In part 1 of our round-up of the Nik Collection 6 plug-ins (AP 10 October) we looked at the four ‘corrective’ plug-ins. In this second part we cover its creative plug-ins: Analog Efex, Color Efex, HDR Efex and Silver Efex.
These plug-ins offer tools, effects and inspiration for photographers of all types. Analog Efex, for example, doesn’t stop at replicating old film styles and darkroom processes but adds in-camera effects like double exposure, bokeh, borders and more. Color Efex is like a bag full of camera filters and effects which you can use individually or in combination, for a practically limitless range of effects. Silver Efex Pro hardly needs any introduction, since it is one of the best-known and best-loved black & white tools for photographers, while HDR Efex is a remarkably good HDR tool which can produce both subtle and spectacular results.
There isn’t enough space here on these four pages to show everything these plug-ins can do, but we can at least give you an idea.
Nik 6 local adjustments
Nik Collection 6 has brought a number of changes, enhancements and additions to the local adjustment tools in its plug-ins. These include a new Control Line option which works rather like a gradient mask but with an eyedropper to select the colours and tones you want to modify. There are now colour selectivity sliders to fine-tune your masks, new