Using Nik plugins with Lightroom and Photoshop

paddler4

I've just started playing with the Nik plugins, and I am still a bit uncertain about the details of using them with LR and Photoshop. Here is what I have come to so far. I'd appreciate any corrections from folks who know the plugins better.

1. Ironically, PS seems to offer a non-destructive way to use these plugins, and LR doesn't. When I used a Nik plugin in LR and saved the results, I ended up with a TIF that had the Nik edits baked in. In contrast, if you open the image as a smart object in PS, each Nik plugin shows up as a smart filter in that layer, and you can return to the filter and change it at any time.

2. PS seems to make it much tidier to use multiple plug-ins. In PS, it seems easy to use different Nik plugins to add additional smart filters to a single smart object layer. I tried this with Viveza and Color Efex, and it seemed to work fine. In contrast, the only way I found to use multiple plugins with LR was to chain them. I would call up one plug-in, save the Nik edits, then call up the resulting TIF file to add edits from a second Nik plug-in, etc.


Am I missing something?

thanks

basflt

that happens only when you edit the RAW
after the first edit , it is saved as TIFF ( default )
now when you want to use the plugin ( or other plugin ) , you are asked if you want to edit original , a copy , or a copy with LR-adjustments
if you choose that last option , the new copy holds your previous adjustments
you can repeat this for the next plugin

in PS you can delete the layers / in LR you can delete individual TIFFs from the stack

both methods are non-destructive although it works a bit different

PS
when you right-click in LR :> edit in : you can choose to open in PS as a smart object
when saving in PS ( not save as , but just save ) it will add to the LR-stack

arodney

Both are equally 'destructive' since as you've observed, LR has to render a TIFF to apply the 'filter' just as one would have to do in Photoshop (albeit on a layer). The usefulness of such a plug-in within LR are for people who don't own Photoshop. If you own both, there's no advantage and maybe a disadvantage in terms of workflow to use the product in Lightroom. Do all the parametric editing there, render out to Photoshop then use the plug-in there on a layer.

NO third party plug-in's have access to the Adobe Camera Raw engine. They always have to ask LR to render a TIFF or some pixel data to begin working on that data.

basflt

+1 on that
i never use plugins like that
they render the image different then LR or PS

paddler4

Andrew,

Thanks. I realized that no plugins can access the ACR engine and that in that sense, all of this is destructive. What I meant was to compare these two scenarios:

1. LR: Use Nik plugin #1. Save. Edit resulting TIF to apply plugni #2. Now, decide that with plugin 2 as well, plugin 1 was applied in a not optimal way. If I am right, you have to go back to the raw, edit it in plugin 1 again, save the TIF again, and then edit that TIF with plug in 2, hoping you replicate what you did with plug-in 1.

2. PS: Open the file with LR edits as a smart object in PS. Apply plugin 1 as a smart filter. then apply plugin2. If you decide to change what you did in plugin 1, it's still modifiable--as long as you have kept the layer as a smart object. In this sense, it seems non-destructive: none of the plugin 1 edits are yet baked in.

Right?

Dan

arodney

paddler4 wrote: »

as long as you have kept the layer as a smart object. In this sense, it seems non-destructive: none of the plugin 1 edits are yet baked in.
Right?

Right. Now just be sure you are fine sticking with an Adobe proprietary processing and all is fine <g>. If you decide to move to CC, work with Smart Objects, any new functionality can't be accessed if you go back a version or decide you're done with Adobe software. You are also working with much larger documents. But this is the more flexible editing workflow.

divamum

I went ahead and bought this, mainly for Silver Efex.

However, I now have a weird problem, which I didn't have wtih the trial version: I'm ok using Silver Efex (which was the last setup I had in LR external editing dialog before the trial ran out), but I'd like to use the other products. But I can't find them to point LR to them to use! I've looked in every folder I can think of, but nada; even in the Google/Nik Collection folders, there's no exe to use. Yet Sliver Efex runs just fine...

Totally confused. Any ideas?

Windoze 7, LR4.

divamum

Screenshot showing what I mean. And yes, I reinstalled the full version after the trial ran out. I've done a disk search for the programs and this is the only place they seem to turn up. I have "show hidden and system files" selected, so I'm baffled (especially since the one program DOES work).

Any thoughts?

basflt

@ Divamum , read this https://support.google.com/nikcollection/answer/3002259?hl=en&ref_topic=3001481

divamum

Thanks! Looks like I have some un- and re-installing to do..............

Hathingthe

I heard about Aurora HDR (https://aurorahdr.com) as an alternative to Nik's Efex Pro (https://google.com/nikcollection/products/hdr-efex-pro/). Does anybody know if it's "destructive" too if used as LR Plugin?

@basflt, you've got a fancy signature. How it's possible to turn letters upside down?

denisegoldberg

@Hathingthe said:
...How it's possible to turn letters upside down?

Try this site - http://www.upsidedowntext.com/. It generates code you can use to place upside down text in HTML.