Lloyd K. Barnes Photography » Nik Software http://blog.lloydkbarnes.com Fashion, Beauty, Glamour and Creative Portrait Photography Sat, 15 Feb 2014 03:41:14 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=3.9.37 Testing Out Nik Color Efex Pro 3 http://blog.lloydkbarnes.com/2011/03/25/testing-out-nik-color-efex-pro-3/ http://blog.lloydkbarnes.com/2011/03/25/testing-out-nik-color-efex-pro-3/#comments Fri, 25 Mar 2011 13:00:55 +0000 http://blog.lloydkbarnes.com/?p=1438 ]]> Nik Color Efex Pro 3 is a suite of plugins for Lightroom, Aperture, Photoshop and Nikon's Capture NX 2. There are 52 filters available, each having extensive tweaking and customizing capabilities.

I've heard a lot of good things about the software, so I downloaded the 15 day trial of the Mac version from Nik Software to see for myself. It's a fully functional version, but expires after 15 days. I used it extensively during the 15 days and enjoyed it. It worked seamlessly with Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS4 and was easy to learn. I was able to get great results quickly, and the large variety of filters was a lot of fun to explore! I especially liked the dynamic skin softener, which was fast and gave very natural results. I also like the bicolor and lighten/darken center filters.

Here are a couple accutane buy photos that I edited with the help of Nik Efex (in conjunction with Lighrooom and Photoshop).

I used the dynamic skin softener, bicolor and vignette filters for this sugar skull photo:

Model: Tia Guzzo.Makeup: Jennifer Ruth.Hair Styling: Rhi Yee.Fashion stylist: Jihan Amer.Set decorator: Guen Gianfranchi.Photography: Lloyd K. Barnes (Lloyd Barnes)

I used the custom bicolor filter on this image:

Model: Genkai.Makeup: Jennifer Ruth.Fashion stylist: Jihan Amer.Set decorator: Guen Gianfranchi.Photography: Lloyd K. Barnes (Lloyd Barnes)

I'm considering buying the full version, but will wait to see if a new version will be coming out soon, since the current version has been out for a few years now. I find the price to be a little high ($299) for the complete set of 52 filters mainly because I'm able to get similar results with Lightroom and Photoshop - although not always a quickly.

Do you use Nik Color Efex Pro 3? Let me know what you think! Is it worth the price tag?

Here are some reviews:

Review of Nik Color Efex Pro 3

Using Nik Color Efex Pro 3 to draw the viewer into your image by using the Vignette and Darken/Lighten Center filters

Review of Nik Color Efex Pro 3

Example of Nik Efex bi-color filter

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