I use CS4 with smart objects and regular layered PSD files.
I use NIK plugins. EFEX, Viveza, Sharpener and Dfine. All of these products work like magic and I love the results I get from them. The benefits of being able to rework things done in ACR and CS4 and now even the plugins as smart objects has given me almost unlimited capacity to rework and tweak photos to perfection.
My issue is that upon working and often reworking images to fine tune sharpening or localized controls in Viveza I will open an image and find my control points are scattered to new positions I did not choose all over the place making me delete the layer and start over from scratch. In the Sharpener I can open and resharpen and image with excellent results but have to record settings as a note in CS4 if I need to reopen the smart object and change the sharpening settings. The plugin works great but all settings are lost and you need to re-enter them like a standard non-smart object. Contact with Nik has been of no help. They claim to be working on things and apologize for all the extra effort I have to put in while they create a fix. It has been a couple months since the promised wandering control points fix. I emailed Nik a week ago and have not even gotten the standard thanks for spending your money but it sucks to be you message.
Anybody else having wandering control point issues? This only happens if you re-open a Nik plugin to modify an image, and then only maybe one of four times. If you have found out how to avoid this please pass on any suggestions since Nik is giving me nothing
