DxO Photolab and Nik Collection

[Oregon Dawg]

Basically, NIK is a good add-on for a PS or Affinity user. But not for a PL user.

I disagree, at least for me Nik works great with Photolab.

Horses for courses I suppose.

 

[Digital Nigel]

Basically, NIK is a good add-on for a PS or Affinity user. But not for a PL user.

I disagree, at least for me Nik works great with Photolab.

Have you compared it with FilmPack?

Horses for courses I suppose.

The NIK horse was trained for the PS course.

 

[Oregon Dawg]

Basically, NIK is a good add-on for a PS or Affinity user. But not for a PL user.

I disagree, at least for me Nik works great with Photolab.

Have you compared it with FilmPack?

Horses for courses I suppose.

The NIK horse was trained for the PS course.

I have both Filmpack and Nik. I'm a Fuji user, so I use the digital film sims in Filmpack, which is a nice feature for me.

I don't use Nik a lot, but I do use Silver Efex for B&W and sometimes use Viveza. I will sometimes use Nik to sharpen for printing. I don't claim to be an expert, but I find Nik to be integrated to Photolab well enough for my purposes.

I know what you're saying, Nik is not integrated in the same fashion as Filmpack or Viewpoint, but that's not an issue for me.

 

[Digital Nigel]

Basically, NIK is a good add-on for a PS or Affinity user. But not for a PL user.

I disagree, at least for me Nik works great with Photolab.

Have you compared it with FilmPack?

Horses for courses I suppose.

The NIK horse was trained for the PS course.

I have both Filmpack and Nik. I'm a Fuji user, so I use the digital film sims in Filmpack, which is a nice feature for me.

I don't use Nik a lot, but I do use Silver Efex for B&W and sometimes use Viveza. I will sometimes use Nik to sharpen for printing. I don't claim to be an expert, but I find Nik to be integrated to Photolab well enough for my purposes.

I know what you're saying, Nik is not integrated in the same fashion as Filmpack or Viewpoint, but that's not an issue for me.

It's not integrated at all — it's just an export destination from PL. Conversely, FP is actually part of PL. Long ago, they were one product, till DxO decided to make FP an extra-cost option.

Do you do anything in NIK that you couldn't do in PL? Does Silver Efex do anything that FP can't?

 

[DocBobB]

Basically, NIK is a good add-on for a PS or Affinity user. But not for a PL user.

I disagree, at least for me Nik works great with Photolab.

Have you compared it with FilmPack?

Horses for courses I suppose.

The NIK horse was trained for the PS course.

I have both Filmpack and Nik. I'm a Fuji user, so I use the digital film sims in Filmpack, which is a nice feature for me.

I don't use Nik a lot, but I do use Silver Efex for B&W and sometimes use Viveza. I will sometimes use Nik to sharpen for printing. I don't claim to be an expert, but I find Nik to be integrated to Photolab well enough for my purposes.

I know what you're saying, Nik is not integrated in the same fashion as Filmpack or Viewpoint, but that's not an issue for me.

It's not integrated at all — it's just an export destination from PL. Conversely, FP is actually part of PL. Long ago, they were one product, till DxO decided to make FP an extra-cost option.

Do you do anything in NIK that you couldn't do in PL? Does Silver Efex do anything that FP can't?

As must be evident, I’m trying to decide which to get. This discussion is very helpful. Thanks.

 

[Ho72]

As must be evident, I’m trying to decide which to get. This discussion is very helpful. Thanks.

There was some discussion (here?) a few weeks ago re the free Google Nik version which is apparently still available. So unless you specifically need something DxO has added since they took ownership, the freebie might be worth a look.

--
Sometimes I look at posts from people I've placed on my IGNORE list. When I do, I'm quickly reminded of why I chose to ignore them in the first place.

 

[DocBobB]

As must be evident, I’m trying to decide which to get. This discussion is very helpful. Thanks.

There was some discussion (here?) a few weeks ago re the free Google Nik version which is apparently still available. So unless you specifically need something DxO has added since they took ownership, the freebie might be worth a look.

I already have them. Not bad but some bugs... e.g. Viveza does not work as a plugin - terrible purple color cast unless you view at 100%.

 

[Oregon Dawg]

Basically, NIK is a good add-on for a PS or Affinity user. But not for a PL user.

I disagree, at least for me Nik works great with Photolab.

Have you compared it with FilmPack?

Horses for courses I suppose.

The NIK horse was trained for the PS course.

I have both Filmpack and Nik. I'm a Fuji user, so I use the digital film sims in Filmpack, which is a nice feature for me.

I don't use Nik a lot, but I do use Silver Efex for B&W and sometimes use Viveza. I will sometimes use Nik to sharpen for printing. I don't claim to be an expert, but I find Nik to be integrated to Photolab well enough for my purposes.

I know what you're saying, Nik is not integrated in the same fashion as Filmpack or Viewpoint, but that's not an issue for me.

It's not integrated at all — it's just an export destination from PL. Conversely, FP is actually part of PL. Long ago, they were one product, till DxO decided to make FP an extra-cost option.

Do you do anything in NIK that you couldn't do in PL? Does Silver Efex do anything that FP can't?

Like I said, it works for me, I don't mind the export method. And Silver Efex is more effective for me for B&W than Filmpack. I don't use Nik for film simulations.

Horses for courses as they say.

 

[DocBobB]

Just to be clear, PhotoLab doesn't integrate well with itself. You have to export to TIFif you want to see the effects of deep prime anyway and I've grown accustomed to it. The export process to NIK is therefore a non issue. And the current iterations of NIK allow non destructive editing.

Looking at the extra sliders in PL that come with film pack, color filters are useful, I never add grain, I can't see how the channel mixer is any better that the HSL tool, creative vignetting is good, frames leaks and textures are good. NIK has all of these in one or other of the apps, but having it all in PL is convenient, at the expense of all the other NIK filters and presets. Tough call.

 

[Digital Nigel]

Just to be clear, PhotoLab doesn't integrate well with itself. You have to export to TIF

Or JPEG, or view in the small on-screen window.

if you want to see the effects of deep prime anyway

Not really. You can safely use DeepPRIME at standard settings with all images. It's only XD's output that needs checking.

and I've grown accustomed to it. The export process to NIK is therefore a non issue. And the current iterations of NIK allow non destructive editing.

Looking at the extra sliders in PL that come with film pack, color filters are useful, I never add grain, I can't see how the channel mixer is any better that the HSL tool, creative vignetting is good, frames leaks and textures are good. NIK has all of these in one or other of the apps, but having it all in PL is convenient, at the expense of all the other NIK filters and presets. Tough call.

The benefit is the seamless integration of all the tool sets (including ViewPoint) in one UI and non-destructive workflow. Use all the tools in any order you prefer, return at a later date to tweak any settings, with no transfer files, and no need to re-do any other steps. It's not a case of whether FilmPack has more features than NIK, but that they're all inside the same UI.

 

[DocBobB]

Just to be clear, PhotoLab doesn't integrate well with itself. You have to export to TIF

Or JPEG, or view in the small on-screen window.

if you want to see the effects of deep prime anyway

Not really. You can safely use DeepPRIME at standard settings with all images. It's only XD's output that needs checking.

Not so. Regular deep prime can be seen in the small window on the right but to assess the whole image you need to export to tiff.

Oh, I see what you are saying…. That you done NEED to check deep prime, but that is a matter of opinion. In order to see its effect you do need to export .

 

[Digital Nigel]

Just to be clear, PhotoLab doesn't integrate well with itself. You have to export to TIF

Or JPEG, or view in the small on-screen window.

if you want to see the effects of deep prime anyway

Not really. You can safely use DeepPRIME at standard settings with all images. It's only XD's output that needs checking.

Not so. Regular deep prime can be seen in the small window on the right but to assess the whole image you need to export to tiff.

Or JPEG or DNG. But you soon learn not to bother.

Oh, I see what you are saying…. That you don't NEED to check deep prime, but that is a matter of opinion. In order to see its effect you do need to export .

Correct, but you can trust it to do a good job without fiddling with the slider. I seldom bother to check it, because I know I can trust it. XD is different.

Incidentally, here's an example of getting quite different monochrome effects from PL6 using FilmPack:

















This is what the image looked like with normal colour processing:




Normal colour processing