I have been using the Nik Collection from the beginning. My question is about how to perform multiple edits using multiple apps in the collection. The apps work individually without any trouble. Trouble begins when I try to apply several apps to the same photo. It got so bad that I could not edit any photos with Apple Photos or with Nik Collection. I had to export the originals, delete everything in Photos, and then import the originals again.
I want to start over and follow the prescribed workflow. Thanks in advance!
Yes, the Nik Collection tools do work independently. To do subsequent work with different Nik tools (say, Color Efex Pro - followed by Viveza) then you can use the “File” menu …
– found at top-left of the Nik tool window.
eg. Make enhancements using Color Efex Pro … save the result using “Save image as” … then (re)open the same file in Viveza using “Open Images” … etc
This kind of “workflow” was always my biggest issue with the Nik Collection. Used as plugins it is somewhat ok-ish. But it is not non-destructive in the sense that I could change or eliminate an intermediate step later. Even repeating the same step for multiple pictures is more difficult than it should be.
About the Photos question: 90% of the time Photos (on MacOS) is the endpoint of my workflow. I do not bother with importing/exporting then importing again. Also I found Photos sometimes behaves weirdly when I import the edited picture: it vanishes from the library again apparently because it has the same metadata. In this case i use Exiftool to add one second to the date and time fields so that Photos doesn’t recognize it as a duplicate. To annoying for my regular workflow.
If I start and even edit in Photos then it was an unimportant picture from a mobile phone in the first place. Recently I edited some DSLR pictures while traveling with Photos on iOS and Snapseed so I could share them the same evening. After coming home I re-edited all of them with PL and got much nicer results.
Thanks for your reply and confirmation of my experience. Even in PhotoLab, adding another Nik app in series created yet another TIFF file.
Nik apps worked differently in Apple Aperture. I am used to that workflow. Now each step is a static snapshot of the progress. It works and it is worth it for a special photo.
Many pictures of mine are successfully edited in Photos with the built-in tools. Those that need extra work are exported. I don’t mind working outside of Photos, perhaps in PhotoLab. I will learn PL but my initial foray seemed to go the same way: five Nik plug-ins led to five TIFF files that could not be changed after saving them.
