Analog Efex is part of the DxO Nik Collection. It recreates the look of old films, darkroom processes and vintage cameras by combining image adjustments and filter effects as presets which you can apply with a single click or customise yourself.
Verdict: 4 stars Nik Collection 9 is a deep, powerful and inspirational set of creative plug-ins for photographers. Version 9 adds four new filters, AI masking and Photoshop-style blend modes to make this one of the most comprehensive updates yet. It’s fairly expensive, though, and you might not get quite so much use out of Dfine, Sharpener and Viveza, which are starting to look a bit out of place.
Analog Efex is one of the creative plug-ins in the DxO Nik Collection and it’s a bit of an outlier because, first of all, it was developed by Google and not Nik Software (it appeared during Google’s ownership of the Nik Collection) and secondly, because it can produce the most amazing results from filters which individually don’t seem to amount to very much. I’ll explain.
So far in this series I’ve looked at black and white conversion tools, basic black and white tonal adjustments and the different ways you can use digital dodging and burning to bring black and white images to life. But if you want to make them look actually old, there’s a bit more to do. It’s not one single technique you need, but a whole bunch used together.
Verdict: 4.6 stars Nik Collection 8 has some interesting new features for existing users, but mostly for those who use Photoshop as their main ‘host’ application for launching the plug-ins. Silver Efex gets a major interface overhaul, however. This is very welcome, though its actual capabilities are little changed. Otherwise, apart from some workflow tweaks, it’s business as usual for this epic plug-in suite. Frankly, the Nik Collection is already such a wide-ranging, powerful and inspiring set of photo-enhancement tools that it’s always a bit of a surprise to find DxO has found anything to improve.
There comes a time to put the science to one side, to put the histograms and the eyedroppers back in their box, and to step sideways into a very strange and very different analog world. Analog Efex, part of the DxO Nik Collection, goes to places other effects tools don’t go. It’s richer, stranger and more random than just about anything else, and I love it.
There are no new plug-ins in the Nik Collection 6 this time around, but significant feature additions to some and improved local adjustment tools across the board.
Analog Efex Pro’s double exposure tool is one of the features that makes this program unique. Here’s a breakdown of how its Double Exposure presets work and how they combine double exposures with other effects.
Analog Efex Pro, part of the DxO Nik Collection has an excellent tool that’s easily missed but lies at the heart of many of this software’s striking analog film effects.
Analog Efex Pro, part of the DxO Nik Collection, has some great vintage film effect presets, but you don’t have to use them exactly as they are provided. It’s very easy to customise and adapt these presets to give exactly the kind of look you want.
Analog Efex Pro is one of the plug-ins in the Nik Collection. It works as a plug in with Lightroom Classic and Photoshop but it can also work as a standalone program or as an external editor with all sorts of other programs like Capture One, Exposure X and more. It’s designed to recreate the…