro-2-3

Hope this maybe helps anyone here encountering the same issue …

Regards, Robert

Thanks Robert. It's been downhill since Nik was acquired by Google and now DXO.

[Lust4Life]

"So, I was pretty bummed to find that installing the current DXO NIK Collection 4 with Silver Efex Pro 3 forcefully removes the older versions, and Silver Efex Pro 3 cannot edit the Smart Filters created with Silver Efex Pro 2."

Thanks for letting us know!

I've finally had it with DxO.  Kept trying to give them a chance to earn my loyalty hoping to get away from "subscription software".
Recently tried trial of PureRAW 2 and found it totally lacking compared to other developers. 

Then on Sunday I upgraded to PhotoLab5 from 3,4 that I had tried - pissed away $99 for the very last time with these folks.
Just sharing my experiences - hope others disagree with me and had better results.

[TheNinth]

Yes, I can relate to that. Contacts with DXO regarding the NIK collection were less from satisfactory so far. The issue described in this thread is one thing, another is a bug they introduced in Silver Efex and other NIK tools, which makes the curves tool quite hard to use. They promised to fix it, released a new version but still no fix.

In any case, with that experience I am not inclined to try any of their other stuff, but I am hooked in Silver Efex Pro, so I'll stick with them for that.