Google officially letting the Nik collection die

The day I feared since Google acquired Nik has officially come.

Google posted a banner on the Nik collection page stating;

"The Nik Collection is free and compatible with Mac OS X 10.7 through 10.10; Windows Vista, 7, 8; and Adobe Photoshop through CC 2015.

We have no plans to update the Collection or add new features over time."

Sad to see such a great set of plug-ins go. While all I really used from the collection was Silver efex pro, I did use it for all of my B&W conversions. So it will be a big loss to me when compatibility issues come about (I'm still using LR 5 but have to move to CC soon).

Anyone else rely on Nik for any part of their post processing?

Sort of old news. Has been chatted about in these forums quite a lot.

Google abandoned Nik March, 2016.

As was discussed in earlier threads, IMHO the biggest loss will be Silver Efex.

I too, have been using Silver Efex.
: (

I bought Silver Efex Pro in version 1, upgraded to 2, got the rest for free when they offered a free upgrade.

I found the plug in very useful but slowly stopped using it as my PS skills improved. It turned out to be just as fast to use PS layers and soon it was faster to use PS alone than to load the plug in. Eventually, it got to the point where I could get better results with PS than I could with SEP.

I recommend that, while it is still fully compatible, you use a layer to do your best with SEP, turn the visibility off on the layer and then play with getting results you like with PS layers. The process of going back and forth will teach you a lot and, like me, you may find you prefer PS alone in the end.

On the plus side, it is likely you will be able to use it for quite a while as long as the OS compatibility isn't an issue. Even if it doesn't function as a plugin, it could still be used as a standalone.

It's a bit disappointing to see this package languish but it's not like it no longer works. It's just not progressing.

In case you are interested:

https://www.change.org …c-save-the-nik-collection

A Save the Nik Collection petition.

Different tool, but Google took the same wither on the vine approach with Picasa. I still miss using that speedy program for photo management, basic editing and web sharing.

kirkt wrote in post #18368193
In case you are interested:

https://www.change.org …c-save-the-nik-collection

A Save the Nik Collection petition.

since their goal from the start was to integrate the software into android, they have zero motivation to allow the software to continue.

in fact they actually do have motivation to let it die to push phone sales.

kirkt wrote in post #18368193
In case you are interested:

https://www.change.org …c-save-the-nik-collection

A Save the Nik Collection petition.

Not sure who wrote this petition, but there are some problems with being deceptive in the text.

First is the accusation that Google made it free to stifle competition. I see no evidence for this claim. If there is any, I would love to see it. This is like saying craigslist was Made free in order to put newspapers into deep financial trouble, which is not true. What is true is that CL did do substantial damage to American Journalism because newspapers did suffer from major losses of revenue sources, and there are far fewer investigative journalists (or staff photojournalist jobs, for that matter) as a result. But Craig never did it for that reason.

Second, competition has, in point of fact, continued in the space. There are far MORE good options and variations than there were in this space before Google got involved. Some products filled various niches, some are more comprehensive. All that NIK did can be done with existing products, many of which were released after NIK became free. And many of these products and methods are arguably better, easier and/or faster.

Big corporations have clearly done many questionable and even downright despicable things. But that doesn't make it right to throw false accusations.

On top of that, Google will probably dismiss the document as coming from false premises. And rightly so. Falsely accusing someone of wrongdoing is not the best way to persuade them.

I was thinking the same and yes Google is doing the same thing again!

I just pasted the link. I did not actually click on it and read the petition.

Kirk