It is very bad Nic Collection 5 by DXO overwrites the old program
I’m having problems with FilmPack 6 (posted about it here) so I wanted to try Nik Collection 5.
Have the very old one from Germany from before Google took over, and there were many problems and bugs with it, but in the end - with good telephone help from NIK in Germany and with updates, it came to run really well as a plug in in my CS6.
Have been incredibly happy with it.
There’s no doubt that DXO has improved it, and I wanted to try it - if it was THAT much better than the old one, I’d buy it.
However, it will overwrite the old one only during the trial period.
And I don’t know if the new Nik Collection will plug in to my old CS6 like the old one does now = Does anyone know this ???
You use the justification from DXO that you don’t have to have more programs at the same time.
Is that the honest reason?
Isn’t it rather that then you are more inclined to buy it?
You also do not delete a previous DXO Photo Lab when you upgrade.
A trial period is about checking whether a program is better and worth the money, and then of course it must NOT delete the original one.
Then you write that you can save the original - old - but can you do that including the updates?? - I don’t know - otherwise I would be happy to receive help here.
I started with Lab 5 Elite but upgraded to Lab 6 Elite and I’m really happy with this program and this update, but qua the above, customer friendliness is lacking here.
The only reason I’m taking the time to write this is because I’m so happy with the Lab 6 Elite that I think DXO needs to think a little more about customer friendliness so they don’t lose customers but can continue the unique Photo Lab development.
It is a matter of programming, as everyone knows, so it is a choice DXO has made with Nik Collection 5 that is NOT customer friendly.
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Can I ask why you feel you need Nik when you’ve got virtually everything in PhotoLab?
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There is a lot more in Nik Collection 5. Try it, and You will see, it will be a long story to write about it, but just if You e.g. like B & W, the Silver Efex can do a lot of things very easy = Lab 6 can not, or it will be a lot of trial and error to get it.
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I have to disagree. With FilmPack, there really isn’t anything I miss. Unless, that is, you are only interested in presets? But then, you also get the Time Machine feature, which adds even more presets. What is more, you can modify any preset and save it as your own.
The challenge is to provide an original image and a version treated with SFX and I will put it through PL with FilmPack.
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Yes, but look up in the start of my topic here = Troubles with FilmPack 6 (long story and another topic), but you wrote about Photo Lab, therefore my answer is about Photo Lab.
PhotoLab / FilmPack - all in the same UI - what’s not to like?
I certainly wouldn’t use FilmPack standalone since it means leaving the all-RAW workflow that PL gives.
Of course not use it alone - even it is standalone 
It’s been demonstrated time and time again that the BW in Silver Efex is in another category from anything PhotoLab can do in BW. This is just a nonsense post.
PS. I’d prefer that PhotoLab could do BW easily and well, as it’s a pain to have to use another app. It’s an even bigger pain to create mediocre BW photos in PhotoLab. PhotoLab will not give you this kind of wide grey tone with good contrast like Silver Efex.
I know. I’ve tried. These Silver Efex processed images look like BW photos. BW from PhotoLab looks like colour images converted to BW. And in Silver Efex reaching this level of BW was quick and enjoyable. In PhotoLab it’s torture.
Enough negative: tip for great BW images in Silver Efex. Do not make your colour images high contrast. Make your colour images very even contrast. Add the contrast and definition in Silver Efex. If you send high contrast images (my normal colour processing, see below), then there’s no way to create subtle grey tones.
The processing in PhotoLab for finished colour images and for high quality Silver Efex TIFF negatives is completely different. The high contrast colour image above looks great in colour but would be mostly extremely dark and extremely light shades in Silver Efex.
And yes, it’s terrible that installing and reinstalling Nik is so damn difficult. I’m still on Nik 3 as I can’t bring myself to go through the hell of installing later versions and trying to backgrade if I don’t like them. Nik 3 still works great on an M1 Mac, and I prefer the the Nik 3 interface with control points with the controls compact and on top of the images and not in the sidebar.
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Please check here … how about (additionally) running Nik 3.x as plug-in for old PS.
In case you don’t know Affinity Photo 2, you might give it a try. While (of course) the handling is somewhat different than your CS6, it runs really good – and supports Nik 5 … just in case you need it. AP2 comes with a new installer type, but after a lot of complaints, Serif added a compatible one.
If you need help … PM or call me. Wolfgang
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Of course, you need to process B&W differently from colour. But, I don’t get why you find it so hard in PhotoLab.
SOOC…
Processed for colour without any presets…
Processed for B&W with the Fuji Acros 100 preset…
Of course, both versions needed other adjustments because the original was such a high contrast image, but apart from a red filter over the sky for the B&W, most adjustments needed applying to both versions.
It is often the local adjustments that make a picture. Although I get the impression you are shooting journalistic shots, possibly jpeg, and just want a quick conversion rather than crafting an image.
Oh, and both versions only took around 5-10 minutes
I sense a few hidden but interlinked concerns of the OP above
- I can’t handle FilmPack but I love the “olde Niks”
- DxO’s Nik Collection trial will overwrite my olde Niks and I’ll not be able to get them running again
- Will DxO’s Nik Collection work as plugins for CS6 (Photoshop mainly, I suppose)
…and I’ll reply with a question: Why change?
- My gear is old and the number of technical issues has increased over the last few months
- No issues so far, but I feel I need to use modern software
- I have no backup
Sounds enigmatic? Maybe, but it might help you establish your course of action.
Beautifull B & W pictures You show here.
Thanks.
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Agree
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Thank You very much Wolfgang.
I will look into it (Affinity 2) - it is very cheap, and at the same time it has a “real/genuine” channel mixer with colors - not just for black and white as in Film Pack6.
I need that for my converted infrared camera to make special color photos from the IR pictures.
It’s a little disappointing that DXO doesn’t have a true channel mixer - that’s one of the reasons I’m keeping Photoshop CS 6.
I have read old posts here about infrared (when You have a converted camera), but DXO does not solve the problem, sorry to say.
But Affinity seems to have it.
Thanks again.
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Interesting interpretation.
But it’s either DXO software or my software (laptop) that can’t “handle” FilmPack 6 - the one day I tried it 1.5 years ago when it came with DXO lab 5 Elite it worked fine for me (my desktop) , but I didn’t get to try it properly because I was busy getting to know DXO and then the FilmPack 6 expired.
Once I got to know DXO I wanted to try Film Pack 6 again.
Then I got a trial for (my laptop) , but here are the problems, -it only works in DXO 6 Elite and no standalone, and then I’m worried if something has happened since - an IT bug - since it doesn’t run on my laptop, and maybe won’t on my desktop either (?) - therefore I asked for a 3 days trial, but no.
Enough about that.
Yes, You are right I could stay with what I have, but there are som improvements in NIK 5 I would like to try - WITHOUT dxo overwrites my old version.
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Best check the requirements and interoperability info, maybe your config is not officially supported.
Yes, this could be the case= It says
NVIDIA RTX™ 2060, AMD Radeon™ RX 6600 or better with latest drivers.
Mine (laptop) is Nvidia GT555m, but Lab 6, Elite, runs fine ?
Desktop= Nvidia Quadro 600
All the other things at the desktop and laptop is high enough according to the requirements
One way to test the Nik functionality would be to install it on a virtual machine and use an alternative email address to register a new trial. Setting up a VM with VirtualBox is not too complicated, but it is well beyond what a standard user would like to do 