Overview
The Nik Collection has been a fixture of photo editing for two decades, and the reason is the control point. Instead of drawing a mask, you drop a point on the image, set a radius, and the adjustment applies to everything within that radius that resembles what is directly under the point in tone and colour. Darkening a sky, brightening a face, pulling saturation out of one object, all become a click and two sliders instead of a selection.
This is the full eight plug-in collection, licensed, installing into every supported host on the machine including the standalone launcher for editing files without opening anything else. Every preset library is populated and output is clean at any resolution.
What each plug-in does
Color Efex is the workhorse, a stack of filters that combine into a look, covering everything from subtle tonal contrast to strong stylised treatments. Silver Efex is the black and white converter, and it is still the best one available, with film emulations that carry the correct grain structure and tonal response rather than being a desaturation with a curve.
Viveza is pure control point work for local tone and colour. Sharpener handles capture and output sharpening as separate stages, which is the correct way to do it. Dfine removes noise while measuring it from the image itself. HDR Efex merges brackets, Analog Efex reproduces the behaviour of old cameras and lenses including the flaws, and Perspective Efex corrects converging verticals and lens distortion.
Control points in practice
The control point is the whole argument for the collection. Set one on a patch of sky, extend the radius, and the adjustment finds the rest of the sky including through gaps in a tree line, without touching a building of similar brightness that is a different colour. It takes about five minutes to learn and immediately makes drawn masking feel laborious.
Points can be grouped so several are adjusted together, and a negative point protects an area from a global adjustment. Combining a broad global change with two or three protective points is faster than any masking workflow and produces a cleaner edge, since the selection follows the image content rather than a hand drawn line.
Hosts, presets and workflow
It installs into Photoshop, Lightroom and the other supported editors in one pass, plus a standalone launcher for editing a file with no host at all. In Photoshop each plug-in can run on a smart object so the settings remain editable afterwards, which is how it should be used on anything that might need revisiting.
The preset browser shows live thumbnails against your own image, and presets can be saved from any state and shared between hosts. The last used settings carry over between images, which sounds minor and is the difference between processing a set consistently and doing each frame from scratch.
What you get
- Control point selection by tone and colour rather than drawn masking
- Color Efex filter stacking for combined looks
- Silver Efex black and white conversion with true film emulation
- Viveza local tone and colour control
- Separate capture and output sharpening stages
- Noise reduction measured from the image itself
- HDR merging, analogue camera emulation and perspective correction
- Installs into every supported host plus a standalone launcher
- Smart object support so settings remain editable
Inside the archive
- Nik Collection 9 installer for all supported hosts
- All eight plug-ins and the standalone launcher
- Full preset libraries
- Licence applied during install
- Language packs for the interface list shown above
System requirements
| Operating system | Windows 10 version 22H2 or Windows 11, 64-bit |
|---|---|
| Host application | Photoshop, Lightroom or another supported editor, or use the standalone launcher |
| Processor | Intel or AMD, 4 cores recommended |
| Memory | 8 GB minimum, 16 GB recommended |
| Graphics | Card with 2 GB VRAM or more |
| Storage | 5 GB free |
Installing it
- Close every host application before starting.
- Run the installer as administrator and confirm the detected host list.
- Let the preset libraries finish unpacking.
- Open one host and run Color Efex on a test image to confirm the output is clean.
- Set the plug-ins to run on smart objects in Photoshop if you want the settings to stay editable.
Mirrors
| Route | Region | Note | State |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct, primary | Europe | No wait, resumable | Online |
| Direct, secondary | North America | No wait, resumable | Online |
| Torrent magnet | Global | Best for connections under 20 Mbit | Online |
Release history
- Support added for the current Photoshop and Lightroom builds
- Control point performance improved on high resolution files
- Fixed preset thumbnails failing to build on very large images
- Silver Efex grain structure reworked at high sensitivities
- Perspective Efex lens profile library expanded
- New cycle with the standalone launcher added
Questions about this release
What is a control point?
A selection made by content rather than by drawing. Drop it on the image, set a radius, and the adjustment applies to everything similar in tone and colour within it.
Does it install into more than one editor?
Yes, every supported host on the machine in one pass, plus a standalone launcher for editing without a host.
Can I go back and change the settings later?
In Photoshop yes, if you run the plug-in on a smart object. Otherwise the edit is applied to the layer.
Is the output watermarked?
No. The licence is applied during install and output is clean at any resolution.
Comments
Silver Efex is still unbeaten for black and white. Grain actually behaves like film.
Running them on smart objects means I can revisit a frame months later. Nothing is baked in.
Comments are read before they appear. If a build stops working, say so here and it gets rebuilt rather than quietly left up.
All eight plug-ins installed into two hosts. Control points on a sky through a tree line, no masking at all.