Product—Color Efex Pro 2.0 from nik multimedia

PSA Journal, Nov, 2004 by Stanley B. Ashbrook

My product review of nik multimedia's Color Efex Pro 1.0 was published in the June Journal. In this review, I pointed out that Photoshop-compatible plugin filters are available from a number of manufactures to alter and enhance digital images. The article showed examples of the nik Color Efex Pro 1.0 filters, and I highly recommended them to anyone using Photoshop or an imaging application that is Photoshop Plugin compatible.

A few months ago, nik multimedia introduced version 2.0 of this Photoshop Plugin compatible photographic filters set, and nik says that the new version, Color Efex Pro 2.0, offers features and functionality that are designed to make life easier for the digital photographer. In addition, they've added over 30 new filter effects to enhance and transform your images.

I've been using the new upgrade for a little over a month now. Although there isn't any way in this short space that I can completely give each of the 75 different filter effects a completely in-depth treatment, I've seen enough, though, that I can highly recommend them. In fact if I were able to own only a few sets of filters, Color Efex Pro 2.0 and nik's image sharpening filter, Sharpener Pro, would definitely be at the top of the list.

The new revision now has 16 bit functionality for those shooting in RAW mode. Opening their images in 16 bit mode, nik says that they have a new color engine called True Light which, quoting nik, "provides even better photographic enhancements by preserving the relationships between color, contrast, and detail. The True Light Color Engine provides more natural film-like images and allows users to achieve far better quality enhancements, with more natural and photographic results."

The effects I've produced seem to support these claims. In fact I'm continuously amazed at the results I've been able to achieve.

One of the things I look for in selecting filters is how much control the program gives me on how the filter is configured. If there is little or no control, then I feel that the final image is more the work of the filter designer than my efforts. Each Color Efex 2.0 filter has a dialog box that gives me the control I want.

One of the new ways that gives me this control is a new feature that I really like. With it, I can selectively apply any filter easily to any part of an image. I use a Wacom pressure sensitive tablet so this means I can literally paint in my filter effect wherever I want it. Now this is really cool.

Although I would like to show examples of all 75 of the filters, there just isn't room in this article, so I'll show just two. The first is an example of the new selective control feature. To slightly lighten the eyes and teeth of the portrait shown in Figure 1, I applied the Contrast Only filter using the selective option to paint the filter to just where I wanted to lighten and desaturate. The Classical Soft Focus filter was then applied using the Selective feature so as to erase the soft focus effect from the eyes, eyebrows, and lips. Figure 2 shows the results.

[FIGURES 1-2 OMITTED]

I've looked at many suggestions and filters for emulating the look when photographing a subject using black and white infrared film. The Infrared: BW filter in Color Efex 2.0 is the best I've seen. Figure 3 shows the application of this filter on a covered bridge photograph I took in Pennsylvania.

[FIGURE 3 OMITTED]

For more examples of the various filters, visit the nik web where it shows before and after examples of all of the filters. nik multimedia offers these filters in three different sets. The Standard Edition includes 19 of the filters and is $99. The Select Edition includes the filters that are in the Standard Edition plus additional ones for a total of 45 filters and is $159.95. The Complete Edition offers the complete set of 75 filters and is $299.95.

They're available from various resellers, and the nik multimedia web site at http:// www.nikmultimedia.com/index/usa/ entry.php? You can also download working demos on all of nik's filters from their web site.