Motivation: How to use Nik Color Efex 2 Pro Filters
Features:The start of 5 or 6 reviews of Nik Color Effect Filters - how to use

Nik has developed a set of Pro Color Effects Filters that will delight photographers and darkroom experts because many of them are inspired by their photography equivalents. Want to add some Sepia Toning or Colorizing effects to your digital images ? Well then Nik is one very good place to start. Now not everything is top of the line and there are some near match redundancies but Nik has done a splendid job in the design of their filter and how they work in general - and I will let the specific filters tell their own stories. But here are the features common to them all.

The Nik Filter Layout

Common to every Nik filter are 5 dialog elements . At the top left is the choice between Basic or Advanced filter controls.The basic filter control vary with each filter. The Advanced Controls are the same for each filter and as we shall see below allow the user to control application of the filter in highlight and shadow areas of the image.

Preview Region

The next common area occupying slightly more than half the area of the dialog is the preview region. Preview provides 3 display modes. Single preview window, before and after horizontal, or before and after vertical display - we have chosen the before and after horizontal display.
Each preview thumbnail has 3 controls for displaying - histogram, effect on/off, and magnification in that thumbnail.

Pressing the histogram button results in a pop showing the before and after histograms. As we can can see the tonal range has been spread out but so has its variance as the picture has become more contrasty.

The effect on/off button means that thumbnail will be showing the effect (on) or not showing it(off). This is useful for switching the effect off and on when a single preview mode is set. It also allows users to switch which thumbnail will be displaying the effect in before and after display mode.

Finally, the magnification controls allow the user to change the magnification shown in each thumbnail.

The screenshot to the left shows a thumbnail set at 50% of full size. It nearly fills the preview area. If the magnification overflows the thumbnail area it is truncated but can be easily viewed by dragging the image in the thumbnail. The cursor changes to a pan hand and users simply drag the image to expose the truncated areas of the photo.

Magnification can be set at different values for the before and after thumbnails. In fact that is what what I do frequently to get a close up on after changes when fine-tuning the filter settings. Magnification also helps to highlight any subtle secondary effects. In sum, the previewing capabilities of Nik's plugins make it equal to Corel PhotoPaint and Paint Shop Pro and a distinct notch above Photoshop.

Effect Settings

Many of the Nik controls have three or more user selected controls. Rather than having to reset these settings each time the effect is called, users can set and save a named settings state. Just click the Show More command to reveal the setting extension to the dialog (see screenshot above). Upto four named settings, different for each effect can be set by the user. In this case, we have one named "bwset". All I have to do is click the "bwset" blue USE button and instantly all the control settings are stored in the "bwset" settings. If I fine tune the "bwset" settings and want to change them all I have to do is click on the red SET button(Note both Basic and Advanced control settings are saved). Let me tell you having 4 of these settings per effect is very helpful - it saves a lot of time when applying the same basic effect, say two layering fog adjustments, to a number of pictures.

But there is more! I can Save the settings to file and then Load them back when required. The problem here is you have to remember where the settings file was stored. Usually I use this option when the settings are unique and associated with a specific project or album of images. Then I save the setting file with those images.

Finally the Settings button allows user to change the settings that will be applied to all Nik Color Efex Pro 2 filters. Users can set the defaults for Single versus dual(or before and after)preview and whether the Show More extension displays on start up of the Filter.

This ability to tune how filters and effects work is sorely missing in all of the plugins, both the native ones for Adobe and Corel and third party tools. Yet preferences are available in most programs - unfortunately only a few extend to plugins and filters. Yet I find for certain projects I spend more than half my time in plugins. Thus, having the ability to control how the plugin works is no small benefit. In fact I would like to have a minimalist mode of operation - no preview, no dialog just execute the filter with my preset settings - this would save a lot of time on repetitive projects.

Adobe Only Features

Adobe Photoshop has been the market leader in photofinishing software and deservedly so for the past several years (but see the latest review where some chinks are appearing).For Photoshop Nik has put in a special dialog that simplifies and improves the operation of Nik Color Efex Pro 2 filters. By the way, this dialog takes advantage of the JavaScript macro facility available in Photoshop - showing the power of that cross-platform feature in Photoshop.

The dialog simplifies access to the many filters by sorting them alphabetically into 6 tabs of 16 filters each (The Nik Filters are still accessible in the normal way using the menu commands Filters | Plugins | Nik Color Efex Pro). Once clicked, a Nik filter works as usual except when the user clicks OK, the Nik dialog remains in control. Users can then choose to finalize applying the filter or Paint on the original and expose only portions of the filter effect. This is what is done in the screenshot above. Or Fill the image with the effect and then selectively Erase portions of the filter. And its easy to restart with image Fill or Erase commands. When users have the results they want hit the Apply button or Discard as appropriate. Very powerful.

Rival plugin supplier AutoFX has added this capability right into its new set of filters (so they work in any paint program not just Adobe Photoshop). This a very useful feature as it allows an effect to be applied selectively. I know masks and layers currently allow that - but the steps are more involved - this feature really simplifies the process. Look for more plugin vendors to offer these type capabilities in the future.

Summary

Nik filters are very well laid out and empowered with great previewing capabilities. In addition the ability to easily store and restore presets are greatly appreciated. And the move as in the Adobe dialog to allow users to paint on effects is definitely in the right direction. We have only two "wish fors". It would be nice to able to resize a dialog and make it bigger or smaller depending on screen area available. Second, it would be nice to have a dice button, like in Flaming Pear plugins, that randomly sets all the Basic controls. This may seem frivolous at first, but it is one of the fastest ways to tryout a range of settings and see quickly what the filter can do. But on the whole,Nik Color Efex 2 Pro filters are very well crafted and in no small part due to the excellent design and features common to all the filters.