…and needs a FilmPack 7 license too.
But it’s dry season as far as discounts go:
Personally, I have tried Nik and still couldn’t find anything I couldn’t do easier and integrated in PL/FP/VP. From what I can make out, it might be useful for use with other software but it just seems to duplicate the PL/FP/VP bundle without the PR part.
NIK Sharpener has had many fans over the years. I’m curious about your current output workflow for printing. Thanks.
If the image needs enlarging, I use Topaz Photo AI for resizing and final sharpening of the image, which I have exported as TIFF from PL without resizing.
Otherwise, if I cannot get sufficient sharpness in PL, but the image is large enough or larger than desired, I would export at the desired size and pass it through Topaz, because it sharpens better than PL without producing noise.
I always use Canon’s print and layout utility to output to the printer.
For printing output, I have largely transitioned to Topaz Photo AI as well. I had watched a Keith Cooper video describing his current sharpening workflows (see below). So, I just had to ask you too. Thanks again.
Until when/if you find Nik on sale, remember, you can download the original Google version for free. I did, and also bought it from DxO, but the free version has/had all I wanted - but I stopped using it, wanting to try to finish my photos only in PhotoLab. (But I now know how useful Topaz is, thanks to Joanna.)
This page has links to the free version of Nik, and some related information:
NIK
Thanks, but after buying my long lens for $500, I’m not about to spend more in PL7 and add-ons. I like what the Luminosity Mask can do, but it can wait. Besides, PL8 is probably going to be released fairly soon. Maybe DxO will include this feature.
Not sure if I understood all of what he was getting at but, nonetheless, interesting
The biggest problem I have with PL is the noise that can accompany sharpening, even the least aggressive can still produce weird halos around edges where one tone meets another with many of the local adjustment tools.
This is the kind of thing where Topaz Photo AI comes in really useful and, as Keith says, it is clever enough to vary sharpening with sizing as well allowing me to mask selected areas to avoid noisy skies, etc. So, I’m not sure I can totally agree with DxO’s blurb that says…
The most advanced, end-to-end, RAW photo editing software
… especially when it comes to the printing end, where the print dialog is terrible and print sharpening is just plain not available. Or are they assume that the majority of users just don’t print?
But, as Keith and others will state, the Google version is now quite ancient and nowhere near the advances that Nik now contains. And I think you would be wasting your money on Nik Collection, given the kind of small, on-screen, results you are generally seeking.
If the past is anything to go by, release dates are usually around September/October, with the proviso that the Black Friday prices come out at less than the launch prices.
To their defense, they do say Editing.
Not end to end production workflow software. 
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While Keith Cooper is a good source for reliable information, I didn’t come across this video yet. Thank you for the link. 
Didn’t know about “Focus Magic”. – I use the Nik Collection since it was NIK Software, but never its PreSharpener module.
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For the web edition (back then for a local photography club) I used the Nik Output Sharpener with some adaptive settings.
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I’ve experimented a lot and also used PS’s USM tool. With my recent cameras (D7100, D800, now D750) plus DxO lens profiles I rarely need to explicitly ‘sharpen’ while using local corrections. – In fact, I have never tried to fix ‘motion’ blur (and have no experience with Topaz Photo AI).
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For my personal print output, I continue to use Output Sharpener in conjunction with PS. That is, I resize the image to the final size, fit it to the paper (soft proof) and sharpen the image content (w/o the custom border line & caption on the custom border / even may mask parts of the image as explained by K.Cooper). In any case, I save the individual print version. – To print large I don’t use LR, PL, EPL …
I’m rather confusabobbled right now. I guess I need to make a decision of whether I am creating a photograph, or a bird photograph. For the people I’m likely to share photos with (meaning not in this forum) that is a major decision.
Also, I watched the video on improving sharpness, and decided to try TopazAI again. I took the same photo of the bird with open mouth, and submitted it for sharpening, and got more than I bargained for. The top of the bird’s head in my photo sort of looked sharp, but there was no detail. Topaz brought out much more detail than I expected. I don’t know where to get a good answer, but I suspect people who view the image will be much more interested in the bird, than the habitat. And if the bird gets smaller in the image, the details are lost.
I don’t see any answer to this, so I’ll just go with creating the photo that I would most rather see, especially so now that TopazAI has worked its magic. This is the original image, exactly a sent back to PhotoLab from Topaz:
780_4369 | 2024-04-04_openWith.tif (9.2 MB)
P.S. - the photojournalist part of my brain agrees with what most of you are telling me, the photo should include the surroundings. But, the bird photography forums seem exclusively interested in just the bird. After this one image, for other images I post here, I’ll consider the artistic properties of the image, like what most people here feel makes for a better photograph. “Different strokes, for different folks.”
Thanks; hopefully DxO will have listened to all the complaints, and I will only need to update PhotoLab, version 8. I hope I remember when the time comes.
Do the discounts start a few days before, or end a few days after, or are they only available for that one single day? I expect to be on a plane that day…
"The major shopping holiday always takes place the day after Thanksgiving, which means it’s on Friday, November 29 in 2024 – the fourth Friday in November. "
With this last photo, you are doing neither. Once again, you have made a 3Mpx postage stamp by, once again, not having filled the frame in the camera.
Here is a screenshot from PL…
… and here is a screenshot from Topaz AI at a 300% upscaling…
You see, there really isn’t any more detail to be had. The beak is simply not in focus due to lack of depth of field - which is not surprising since you only used f/5.6, where you should have been using, at least, f/10.
And, if you don’t have enough pixels, there is no detail to recover.
And it is totally awful. because, as much as you might have been able to force some detail out of the mouth, both the beak and the feet are out of focus.
To my mind, you should never take a bird head on, due to the lack of depth of field. Side or ¾ on is much better, since this gives you less to cram into the DoF.
I took over a dozen photos of this bird, and almost all were “3/4” - then the bird looked at me, and of course I kept shooting. By the time I might have adjusted the camera differently, the bird moved. To my mind, shoot first, then correct with better settings. Get something “in the bag” before trying to improve. Obviously the beak is way out of focus - I didn’t realize that at the time, sure do understand now.
I’m not sure where your photos came from - did you look at the one from after using Topaz? The image you posted does not look like this:
I made many mistakes that day, and as the day went on, I was correcting things I didn’t think were right. Yes, the final image I used could have been better, had I realized how little DoF I had, but for better or worse, I love it anyway.
Curious, if the DoF issue was corrected, why not shoot the bird head-on??? To me, it’s the most interesting photo I took of this bird all day. I didn’t realize I was “breaking the rules”, nor had I ever heard of this rule, but breaking rules isn’t a bad idea, especially as I had over a dozen photos taken “normally”. My “rule” - try to focus on the eyes. If possible. Back to the real world, I would gladly hang the Topaz version on my wall, if I had a good color printer.
I don’t want to keep posting different images here in the forum, but this one stood out to me. I’m tempted to post one of an alligator with dragon fly.
Better still, start with better settings. Why so restrictive with the DoF? Do you not use a DoF calculator?
It took me 30 seconds to find that the DoF with a 300mm focal length at f/5.6 at a distance of 30ft, is only 7", which is barely enough. Whereas, at f/10, you would have had 10", etc.
Motion blur reduction in TPAI can be very impressive.
Yes, it has rescued more than one of my hastily taken shots, when I forgot to check the minimum shutter speed for the focal length 
Here too, one size doesn’fit all. Depending on who is your audience, the same image can be made different…unless you are sure that your interpretation is absolutely the only one valid.
But again, being able to do “as well as” seems to be more promising than “either or”.
I don’t understand why you continue to insist on this partially blurred image. It is NOT nice.
Yes, you kept shooting and I would have done the same but deleted those pictures instead of posting them. Don’t keep trash/bad examples.
Even the Topaz edition “didn’t save your butt.” Just like the much-discussed pelican image, the little bird’s resolution isn’t high enough and the sharpening looks terrible. Not long ago you promised not to publish such excerpts anymore, and you still do.
You have to accept these limitations and it has nothing to do with “defeat” – to quote someone.
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I started with much worse settings, and slowly adjusted things until most things were working. I wish my brain understood, and could remember, all your advice, but you, and a few other people here, are far beyond my capabilities. But, I can learn “for next time”. There certainly will be a “next time”.
I need to install a DoF calculator, or maybe based on your advice, I’ve already done so. I was struggling to get good, sharp, exposures, and I was using shutter priority mode for a while, with the shutter set to 1/2500th. ISO was pretty high, but based on what I’ve learned from you, ISO 1250 is much less than what I can safely use on the D780. Bumping it up two stops (to ISO 5000 or so) would have allowed me to change the aperture by two stops, from f/5.6 to f/11. So yes, knowing what I do now, I could use those settings, and maybe the top beak might have appeared sharper. Unfortunately, it’s me doing this, not you, and by the time I worked all this out, the image would have been lost.
But yes, if the lighting is similar next time, ISO 5,000 and f/8 and 1/2500th might work better.
(I don’t know if I really need that high a shutter speed, as the bird wasn’t moving much, if at all.)
What took you 30 seconds would have probably taken me 3 minutes or more - but never having used one, maybe I’m wrong. There are several in the App Store - which one do you prefer? Also, I want the plants behind the bird to be out of focus, as what my captured image shows.
Well, I took way more than a dozen images of different poses from this same bird, and all but the “head-on” don’t suffer from any lack of depth of field. My audience? Family, friends, and the bird watching forum I joined. My interpretation is MY favorite, even with a blurry upper beak. Maybe we can drop this, and I’ll post a different “normal” image I captured.
One more thing - people here are a much better audience than people in the forums. Photos that have so many flaws here, in this forum, are far, FAR better than the images I find in the bird forums. But my goal in getting better, is here, not the forums.
That all depends on the purpose for the image. To be sent to family and friends, and posted on the bird watching forums, everyone seems to think it is amazing. OK, let’s forget that image.
Here’s another image, hardly any editing, ISO 1250, f/8, 300mm zoom, and 1/1000th shutter. I ought to do more editing, but not tonight. This should pass your requirements, and I also like this image, but I don’t think it is anything “special”. It does meet your technical requirements. I’ve got lots more photos that “fill the screen” the same way, no cropping required.
780_3875 | 2024-04-04.nef (29.2 MB)
I think it’s a “black stork”, but I need to find out for sure.
With the new lens I just bought, I hope I can take photos that pass your requirements, filling much more of my screen, but leaving room for the surroundings. But for small birds, I probably need a 2,000mm lens, which I can neither afford, nor carry. …if my goal is photos for email and web sites, not huge prints, that is something to take into account. If I wanted to make a large print, things would be very different.
Yuck, I’m not “sure” of anything any more, but I’ve learned to separate images for this forum from images for the bird forums.
Here, the goal is create beautiful, awesome, and interesting photos, with the photo being the end result.
In the bird forums they just seem to want to show birds, image beauty is secondary. I plan to ignore most of those posts, and try to learn from the photographers here:
https://expertphotography.com/bird-photographers/
…almost all of whom seem to create beautiful and interesting images.
There is also one fellow with a YouTube account, with a series of videos explaining how to capture good images of birds with a Nikon D780. I’ve been watching his videos for a while now.
Oh, I need to emphasize - I am no longer absolutely sure of anything.
But I do follow most of the advice given to me in this forum, for creating wonderful photos.
I also take other photos, for various reasons - but this forum, and PhotoLab is the best place I have ever found to get good, solid, advice - along with explanations. At Wakotahatchee Wetlands, I would love to get a photo of each type of bird that can be found there, but some species are so difficult to get any photos of, let alone beautiful photos.
Even if I act like a total dork, doing “silly” things sometimes, I need to remember in the future to not post those images here regardless of how I feel about them.
I hope images like this will satisfy both people here, and the people in the bird forums, and ME:
780_3804 | 2024-04-04.nef (29.8 MB)
Why is it interesting to me? Because it’s using its foot to help dig out yummy bugs to eat!
Useful information for me, for the D780 and wildlife photography:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxQhuMQEwLU