The folks over at Nik Software have just released Color Efex Pro 4, so I thought it might be a good idea to do a video on some of the new features. I can already tell you that if you’re a Color Efex Pro 3 user, there’s one new feature that’s by itself worth the upgrade price: the ability to stack effects on top of each other! And if you’re new to Color Efex Pro, the video will give you an idea as to what it can do.
Color Efex Pro is one of Nik’s flagship products and is widely used by landscape and portrait photographers worldwide, to enhance their images. There’s an array of 55 filters, ranging from practical and time-saving (such as Dynamic Skin Softener) to creative (such as the new film simulation presets). The video below only shows a couple of effects. For a full list, check out the Nik Website. The video also features some of the advantages of using Color Efex Pro as a Smart Filter in Photoshop.* Tip: make sure to watch the video fullscreen by clicking the fullscreen button in the video player interface (I also had to break the video up in two parts).
If you’re interested in more, I’ll be doing a free English Color Efex Pro webinar for Nik on October 19th. For registrations, go to the UK site of Nik Software (choose the UK flag from the top right of the main www.niksoftware.com site), select Webinars & Training from the Training tab and you’ll find my training under the ‘Webinar Specials’ section. I’ll also be giving the same webinar in Dutch that day. Registration for that webinar can be done through this link.
One more thing: if you’re from outside of Europe, and you’re interested in buying Color Efex Pro 4, or any other of the Nik plugins, using discount code MORETHANWORDS15 in the online Nik Software US Store, will get you 15% off!
* Color Efex Pro can be bought as a separate plugin, in which case it works in Aperture, Lightroom and Photoshop. You can also buy it as part of a bundle, of which there exist three:
The Complete Collection for Lightroom, the Complete Collection for Aperture and the Complete Collection for Lightroom, Aperture and Photoshop. The first two will only work in their respective host program, while the latter works in any of the three programs. While the actual effects are the same and you can therefore create entirely the same image with Color Efex in Lightroom as you can in Aperture or in Photoshop, using Color Efex Pro (or any other Nik filter, for that matter) in Photoshop allows for some extra cool features, such as using it as a Smart Filter. Smart Filters in Photoshop have a lot of advantages, so I thought it would be cool to include some of those in the video as well.
