Nik Software Collection Now Just $149
This is huge news for those who’ve been drooling over Nik Software plugins but hedging on the price…
The entire collection is now just $149!
This is huge… it used to be $499, so that’s what we call a Good Deal™. For those who weren’t sure if the Google acquisition was going to be good for the software or not, you can’t argue with a massive price drop. They also made Snapseed for iOS free, however they did kill Snapseed for OS X. Owell, ya can’t win ‘em all.
You can read more about the price drop here, and you can get the software here.
And as made famous by the Ginsu Knives commercial…
But wait, there’s more!
The 15% discount code “ApertureExpert” still works as well, so that brings the price down to a piddly $126.65! The code is now automatically applied when you use this link.
Didn’t one filter used to cost more than that? Yeah… that’s a good deal.
Don’t forget the training…
Of course with all that freed up change, now you can afford to pick up my Nik training, too :-) Check out my course Nik Creative Effects Workshop — a must have now that you’ll be getting the entire collection!
Thanks Tobias for this update… apparently Google is offering a generous plan if you’ve bought any plugins in the past and paid more than $149. Check out the details in this article on dpreview.
NOTE: The discount code “ApertureExpert” appears to have expired. I’ve inquired about it because I wasn’t told this would ever expire, and will update this post if that changes. For the moment though, the price is $149, no more discounts (still a hell of a deal though!). Please be sure to use this link to purchase. Thanks.
Comments
on March 28, 2013 - 6:22am
That’s my luck, pay full price and then a massive price drop!
I'd much rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.
on March 28, 2013 - 6:23am
Craig, I’m sure it’s worth asking if you can get a refund. I have no idea what they are offering, but most companies will in situations like this.
@PhotoJoseph
— Have you signed up for the mailing list?
on March 28, 2013 - 6:41am
Joseph, just curious but have you compared Nik’s suite & OnOne’s suite? I haven’t looked into it much yet but am curious how they compare.
on March 28, 2013 - 7:30am
Ken,
I have both but all I’ve really used onOne for is Perfect Resize (which is spectacular). I’ve never played with their B&W tool because I’m such a huge fan of Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2. Over on theBWphoto.com quite a few people use and love onOne. I’d say get the free trials of both and just see what you prefer!
@PhotoJoseph
— Have you signed up for the mailing list?
on March 28, 2013 - 9:26am
Joseph, have you heard anymore about use with Retinal Macbook Pro since your review on this?
on March 28, 2013 - 4:32pm
There is more:
“If you previously bought any of these plugins, Google isn’t going to leave you in the cold for already having dropped a lot of money. If you purchased any individual plugin within the last five years, you get the entire collection for free. If you spent more than $149 on plugins since February 22nd of this year, you’ll be refunded the difference.”
via http://connect.dpreview.com/post/4452357456/google-nik-software-plugins
on March 28, 2013 - 9:11pm
Ken
I like Joseph have both Nik and OnOne. Have been using Nik for years. I mainly use Perfect Resize with OnOne which as Joseph states is spectacular.
On another note, yesterday I attended one of Nik’s Webinars to see if there was any real deference with Google Nik Collections. What I found out is that you now get lifetime upgrades. So according to the Webinar presenter you will never have to pay for any upgrades. Also he stated there are some new items coming soon to the Google Nik collection, however did not exactly state what they where. If you already own one of the Nik products you should have received an email on how to upgrade. I received one the other day and had no real issues updating to the Google Nik Collections.
At first I was concerned about Google taking over Nik, however now I am starting to feel much better about this take over. I really like the fact you will not have to pay for any upgrades.
Stu
Stuart
Website: http://www.stuartonline.com
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+StuartSchaefer/
on March 29, 2013 - 12:22am
Paul — nothing directly, but Google is committing to continuing development so I’d like to think we’ll see it soon!
Tobias — thanks for that, I’ve amended the post.
Stuart — thanks for letting us know. Sounds like it’s gonna be good for all of us!
@PhotoJoseph
— Have you signed up for the mailing list?
on April 1, 2013 - 1:19am
Thanks for the heads-up! With the AE discount, the price was just too good to pass up.
jacquescornell.com
on April 2, 2013 - 1:34am
Thanks Joseph. I just purchased the Nik software and your training. OK, call me clueless but I still don’t know how to access the nik plugins once you are in Aperture or Photoshop. It looks like you hit the Control key but I really don’t know how to access these plugins.
Thanks
-Sandy
on April 2, 2013 - 1:55am
Sandra,
Once you’ve run the Nik installer, to access from aperture, select a photo you want to work on. Right-click to get the contextual menu (or control-click if you don’t have your mouse setup for right-click) In the contextual menu, the 2nd item in the list should be edit with plugin… Roll your mouse pointer over that and it will open a submenu with all the Nik plugins listed. Roll your mouse over the one you want. Aperture will then create a new master and send it to the Nik plugin you chose. After editing in Nik, click the save button and when you go back to Aperture your new master will update with the changes you made in the Nik plugin.
In Photoshop, the Nik plugins should be listed in the Filter menu.
Thomas
on April 2, 2013 - 8:56am
OK, you were talking about OnOne’s Perfect Resize. I’m not a professional photographer and was wondering if I should get the stand alone application? It sounds like it’s a must have.:-)
Thanks again.
Sandy
-Sandy
on April 2, 2013 - 10:28am
After seeing this announcement, I bought the Nik suite and have been exploring Dfine. I made custom profiles of my five cameras (1Ds3, 1D3, GX1, G3 & LX7), and the results are clearly better. After doing all that work, I thought I’d give back to the community by posting a short article about how I made the profiles with a Color Checker Passport and making the profiles available for download. Details here:
http://jacquescornell.com/blog/2013/4/nik-dfine-noise-reduction-software…
jacquescornell.com
on April 3, 2013 - 5:31am
Hi All,
I just bought the Nik package, but when you enter the 15% discount code “ApertureExpert”, you get ‘The coupon code is no longer valid’
:-(
Still a great deal though!
Colin
on April 3, 2013 - 3:38pm
Yep, found the same, discount code has expired. :-(
Luckily other’s are still valid, e.g. hdrsoftware15 ;-)
Now I’m proud owner of the collection. Up to Joseph’s workshop …
Pete
on April 4, 2013 - 2:38am
WTF… no one told me they were expiring the coupon. Let me see what I can find out.
-Joseph
@PhotoJoseph
— Have you signed up for the mailing list?
on April 4, 2013 - 4:31pm
I am seriously thinking about purchasing this, as it seems a good offer (compared to what it used to cost, and in general almost all people are enthusiastic about it).
However, I do have a question, probably quite ignorant: what will I get on top of Aperture? Are these tools better, or faster, or easier to use, or do they have functions Aperture does not have (if so, what do they bring you)? So: why should I buy it? E.g. I have bought the PTLens plugin, and my ROI is quite clear: lens corrected images.
Note that currently I have already installed it, and am evaluating it (in demo mode). What should I be looking at? In what area will it convince me?
Any comment appreciated.
Jeroen
on April 4, 2013 - 10:33pm
Jeroen,
I’m just getting to grips with this suite. Right off the bat, I’ve found Dfine’s noise reduction and Sharpener Pro’s sharpening are much more flexible and effective than Aperture’s. Also, HDR Efex Pro 2 adds entirely new functionality to Aperture.
Still learning. Kudos to Nik for the wealth of on-demand video tutorials.
jacquescornell.com
on April 4, 2013 - 10:54pm
Jeroen, the Nik Suite is fabulous and the U-point technology for editing is great. I would suggest that you go the Nik website and click on the learn tab and sign up to watch some of the webinars on their various plug-ins and that will certainly give you great insight into the power of the filters and the U-point technology. After that, I think you will be eager to fork out the cash.
I'd much rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.
on April 5, 2013 - 6:46pm
Initial impressions of Nik Suite are very favourable. Fast, intuitive and great results. The apertureexpert discount still worked for me ….
All the excellent video2brain training videos seem to have disappeared into linda.com and I sure as …. not paying a monthly subscription to access the whole 1700 videos!
Is there any other way to get Joseph’s “Nik Suite” training still?
(Just checked and CC payment works but NOT Paypal any more)
on April 6, 2013 - 12:56am
Sweet, the discount code is back on! New link (already embedded above)… go to and the discount will automatically be applied.
Dai, the training has been removed from video2brain’s site however it’s still available directly from me. You can get to all my training here http://jal.bz/NikCreative or clicking any of the graphics in the right sidebar.
@PhotoJoseph
— Have you signed up for the mailing list?
on April 6, 2013 - 5:00am
Does Dfine need to be the !st edit in NIK suite as I am having difficulty reducing noise when it is not? If I 1st use silver efex pro and then reduce the noise it created in Dfine, it doesn’t work with either global or control point edits.
Thanks
on April 6, 2013 - 6:46am
Joseph,
I’m unable to purchase your Nik workshop through video2brain.
Through the main login they send me to Lynda.com, where I don’t find any workshop from you.
Through your link I can still add your workshop to the shopping cart, but get an error about missing parameters when I try to pay via Paypal or CC (not not a problem with my paypal account; it is even before it comes to enter my Paypal credentials). Maybe it has to do with the fact, that they don’t sell English courses any more.
Any way to buy this directly from you?
Pete
on April 6, 2013 - 6:57am
OK, after trying a couple of times, I’ve finally managed to pay via CC, so forget my prior post. Paypal isn’t working though.
Pete
on April 6, 2013 - 8:35am
Peter,
Glad it finally worked. Question though about using PayPal — are you by chance using 1Password to fill in the fields? Someone else had this exact issue and when they copy/pasted their info instead of using 1Password, it worked fine. We’re actively trying to get to the bottom of that error and are hoping that’s it.
@PhotoJoseph
— Have you signed up for the mailing list?
on April 6, 2013 - 10:36am
Paul,
Noise reduction doesn’t have to be the first process, but it should be applied before any sharpening, clarity/definition, or addition of grain. On very noisy images with large dark areas, it can also help to first set black point to minimum (to open up dark areas) before doing noise reduction, then set final black point after. This is true of noise reduction in general, not just Dfine.
jacquescornell.com
on April 6, 2013 - 9:58pm
> are you by chance using 1Password to fill in the fields?
Yes I do.
If you sort this out, there is another issue with the video2brain shop you might fix as well.
Some time ago I wanted to purchase the Aperture Training you offered at that time with a rebate code. Following your link and adding the training to the cart, I saw, video2brain is adding 20% Austrian VAT. There was a field to submit my VAT ID number for tax free purchase, but the form didn’t accept any number. It took about 2 weeks of emailing with video2brain until they confirmed, that the form isn’t working, and created a tax free account manually for me but for the www.video2brain.com/en site (which is different than an account for partners.video2brain.com). I found your training there as well, added it to the cart (now without VAT, fine) and added your rebate code. The code wasn’t accepted. Emailing another week with video2brain they finally told me, rebate codes would only be accepted directy through the partners.video2brain.com site. Once more trying to purchase from there, they again charged VAT (VAT-ID form not working properly) and the rebate code had expired meanwhile.
I decided that this was all too much hassle and didn’t make any purchase.
That said I’ve bite the bullet and paid the 20% VAT for the NIK training this time but it doesn’t make me happy to pay taxes I don’t have to because video2brain is unable to process their VAT ID form properly.
Btw. will your video2brain trainings show up on Lynda in the future?
Pete
on April 7, 2013 - 12:36am
Joseph,
When I try to purchase your Nik workshop right through your link, I am getting the “wrong parameters” message and it won’t let me purchase with cc or paypal. Any suggestions?
Nancy
OK - just got it to work. Apparently the 13th try is the charm. Just an elusive little thing.
NKO
on April 7, 2013 - 4:38am
Peter,
Thanks for letting me know. Seems pretty likely it’s 1Password that the common thread.
I’ll ask aout the VAT thing. That’s definitely annoying.
Yes, my trainings will be on Lynda, but I don’t know when yet. Which is more than a little frustrating since they’ve already been removed from video2brain!
@PhotoJoseph
— Have you signed up for the mailing list?
on April 7, 2013 - 4:43am
Nancy,
I don’t suppose you are using 1Password to fill in your PayPal info?
-Joseph
@PhotoJoseph
— Have you signed up for the mailing list?
on April 9, 2013 - 6:01am
I am still evaluating the package and I can see the value of it. It is really tremendous. The way I can enhance the images are numerous. I wonder where I will still use the Aperture image processing capabilities. However, I have one question though: when I have saved the enhanced image back to Aperture, I am able to reopen the image, but all edit are lost. This is not the case in Photoshop (I saw that in a webinar). Is there really no option to preserve the edits with the image? That is a real issue (possibly wanting to adjust a picture later). Please, make me say I am wrong.
on April 9, 2013 - 6:39am
Jeroen, you can still use Aperture to get your image in real good shape before going to a Nik plug in. You are correct however about the edits. The edits are not actually lost but when you reopen the image there is no way to adjust what you previously did, other than adding further edits to it. Yes, in PS if you make your Nik layer a smart object, when you reopen it you can access all the control points but I believe it MUST be made into a smart object.
I'd much rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.
on April 9, 2013 - 6:55am
Jeroen, Craig,
Yeah that part is a bummer. However you can save your work as a preset — the only thing is you don’t get to keep your Control Points. On *some* of the Nik plugins (not SEP2, but I know at least one of the plugins does this), if you hold down… option maybe? Or shift? when you save the preset, you can save WITH control points.
Or, go to Photoshop and make it a smart object, as Craig says :)
@PhotoJoseph
— Have you signed up for the mailing list?
on April 9, 2013 - 7:18am
Oooh Joseph, that is interesting. I must experiment and see if I can get any of the plugins to save a preset with control points. I presuming it would most likely be Colour Efex.
I'd much rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.
on April 10, 2013 - 11:25pm
Joseph,
I have been using the complete NIK suite with Aperture on retinal MBP.
At present, I have no problems with this combination as previously reported and am pleased with it.
Paul
on April 11, 2013 - 1:50am
Paul, does that mean that Nik plugins have been updated for Retina Display support??
@PhotoJoseph
— Have you signed up for the mailing list?
on April 11, 2013 - 4:04pm
>However, I have one question though: when I have saved the enhanced image back to Aperture, I am able to reopen the image, but all edit are lost
That is the crux with the way Apple implemented their plugin structure. They completely brake Aperture’s philosophy of rendering all adjustments in realtime from the master.
You usually cannot go back and tweak your settings and you end up with a bloated 60 MB TIFF, when you use a plugin. So the use of plugins should be limited to the final touch for only the very few pictures, that deserve it.
I’d love to batch apply DFine to all my ISO 1600+ pictures, but it would bloat up my library significantly. Same for the still badly missing lens correction. You cannot utilize a plugin for that.
I’ve discussed this on Apple Support years ago and suggested to Apple feedback, that it would make plugins much more valuable, if they would open their plugin structure to allow plugins to behave like adjustment bricks, aka keep their setting and are rendered on the fly utilizing the GPU.
But as we all know, Apple has not listened. :-(
Aside from this the NIK plugins are a joy to play with and a big time saver for some special effects (aka BW etc.)
on April 11, 2013 - 9:27pm
Joseph,
When I first used the NIK suite, I had problems with Dfine and emailed their support. They sent me an upgrade which fixed that problem and others. Only issue which has been discussed is when round tripping back to aperture not seeing edits.
Paul
on April 11, 2013 - 11:28pm
Having digged a bit in Aperture’s plug-in interface I can only confirm that the current architecture is far for sufficient for proper plug-ins (as described by Peter Gutbrod): make it an adjustment brick.
However, as Apple is not listening, Nik Software could provide the edits in private tags of the TIFF file, thereby circumventing part of the problem. That is technically quite feasible, and will at least solve some problems we as Aperturians have, namely round-trip editing using these fantastic plug-ins. So Nik, please!
on April 12, 2013 - 2:24am
Peter and Jeroen,
I think it’s a bit unfair to say that Apple isn’t listening or that this is technically easy. Let’s keep in mind that the plug-in architecture is nothing new; there has been a plug-in architecture for image editing apps pretty much since there’s been image editing apps. If Apple instituted a whole new way of creating “plug-ins” then developers would take a lot longer to write for Aperture, if they ever would. The way Photoshop gets around the destructive process is through Smart Objects, and that’s not to say Aperture couldn’t do something similar — I think it could and that’d be a great approach. But look at one of the comments above, complaining about a 60MB TIF file bloating the Aperture library. I’m working on a gallery project now creating eight large format (40”) 240dpi images for printing. These are 60 to 100 megapixel by the time they are scaled. Because I want the flexibility, I am using Photoshop Smart Objects, and half of these files are so big that I can’t save them as PSD — they have to be saved as PSB files, which is Adobe’s large file format. Wanna know how big a file has to be before it can’t be a PSD anymore? 2GB!! So many of my big images with smart objects, which is what is bloating these so much, are over 2GB each. I also have several PSD and TIFF files along the way that are over 1 GB each. This project, including all the 700+ original raw files, is taking up 75 GB of space. Ouch! And this is what happens when you start getting clever with how these files are handled. And by the way, Aperture doesn’t support PSB, so I get to manage every step of the process in Aperture except the second-to-most important file. Bugger. (The most important being the final, flattened and sharpened image that goes to print).
So really what I’m saying is… if the average consumer doesn’t want to see 60 MB “bloated” files, and the only way to get non-destructive plugins is through something like smart objects, I can see why Apple hasn’t jumped on this. It affects a very small percentage of users, and those users are quite likely to be using Photoshop as well.
I don’t know anything about “private tags in the TIF file” but if that’s a solution, then great — but remember if it’s a totally non-destructive workflow, we’re not talking about TIF files at the base, but a RAW file with a pile of proprietary metadata describing the adjustments applied.
-Joseph @ApertureExpert
• Have you signed up for the ApertureExpert mailing list?
•• Have you picked up your copy of the Nik Collection for just $126? This deal won’t last forever!
@PhotoJoseph
— Have you signed up for the mailing list?
on April 12, 2013 - 4:34am
Joseph,
Perhaps I should elaborate a little; my comments have been interpreted too strong.
From a user point of view it would be quite nice (understated) when plug-ins would behave as adjustment bricks. Technologically this is also feasible, although certainly not so easy (especially to make it fast and robust), also without smart objects. It is therefore quite understandable that Apple decided for a very simple interface, but that has several strong limitations. I was repeating Peter in saying that Apple doesn’t listen; perhaps I should’ve rephrased that somewhat (although Apple is not the most responsive in handling user suggestions).
Regarding the large files: really impressive, the numbers you mention. My TIFF files become 100Mb each and I think that is way too much, but apparently your mileage varies!
And you are right that TIFF files are not in line with a non-destructive workflow. As I said: private tags solve only a part of the problem (namely that the history can be kept).
Jeroen
on June 12, 2013 - 12:00am
I just wanted to inform you that the discount code “ApertureExpert” is still valid as of June 11. Now I have to wait for another discount code for your Workshop series ;-) Missed Memorial Day …