Nik Software Color Efex Pro 4 Complete Edition of 55 Filters, Plug-in Software for Macintosh and Windows

by Nik Software

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 5 x 8 x 10 inches ; 3 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• ASIN: B005TCF2UC
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,493 in Computers & Accessories (See Top 100 in Computers & Accessories)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 7, 2011

Product Description

Nik Software Color Efex Pro 3.0 filters are the leading photographic filters for digital photography. The award-winning Color Efex Pro filters are widely used by many of todays professional photographers. Color Efex Pro offers both traditional and stylizing filters that offer numerous possibilities to enhance and transform images quickly and easily. The most powerful image editing technology available today. U Point powered controls allow you to precisely control where enhancements are applied without the need for complicated layers, masks or selections. Discover new enhancements and use powerful new controls that will improve the overall quality of your images. Native support for Intel Macintosh Computers and Microsoft Vista in Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop Elements and Aperture 2.1 (Macintosh computers only)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-have tool to incorporate into your workflow November 18, 2011

By P. Kalina VINE™ VOICE

I've been using NIK Color Efex Pro 4.0 for about a month now. I purchased it directly from NIK and used my NAPP discount. I wasn't prepared to be impressed, since I take pride in using Aperture 3 AND Photoshop CS5 to adjust my images. What got me going with the 'filter' approach to adjusting images, is NIK's Snapseed app, which I downloaded to my iPod and iPad. I really had fun exploring the possibilities that this app provides. Likewise, Color Efex Pro (CEP) gives you so many ways to adjust your images in ways that suit you.

I hate 'clobbered' images that transform a nice landscape by over-saturating, color-shifting, over-sharpening and essentially ruining the subtle tonalities of the original. NIK can do that very easily if you allow it to. On the other hand, it accomplishes some amazing transformations of images, probably by using some very sophisticated algorithms to analyze the tonalities, and adjust accordingly. You have complete control over the amount of adjustment AND the locations. CEP features 'control point' technology that lets you place an adjustment, or prevent one anywhere on the image. No tedious brushing is required. The control point regions appear circular, but the amazing thing is that they deduce what you're trying to enhance (or not enhance) automatically. You can even view the areas that are impacted by the control points, similar to option-clicking a mask on a Photoshop layer. You can also adjust the opacity of a filter adjustment.

The neat thing about this software, is you can stack the filters in any combination. Generally, one filter is not enough. You have a choice of 59 filters, and therein lies the challenge of using this package. You need to learn what the filters do and which ones are most applicable to the type of image you are working on.... Thankfully, NIK has pre-grouped the filters into categories, e.g. Portrait, Landscape, Nature, etc. This gives you a good starting set of filters to use on your project. You can save your stack of filters as a 'recipe' to re-use on another image, saving you loads of time. Tweak the recipe as needed, and you can update it easily, if you wish.

The user-interface of CEP is exceptional wrt ergonomics. Special attention is given to comparing the before and after effects of any adjustment. If you make a mistake, or wander too deeply into the adjustments and want to back out, there is a History feature which tracks EVERYTHING you do during a session. Just step back to where you feel comfortable, and continue on.

This software does not replace Lightroom, Aperture, or CS5, but enhances your workflow dramatically. What you get is the complete package of filters, and plugins for the above software. So you can invoke the magic of these filters while you're working, then continue your work.

If you want to get to know the package fast, then take advantage of NIK's web seminars. I took one the day after I bought CEP. It was an hour-long session that taught the basics of the interface. Other 'webinars' cover more advanced topics. Kudos to NIK for this free service!

One recommendation I can make is: have a fast computer. Some of these filters will require intensive CPU usage. I've had just a few delays from using large stacks of filters and waiting for the results to register in my image.

Can't say enough good about this product. I can explore the possibilities of my photographic work now and do some really creative things with images that just sat in my collections gathering dust. With NIK Color Efex Pro 4 you can breathe new life into those tired images. Wow, this is sounding like a commercial, but I have absolutely no ties to this company. I'm just happy I discovered this gem! Read more ›

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Only worked with it one day, February 13, 2012

By Walter Lesus

Amazon Verified Purchase

Only worked with it one day, but loved it. I must have re-worked a couple dozen of old photos. It made some come alive, and enhanced so it looked like the image I saw when I took the shot.
I even worked a few in Color Efex then opened them in Silver Efex. That made for some wonderful black and whites.
Only thing I would have liked more, is if it had just plain color filters.
The concept of stacking filters is great, no additional work needed, just use and stack as your imagination takes you.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars NIK Color Efex 4 is awesome! November 23, 2012

By William Brant

Amazon Verified Purchase

The program is an essential plug-in for Photoshop CS 5 as it enhances your options for bringing out the best in your images

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Color Efex Pro July 20, 2012

By Da Lowrider

Amazon Verified Purchase

I had tried the Demo and obtained good results with this software. It works well and has some effects I did not have with other software I use. I own Nik Software HDR Pro also. Anyway, I tried it, I liked it, I purchased it. Especially if you don't have any other photo manipulation software this would be a very good choice.

0 of 4 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Does Not Work With Corel PaintShop Pro X3 or X4 February 15, 2012

By TauZero

It's a great product, but be aware that it's not supported with Corel's PaintShop Pro version X3 or X4. It's unfortunate, because Corel is bundling Nik's Color Efex Pro 3 with their PaintShop Pro X4 Ultimate edition. That's a bit misleading for some of us silly users who may assume that since it works with version X3, version X4 will work too. Not so, and that is my only reason for giving this two stars.

If you use Photoshop or one of the other supported platforms, then it's certainly worth it and would rate 5 stars.