I have been away from photo editing for number of years and looking to get back into it.
I am primarily a landscape photographer.
I am currently running PS6 with Nik 2.
I was thinking of upgrading to Nik 5 but I see that it is not compatible with PS6.
My question is this: Are the added features of Nik 5 worth upgrading from PS6 to CC2023? (not fond of the Adobe leasing/renting arrangement)
I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on the matter.
JPM
Hi Joseph and welcome,
Why don’t you give Photolab 6 a try? 30 day trial, fully functional for free. also there is an holiday sale right now so it’s a good time to buy. I recommend that you trial the “Suite” of programs consisting of Photolab 6 Elite, Filmpack 6 Elite and Viewpoint 4. You can trial NIK 5 also if you wish to see if the improvements since NIK 2 are worth it for you. I suspect that with the “Suite” mentioned above you may find that you don’t need NIK anymore.
Why not stick to what you have - if it does what you want or need?
You can always check DxO apps with a free 30 day trial. In case of Nik, the installer will overwrite the old installation. Make sure to have the original installer and at least one backup before you try newer Nik Collections. Also check the interoperability charts. Nik5 might not work properly with PS6.
Definitely not. The only merit of the Nik upgrades is that they will run on newer OS. DxO has been cutting off Nik compatibility without making it much better. All kinds of issues around here with versions of Nik after Nik 3.
Second the advice about trying PhotoLab 5 or 6. PhotoLab is a faster workflow and in some ways more powerful. Nik Silver Efex is still a far better black and white converter than PhotoLab/FilmPack (wish it weren’t so because then I could give up Nik completely). If you want to emulate colour film looks convincingly Color Efex is more persuasive, but usually when I’m doing colour I’m less worried about emulating film than making a good looking image.