I am considering updating PL2 to version 3 but the feature that looks most appealing at the moment is the improvement to the local adjustments. (Since PL3 for Windows currently lacks keywording, and I’m not sure how much I would use the new colour wheel, the local adjustment revision seems most relevant to me at present). However, since I paid for the Nik filters not long ago, is there really anything in the new local adjustments in PL3 that I really can’t achieve by making at least some my local adjustments in Viveza? Are the local adjustments in PL3 not mainly a matter of catching up with the existing functionality in Viveza?
PhotoLab and Nik are two different sotware.
PL is mainly for the raw files and Nik for raster images.
Pascal
Yes, there is a difference. With DPL you can work on raw-files. With Nik collection you can not work on raw-files
The difference is that in PL, you can work on the RAW file and the edits are saved to a sidecard file. In Vivesa, you have to use an host application which support layers etc to get that benefit.
Thanks for your replies. I appreciate that Nik works on an exported TIFF and not on the raw file, but was really wondering whether there is any particular advantage to making the local edits at the raw stage rather than after the raw has been converted to TIFF. I often like to use a few of the ColorEfex filters, so I have to export a TIFF to that in any case. At the moment I am happily using PL2 (including its local adjustments) then exporting to Photoshop Elements, where I sometimes use Viveza for more precise local adjustments, and then use ColorEfex. It therefore seems that I might possibly save myself using Viveza if I had PL3, but I don’t feel that is a huge issue. (I’m an amateur, so time is not money for me, fortunately).
The advantage would be that it is non-destructive. A way to achieve that on a tiff is to apply a Nik-Filter in Photoshop as a smart-object.
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In addition to comments above; Yes - - there is benefit in applying local edits at the RAW processing stage. Once a TIFF (or JPG, etc) has been created there are a number of factors then “baked in” to the resulting image - whereas, if you work at the RAW level then you will have a lot more opportunity and flexibility in “shaping” your required outcome.
John M
Hello @Jul,
- You can also take a 31 day free Trial of PL3 and try it by yourself in addition to the advances given here.
Regards,
Svetlana G.
Thank you. Possibly the main reason I’ve tended to use Viveza is because it seemed easier to control the control points (!), but I have now realised that negative control points can be added in PL2. This is something I hadn’t know before yesterday, because as far as I can see the topic isn’t covered in the PL2 user manual, which is what I’ve used for my learning. So, I’ll be using the local adjustments more in PL from now on. OTOH, I now feel less inclined to update to PL3, because v2 gives me pretty much all I need at the moment. This is good news for me as an Affinity Photo user, because Affinity doesn’t play nicely with Viveza. Usually I work with the Nik filters via PSE, so 8 bit only, and fine for web display. But now I know I can use Nik on 16 bit TIFFs in Affinity if I want higher quality for printing.
Thank you. I had thought of doing this. If I download the trial version will it be easy to keep it entirely separate from my installed v2?
Jul
- It will be separately installed alongside PL2. But I would recommend you to work on a copy of your image folder if you have already got PL2 corrections there (because the sidecars will be updated to V3 and if you decide to abandon PL3 at the end PL2 can’t read those files). But if you work without sidecars, then no problem - both versions will be separate.
Regards,
Svetlana G.
Thank you, I’ll give it a try.
Jul
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